Loving Well

Loving Well...May 3rd 2008
Love one another... for love comes from God.
What an amazing time we had! When Mom and I first saw this "retreat in a box" we thought, "Oh how wonderful, it will be so fun and easy". God really impressed on us that this was something we needed to do. When we first presented this idea to our WOW group, they received it well, but I am not sure they really thought it would be what it ended up being! Neither did we! God gave us little revelations at a time so we would not panic! How wonderful of Him! At first we prayed, Lord, it would be great if we could plan for 50 women! We have 23 in WOW, so that would only mean 27 more women from the congregation and invited friends. It really seemed like an obtainable goal. But, at first, interest seemed to be very small. So, we were very concerned. That, added with the fact that we had no idea what we were doing, especially me, it was quite a journey of trust and faith. I am the most unorganized person in the world, and the biggest procrastinator, so the fact that this happened was a miracle!
We had so much to pray about, and organize and figure out! It was quite overwhelming at times, but God gave us a peace that only He can provide. As God started revealing his plan to us and preparing hearts, it was getting more and more exciting. He called people who had a lot of experience to those who had none. I can safely say that everyone who answered His call were blessed beyond their expectations!!! We went from wondering if anyone would come to having a waiting list! We had to limit it to 80 due to the amount of small group leaders we had and sheer space. As some dropped out, others came in. In the end, we only had three women not come the day of the event, so we were 77 strong!
God taught us so much through this experience. He taught me personally that by truly leaning on Him, trusting Him and relying on Him, will always be the most rewarding satisfying experience you can imagine! To top it off, He was GLORIFIED! Oh how I love Him more and more.
I hope to be able to download the pictures from Loving Well soon. So far, my attempts have failed. Come back periodically to see if I have figured it out!
Loving Well and Believing Him,
Lisa and Pam