05 Oct Christa’s Corner… Women’s Retreat
This weekend, 25 women from FPC are at Camp Rockfish (near Raeford, NC) attending our first annual Women’s Retreat. A group of 11 women, including some who sadly could not eventually attend the retreat, have been faithfully meeting together and planning this retreat for over a year. I could not have asked to work with a more dedicated group of women as we planned this retreat together.
The women attending range in age from early 30s to 80s and represent a good intergenerational cross-section of the women of FPC. On the retreat, we will be taking time to get to know one another at a deeper level, building new friendships, relaxing in the beauty of our surroundings, sharing fellowship, worship, and communion, and learning a sampling of different ways to pray. Our prayer is to come home with deeper friendships with one another and new ways to engage with God in prayer.
We regret that our planned speaker, Rev. Debbie Cenko of FPC Wharton, Texas is not able to be with us on our retreat. In the floods related to Hurricane Harvey, her town, county, and church members, were severely impacted by the unprecedented flooding, with half of her church members losing all of their possessions in the flood. As we all understood, it was simply not a time for her to be able to leave her church members. Debbie had done so much planning, and looked forward to it so much, that we hope to invite her back, perhaps as soon as next year, and she looks forward to being with us in the future. In the meanwhile, our women, who wanted to do something for Debbie and her church will be, at Debbie’s invite, writing letters of hope and prayers to the members of her church that were devastated by the flooding. I am honored to be among women who, when hearing of Debbie’s situation, were more concerned about Debbie and her church members than what we would do for another speaker. In the end, the other speaker will be me, and I will be sharing about various ways to pray.
We truly hope that this is not just a women’s retreat, but a first annual women’s retreat. While we have not yet scheduled dates for next year, please look for a ‘save the date’ announcement in the next couple of months. We hope that the women of FPC will make saving that date a priority, and join us next year. Thank you for your prayers for this retreat and for the women attending it. And my enormous and heartfelt thanks to the women who have worked so hard to put this retreat together: Tara Aycock, Sarah Benton, Beth Campbell, Glenda Connolly, Georgiana Keller, Dona Lee, Mary Gene Singleton, Mary Thomas, Amy Warner, and Lou Watson!
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