My weekend with my new friends!

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go on my first ever ladies retreat with the ladies from Kentwood Alliance. I had such a wonderful time! These ladies open their hearts to new people and are such a fun, loving, and God fearing women. They all just amaze me with their love for God and to others. I know that God brought Bob and I to Kentwood for a reason, and I think the reason is to show us his love. Each one of these ladies opened their hearts this weekend and allowed God to use them. I think each of them has such special gifts, and I look forward to watching them being used in the next year or so.

It started out Friday night; I got picked up by a wonderful lady named Connie. She is the sweetest lady; she has been going to Kentwood since it started 17 years ago. (on a little side note: Kentwood is a church plant from Deer Park Alliance) Lots of the children in the church call her, “Grandma Connie”. She picked me up at 6:30pm and we were staying at Camp Silversides, which is about 20 minutes from home. We got to the camp, and had a wonderful night; we worshiped together, and played games until midnight and then went back to our cabin. (I was in a cabin with three wonderful ladies!) When we got back to the cabin, we saw that like three other rooms were still wide awake talking and eating munchies. (Not what I needed, but still enjoyed! :-) ) I ended up calling it a night at 1:30 as I was so tired.

Saturday, we had breakfast, and then worship time, and then a lady named Gloria gave her testimony. Then we had about 1 hour and a half for just God and me time. It was nice, I sat in on my bunk and read my Bible and just prayed. Then was lunch and then free time. We played ping pong and just hung out. We had to be out of the main area for about 1 hour and couldn’t come in until 4:00pm. So, I went on a walk with Danah and Karlene, (2 wonderful girls who are about my age!) then Karlene went back to her cabin, so Danah and I went for another walk and this time, Barb joined us. Both walks were so much fun, and I learned so much more about these ladies and it was such a special time, as we talked and walked and enjoyed God’s beautiful scenery. (Oh, now that I think about it, I went for two short walks in the morning too, one with Fran, and other time with Isabelle!) I did a lot of walking this weekend but, it was nice just to visit and find out more about these ladies that are becoming more and more like family every time I visit with them. (also, another side note: it was raining all weekend, but it was a nice brisk rain, a little cold, but better then the white stuff coming down!)

Then at 4:00pm the committee threw a “Lula party” for us! It was fun, they made all different flavors of ice drinks. I had Mocha with chocolate whipped cream on top :-) Then we had supper, and after supper we had another time of worship. After that time, we just all hung out and played games and ate more munchies. Once again, it was such a fun time.

Then Sunday, we had a worship service in the morning then left to go back home. I got home about 1:00pm, and Bob got home about 15 minutes later from church. He stopped at Walmart on his way home, and picked up some cleaning supplies, and we started cleaning the kitchen. Bob mopped the floor, man it sure looks nice now! We just need to finish cleaning the rest of the house. In the evening, we BBQ steak and potatoes and then took Hudson for a walk, then I was so excited because I remembered “Amazing Race” started last night!! Yippee!! My favorite reality show on tv!! That ended at 11:00pm and then I headed to bed.

All and all – it was an awesome weekend! Thank you Lord, for my new friends!