Moving Ahead: Retreat

The retreat went great! Thank you for your prayers. Friday night started great. I shared with the ladies that I had been writing for a while and had only recently begun my speaking ministry. I said many ministries have a "key verse," such as "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Or "There is no fear for those in Christ Jesus." I told them my key verse is from 1 Corinthians 2:3, "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling." Boy did that get some laughs!

(Thanks to Sharon Sloan, who actually sent me the very encouraging verses 1-5, which I'll post at the end of this post. It was awesome.)

I also shared the importance of prayer and the benefit of a prayer partner. I said "If you are praying with your BFF, it's important to set down guidelines or else a 15 minute prayer call, can turn into an hour and a half social call." Well evidently not everyone is familiar with the phrase BFF. Who knew? (BFF stands for Best Friend Forever).

Well, after the ladies found out what BFF stood for, they just loved the phrase. After I was done speaking, many ladies approached me in pairs to share with me that they were there with their BFF. On Saturday, they actually had my friend Sonya (who traveled to the event with me) introduce me since she was my resident BFF and the prayer partner I'd referred to. And when the singing group came out to lead the singing they shared they'd been singing together for 5 years and were in fact (you guessed it) BFFs. It was a hoot, and became the catch phrase of the event!

Thank you to all my BFFs for your prayer support over this event! It was fabulous! Here are the verses I promised, and some photos.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 -- When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

The Activity Center where the retreat was held. 200 ladies were in attendance.

Making a key point on Friday night.

Inspiring women on Saturday morning.
Conference President, Georgette, thanking me and handing me a gift basket. She was very sweet and wonderful to work with.

The "BFFs" - Kelly & Sonya