Retreat Season Again

I have said many times that I'm addicted to retreats.  If I can't find one and the weather is nice I will take one in my tent outside.  Retreats provide me the best of all life has to offer:  for the extrovert, there is plenty of friends and action.  For the introvert there is plenty of time outside in nature's peace.

So, retreat season is back in bloom after a two-month hiatus for Christmas and I hope you will join me.   Don’t let the prospect of ice and cold put you off.  We’ll use January to fine tune our plans and by the time February rolls around the weather will be gorgeous.  Trust me on this one.  God has a way of blessing retreats.

It gets harder and harder in today’s busy world to slow down listen for God speaking.  Most suburban folks have no idea of the moon’s phases, when it’s full or when it’s waxing or waning.

I’ve managed to fill my calendar with retreats every month for the rest of the year. I have so many opportunities for slowing down that I will be exhausted by June and will need to go on a retreat to recover from all my retreats.  Then the summer youth camps will start.

I’ll be at Austin College January 31^st for the Senior High Youth Connection. Then a couple of Womens Retreats in February followed by Youthquakes and Kidquakes in March and April. On the weekend of May 15-17. we'll have a volunteer Women's Touch Projects. June 5-7 brings another weekend that includes learning about team building and games in between sprucing up the camp for summer.  Then in July I'll take the Winnsboro kids to Synod Youth Workshop. 

The Womens Retreat at Gilmont will be February 5-7 but if you can’t make that one, the First Presbyterian Church in Garland is having just about an identical one a couple of weeks later: February 21-23.  I think they both cost the same: $160 for three days of great food, fine music, vibrant keynotes, awesome worship and some rejuvenating free time with options for crafts, antiquing, resting or reading. It is a “retreat”, after all, so we encourage everyone to understand that “doing absolutely nothing” is an authorized activity.  We’ll have Taize one evening and the latest episode of Downton Abbey showing during afternoon tea.  You could hike in the woods, canoe or go down the Zip Line.  Lately, we’ve offered so many options that ladies got frustrated when they had to choose which they wanted to do. Especially if they have to work it all in between a massage.

In the interest of time and space I'm going to just post the links here for the past three retreats.

janeels.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

janeels.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

janeels.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

To register or learn more about the Womens Retreats go to www.campgilmont.org