My Retreat Experience

                Today was the last day of our women’s conference. We were there Thursday night, all day Friday, and Saturday until dinnertime. For those of you who don’t know, this retreat was the reason we came here to Florida in the first place. It is actually very hard for me to write about this. It is so hard to put into words the miracles that happened in Grace Church this weekend. The experience was one that has changed me in the deepest parts of my soul. The intimacy that I experienced with God this weekend could not have left me unchanged- you can’t go back to your old self after you have such a Love encounter. The Spirit was so heavy in every worship time. Every speaker, every prayer time, every song brought me in some way deeper into my heart or deeper into the Heart of God.

                                                               The logo of the retreat...

                                   Captivate Women's Conference- Song of Solomon 8:5-7

                One thing that was so freeing and welcoming was the fellowship. Because this retreat was women’s only, it left a sort of camaraderie that wouldn’t have happened if there had been men there. (Well, actually, there were a couple guys there, but it was only for things like videoing the tapes or playing in the band.) All of us ladies knew we were there for the same reason- to glorify God, seek His face, and be forever changed by Him. There was a sort of unspoken friendship between every woman there. It didn’t matter if you’d never met each other- hugs, introductions, smiles, and prayers were exchanged. 

               There were several awesome women speakers including actress Nancy Stafford (topic: self-worth), Courtney Boswer (topic: not keeping Jesus to ourselves), and Judith Macnutt (she was kind-of the lead speaker so she spoke several times on various topics including God’s burning love for us). There were a lot of amazing things that happened, so I won’t go into a lot of detail about the workshops. But there are two things that I would really like to share about: Worship and Prayer.

                               Elizabeth and I with actress Nancy Stafford (Matlock)

                The worship at this retreat was wonderful. It was led by Kelanie Gloeckler, whom I absolutely love, by the way. We were encouraged by the leaders to do whatever we needed to do during worship. If you wanted to dance around the room, go to the front to worship, raise your hands, lay on the ground, kneel, you were free to do so. One thing that was really awesome was that during one worship session, God was really moving in people’s hearts. The only clincher was that we had run out of time- but the staff came to the decision that God was in control and allowed the worship to continue for at least another hour. Isn’t that AWESOME?!? People were getting prayed over during this time, too.

                God really moved in me through prayer. As I said, I won’t go into detail about everything, but I will say that I am in awe of the way Jesus choses to get His point across. All I can say is that it’s no lie when the Bible says when 2 or more are gathered in His name, He will be there. Getting prayed over was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Healing reigns in the presence of God, and I experienced this first-hand this weekend. God wants us, His daughters, to know the burning love He has for us. I have felt this blazing fire in my heart and can’t wait to come back home to share that Love with you all!

                          Mom, Elizabeth, and I at the conference in our matching sparkle shirts :)

                Tonight we haven’t done much, just rested in the Lord. I am so grateful to all of you who have prayed for us on this trip. Thank you so much! God has honored your prayers and blessed us abundantly this weekend. He has once again exceeded my expectations. I love it how my little brain has this tiny view of what awesome is… then God just kind-of blows in and shows me what awesome REALLY looks like!