"for such a time as this"

egm first annual women's retreat in review:

the digs: City Flats Hotel, downtown Holland.

the crew: Laura & I plus two of our high school students, sisters Alyssa & Katie who helped us with hospitality stuff for the weekend.

the other half of our team: Sally & Jodi who handled all of the registration plus emceed the event.

the lovely venue for our sessions: Trendway's downtown showroom which was literally right across the street from the hotel and perfect to hold our 70 retreat guests.

Our two speakers blessed us so much. Friday night we heard from Christine Mutch, who works at Cornerstone University in GR to disciple students. Her testimony of God's story in her life over the past 8 years was so touching. At the age of 28 she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and has now been in remission since that time and believes in God's call to live fully in each day. She also happens to be one of of Laura's college roommates.

If that wasn't enough, we came back Saturday to hear more from Marla Rotman, local coffee shop frequenter (takes one to know one) who is passionate about sharing her story of recovery and hope. Marla is one of the funniest people I have met in a long time and because she is also one of Laura's close friends, we got to share a room with her Friday night and stayed up until after midnight sharing stories.

We had some free time on Saturday to go downtown Holland and explore shops, catch lunch and just relax. We came back to end the weekend with what I think was one of the highlights of our time. We chose four women from Evergreen whose stories God has used in powerful ways and were reminded through them that sometimes going through times that are really difficult are later the things that God gives us to minister to others.



Overall the weekend really exceeded our expectations and I was glad so many women got to come out and take part in it. There were some new friends made, friendships deepened and lots of reminders of the great things taking place already in our community of women.

"And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
-Esther 4:14b