Women's Retreat in Spain

If you have looked at our blog recently, you might notice that we have had to change the address and delete some of the entries. So some of what I am saying, has been said before. Because this retreat meant so much to me, I wanted to write about it again.

In February I had the opportunity to go to an MTW Europe Women's Retreat in Spain. Actually, I also had the priviledge of serving on the committee who planned the retreat. I say "priviledge" because the other women on that committee encouraged me so much and I thank the Lord for all the planning times we had together.

We stayed near Malaga which is located on the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was beautiful--sunny but not too hot. The forcast had been for rain so we know that the Lord sent the sunshine just for so many of the ladies who live in very dark places, spiritually and weatherwise.

Two special friends were there. Jenny came from my home church to run a book table. The church really got behind this retreat and did all kinds of things for us from lovely canvas bags full of goodies for each of the women to sending Jenny with wonderful books to sell at a very low price. I also got to spend time with Patty, who is from my home church but working with MTW in France. We knew each other as teens so have a long history together.

The retreat theme was "Ordinary Women and an Extra-Ordinary God" and we looked at different women from the Bible. Each of those talks were very helpful to me. A church sent over their worship team and the singing was amazing. We offered different seminars and each seemed to reach the needs of the women who attended. I did a joint one with two others on raising kids on the field and talked on the teenage years.

Several of the ladies there came up to me to tell me that they went to Covenant College with our children. That certainly made me feel my age.... But I was struck with how God is raising up a new generation of missionaries and I was priviledged to get to know some of them. It was fun to see one young woman who is serving in Bulgaria. She is from one of our supporting churches and we had a small part in getting her onto the field. We both brought mugs from our countries and exchanged them as reminders to continue to pray for each other.

Now I'm involved in leading a Bible study in our church on women in the Old Testament so I'm taking out my notes from this retreat and reliving it again. I do thank God that I work for an organization that is committed to the spiritual growth of those who work for it.

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Sarah and Joanna come to visit

Sarah and Joanna have been with us 11 days now. A big thankyou to Kirk, Sarah's husband, for giving us this time together. They leave on Wednesday. Joanna is 14 months old. We've had such a great time together. She quickly warmed up to us and we've had all kinds of fun together. One big event in her day is to visit our fish and feed them with Grandpa. She often wakes up in the morning signing for "fish", looks for her Grandpa and out they go.

Sarah gave me some fabric and pattern to make Joanna a little outfit so we've been working on that while they are here. Of course, Joanna was a big help!?!

We've been to town, to a park, on lots of walks, made a trip to IKEA, spent lots of time talking and just being together. Here's a few more pictures of some of those events.