Women's retreat

This week I was able to go to a women's retreat about an hour away. I went with a group of ladies from my church. We had 18 women from our church. There were 6 churches that came together for this retreat. It was a time of refreshment and renewal. The fellowship was so sweet. This is the second time I've attended and I was so blessed to see and catch up with some of the ladies I met last year. We are all from within about a 50 mile radius but I don't run into them during the year. The villa I stayed in had 4 rooms, each with private bathrooms, and a main gathering room in the center. We had 10 ladies in total staying there, ranging in age between 26 and upper 70's! Let me tell you, these ladies were a hoot! We stayed up late laughing until we were crying. I couldn't imagine a better group of gals to room with, each of them were so genuine and enjoyable to be around. I can truly say I learned something from each of them. The worship service on Thursday night was amazing. We sang songs from back in my youth group days! At one point in " Alive, Alive, Alive forevermore " I closed my eyes and I could just imagine what it will sound like in heaven, all of our voices blended together singing praises to our God. Brought tears to my eyes and overwhelming joy to my heart. Friday morning we enjoyed listening to a speaker share about "Casa David".(you can Google it to find information about it) It was the mission project that was being sponsored. It is a lot like our Ronald McDonald houses. Our goal was to raise $1000.00 for them through a silent auction. We each brought jewelry or "girl stuff" from home to donate. I got a "new to me" purse! I love it! We ended up raising $2000.00! Isn't that wonderful!?! We then broke out into smaller groups, learning different topics. I attended a class on parenting, one on marriage, and one on sowing seeds. Those classes were offered on Friday and Saturday morning. Friday afternoon we went into a small neighboring town and had a great pumpkin race. The ladies in charge hid 10 pumpkins around town and a few on the grounds of the retreat and each pumpkin had a value that you could apply to the cost of next year's retreat! I didn't find any, but a few ladies from our group did! We finished on Saturday afternoon, and left the grounds after lunch. My crew was ready for me to be home, although they did have a good time with dad. They got to go to McDonald's for dinner one night and had doughnuts for breakfast one morning and practiced a litle baseball! He spoils them when I'm gone. 😆 I'm feeling ready for the week, how bout you?