RETREAT SUCCESS...

We just had a women's retreat weekend recently, and our theme was UNFILTERED: Be you, bravely!      There were so many ways you could go with that but we went the way of taking off your filters that you place on your true self.  We had old cameras as a theme, thinking about how with our new phone camera filters and we can hide our true selves. Our speaker had a great illustration with a lamp and placing layers of scarves (filters) over it to show how we dull our Christian light.

Me and my right hand ma'am! :)  We made the backdrop out of pegboard, paint and letters cut from a cricket machine.

A successful women's retreat is kind of like a good recipe.  Knowing how to schedule time (not cramming the schedule with activities), incorporating the theme into the retreat, a good combination of large group/small group times, and doing some activities you can't do at the church building are
things that I believe make for a good event. Having an experienced speaker isn't a must, but it sure helps!

 
I worked with a committee of 5 ladies and it was a good but stressful experience, much like 3 years ago when we had our first retreat in about 10 years.  This time we had it about the same time of year, but there were so many things happening our numbers were down and really had me stressed.  We had booked a friend of mine from college to be the speaker and I was going to be really embarrassed if our number was less than 50 women.  I felt alone in my stress with the exception of the committee. I struggled with things I couldn't control.

All that to say we did end up with 73 ladies attending!  It was a good number.  The weekend went really well - we had good weather, great sessions with a speaker who knew how to engage the audience, some good mixers, small group times, and extra activities, like a craft, campfire singalong, and a morning hike to the cross.  The singing was excellent, with great acoustics and a planned song team. (Not to mention 184 song slides - can you believe?) Our food was good, too!  Bonus for me was that my daughter attended and took care of the campfire!  My mother also came for the day on Saturday.  I was super-proud of the retreat committee who shined despite a lot of personal difficulties.  The past few months we had 2 members moving, a job lay-off, and one starting Nurse Practioner school.  Even though I had gotten frustrated, they really pulled it together and I think we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was all over!

Times like this remind me that I need to let go a little more and not sweat the small stuff.  But it's hard when you work on a project like this for a year!

Here's a few more pics:

vinyl earring craft

me(looking rough Sat a.m.) with our speaker Kathy