Mrs. Beaver:
This weekend our church celebrated our annual all-church, family retreat. I'm deliciously tired following the event, and my writing may be suspect. However, I did purpose to use the verb "celebrate" in that last sentence.
This was the fifth year that our faith family has escaped to an idyllic setting in rural Iowa, Twin Lakes Christian Center.
Over the years, our church body has discovered that on this special weekend we're able to renew our love of Christ through worship and great teaching. We also have the time and opportunity to refresh old friendships. And, we can invest in making new friends.
The fun and the fellowship during the abundant free time fuel our ability to live out God's call to love one another the rest of the year. Each retreat is like glue that holds our body together, enabling us to then hold one another up throughout the year when hard times come. The annual retreats help us function like a first-century church. We're able to function as family.
Again this year, the retreat proved to be all that we would have hoped for and so much more--truly a gift from God.
She had the help of some of her cousins and friends (all girls!) Here our Natasha is showing off her prize toad frog:
Our church's newest newlyweds enjoyed moments of solitude amidst the crowd.
We enjoyed wonderful music before each teaching session.
All of us left retreat feeling as though we'd had a glimpse of heaven, having learned a lot...and laughed a lot. (If you hear a rumor that the Silly String fight was started by one of the church's elders, believe it! :))
We'd been renewed, refreshed, and revitalized in our desire to become more and more like Christ--the theme of the weekend.
To God be the glory!
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