Hope Again

Day 21:


WOW! What a weekend! God is so faithful!


There is so much that happened that I don't think I have time to explain it all. There were five main parts of the weekend.

1. The Main Sessions
2. Workshops
3. Worship
4. Small Groups 
5. Free Time/ Fun Time

To make it easier on myself because I still have yet to process everything God has introduced me to this weekend I will touch a little bit on all of the five things.

1. The Main Sessions: Oh my gosh! They were so good. The main speaker was Lee North, with Susie O'Berski on Saturday night. After hearing them both speak, I feel like a different person. Friday night, the topic was "Finding hope in a hopeless place." Lee talked about first how when we normally introduce ourselves we keep a lot hidden and we have 3 lists. The first list is what we normally say like our age, where we are from, what we are studying, simple stuff that doesn't get too deep into us. The second list is about what people might not know about us, like going a bit deeper, some things I put on that list was that I am introvert and my living situation. The third list is really intimate, goes into the depth of our souls. Its the list that shows our hurts or our deepest desires and its most often the list that nobody knows except your closest friends. Hebrews 6.19 was referenced, "We have this as a sure steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain." Then Saturday morning, the topic was about "Finding Hope in God's word," Lee talked about many bible verses that referenced hope. My personal favorite is Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." She talked about how to meditate on God's word and why it is so important. Saturday evenings main session was brought by Susie, and the topic was "Jesus: Our Hope." The one thing that stood out from what she taught was the demonstration of putting on the armor of God. It also encouraged me when she says she does it daily. I think I should start doing it too. Today's message from Lee was about "Sharing our hope story." Let me tell you it was super good and the main points were to keep it short and sweet.
2. Workshops: We have 8 choices and can only choose 2. Such a hard choice to narrow it down. I chose to go to "Choices" led by Susie O'Berski. It was definitely God led me to that one. Now I realize why it was so important to come this weekend. So many good choices to make every day. Good reminder to make good choices so that God is glorified. The second one I went to was "A Man's Perspective on Proverbs 31 Woman" led by Pete Elenbaas. It was very interesting and yes it was written from a mother to her son. She was mainly stating that her son was doing things that were un-noble like and needed to clean up his act and he was screwing around with women that weren't right for him. So his mother told her son what a noble woman looked like hence Proverbs 31.10-31.
3. Worship: One of my favorite times of the whole retreat and well its just plain my favorite all the time. This was especially interesting since it was an all women's retreat and there were just 5-7 guys there in the whole place. So the singing was awesome, even though some people say it was high pitchy, I didn't notice it. If you stopped singing and just listened, it was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard. Other than worship, communion and offering were different. I like that women do things differently. God did make us that way. Communion was cool because instead of just taking the bread and juice, a sister had to present it to us and give us the cup and the bread. I loved that part. Offering was different too, if we had something to give we could, but then if you didn't have money, you could offer yourself to God as an offering.
4. Small Groups: This was just a great time that we could share as a campus, since there was only 8 of us from MSU, we were only one small group. Jessie led and it was great. A lot of the questions were either based off of the workshops or main sessions. They were good openers for great discussions and prayer.
5. Free Time/Fun Time: Well mine was pretty uneventful, I took a nap, being sick and an introvert leads to a less desirable time to just be by myself a lot of the time. I also had a ton of headaches this weekend. There were some crafts and activities going on throughout Saturday night, it was called the "Slumberless Party." However I didn't partake in the night, I was going on my fourth headache of the day and just wanted to submerge my self away. I went back to the cabin, took a shower, turned off the lights and read the Bible with a book light. I believe part of my headaches stemmed from the lights. I did enjoy being by myself and in the dark, but most of all I know I wasn't alone, because my Father was with me, caring for me, loving on me, and sharing my pain.

The last pieces of advice I have is this, there is hope. Hope in God, and hope with your sisters (or brothers). Look for the encouragement and stay in the light. But God will always be with you in the darkness too, guiding your steps and making your paths straight.

Some tips to gain the hope you desire:

1. Anchor your life in Christ
2. Tell someone
3. Find a life/prayer team

I am glad to be working on these three things throughout my journey with Christ. Also as Lee spoke about having a life/prayer team, and God showed me that I already have some really good people that fulfill those roles. I am so blessed. If you are reading this and you know who you are, first, God loves you, and thanks so much for being a blessing in my life.

Lord,

Thank you for this weekend! You knew I needed to go this weekend and used everyone to convince me to do so. Sorry it took me a while to get on board. You always know what is best. I praise you for modern medicine and the ability to heal my headache. Even in the storm I will praise you. I can never stop praising you for the continued blessings for my friends. They bring laughter and joy and encouragement. I thank you for that, so much. After this weekend, I want to lessen the control I have over my "hurts" and give them to you. I love that you hold me when I am in pain, sad, or just need a friend. Thank you for all the many lessons this weekend that I still have yet to reflect on. I also pray that you continue to encourage and teach my friends the lessons from this weekend. I also pray that you continue to work your healing on me as I have a cold and for my friends health as well. I pray all these things in your name.

Amen.