Another Awesome Retreat

This was my home congregation's ladies retreat and as is always the case it was wonderful. Our speaker, the first one anyway, is the mother-in-law of one of our elders. She is an amazing lady. She is so filled with the love of the Lord, and her family, that it just pours from her. She did her lesson on the book of Esther and it was so good. She showed how even though the name of God is never mentioned in the book, He is working throughout. His providence was there in every aspect of the events. Then this morning in our devo before leaving, she told her story about how the providence of God had worked in life and eventually led her to her Christian life. I wish everyone could have heard her,.

As I mentioned above, we also had another speaker. She is a young mother of three and also a music teacher in the Jasper City System. Our minister's wife also teaches with her and knew her story. It seems she gave birth to baby Jake in December. She had had a normal pregnancy and normal delivery. That was for about 15 minutes or so. She took a bad turn and began to bleed uncontrollably as she said, "from every part of body that blood could come from, except my eyes." The whole story came down to the fact that she "died" and she said she saw herself walking beside Jesus. She said she didn't really want to leave her family, but if it was His will so be it. She said she saw other people, but not their faces and that she felt the most wonderful peace she could ever imagine. Anyway, after many days of just hanging on, she came back around and is now back to teaching and doing great. She gave the name of the condition she had, but I sure couldn't begin to tell you what it was. Anyway, only a very small number of women survive even the first hour after it hits. Now this is not some kind of far out freak type person. She is just an ordinary lady that loves her family, her job, and God and totally believes in Him. At one point she said her blood pressure dropped to 40 and that is just barely alive. She had her two sisters and her Mom with her last night and of course, Baby Jake and he was just gorgeous. Slept pretty much through the whole program, even the skit.

The weather was perfect, the food wonderful, the fellowship too good and the angels in heaven could not compete with our singing. I am not saying it was that good, it was so from the heart. And isn't that what it is all about - praising our Father for all the wonderful things He has done in our lives. Not all of them are pleasant, but they are all for our "refining." I think it is all in how a person deals with the "fires" of their lives that determines the outcome. Maybe I'm wrong, but we all have a free will to choose our actions. Some just choose the wrong way.

I am tired. Just can't take these 1-2 AM bedtimes much. Joe and I are getting ready to go eat Chinese and then I am setting all the clocks ahead an hour and probably crash as soon as I take a nice HOT shower and get in my jammies.

I hope all have a wonderful day tomorrow. We will go to worship and bask in the glory of Christ. Until next time, God bless.