Staff Retreat

As usual a lot of stuff has happened since I last blogged, but Staff Retreat was by far, the biggest and funnest thing :) This is one of my favorite times of the year and this year was no different...even though I had to plan it this time, I still had a fun time even doing that part! We spent a week at Pine Cove Woods Retreat Center in Tyler. It was beautiful...overlooking the lake in the woods kinda place. The rooms were nice, the food was good and the best part...we didn't have to cook or clean at all! At the old place we went to we had to cook our own food and clean up after ourselves...we loved that place, but this was way better. Anyways, this was the BEST staff retreat I have been on and I have been on all of them. The theme for the week was "encouragment" so we spent a lot of time building each other up and loving on each other. We had a night where we split up into departments and were able to love on our team...I went with the Worship Department and we all ended up crying together....I love those guys...Isaac, John and Bleecker, they are all so sweet and always so encouraging, but it was an extremely sweet time for all 4 of us. That was my favorite night, but every night during worship time was AMAZING. The Lord was moving so deeply, I was moved to tears every single night...and that's not a normal thing for me. There is just something about the staff being in a room together and worshipping...the spirit is always obvious in a huge way when that happens. It's extremely moving. We got to hear some different staff members' testimonies and again got to hear the Lord's grace through story. I love to hear the stories of our staff and our church body. I just was reminded so much of the grace the Lord has extended to me and was just encouraged to reach out to our staff more and build them up on a more intentional basis.

Of course we also had so much fun...we stayed up playing Mafia every night...sometimes until 2 AM. Ridiculous. We had a Talent Show...Chilli and Joe did a hilarious skit, as well as Chilli and Carl. Kendall did a rap...I mean SoulHood...not Kendall. 3105 made a collaboration of rap songs and dance....Mallery, Jill, Deedra, and Brittany...they were the runners up. The winners are known as Pistols and Pedals...a Guns and Roses cover band consisting of Josh "Axel" Patterson (lead vocals), John Warren (drums), Adam Lancaster (rhythm guitar), Isaac Wimberley (bass), Michael Bleecker (keys) and Eric Bowman (lead guitar). Let's just say, John ended up shirtless by the end of the set and Josh screamed so loud he almost lost his voice. I will post some pictures soon :)

The whole week really just made me extremely grateful. I LOVE where I am. The Lord has given me the greatest job in the world, an amazing husband, and great friends. I can't believe I get to be on staff with these people that I love so much. He continues to show us all grace by letting us grow together and strive together, always working in us to reveal how we can get more of Him. I'm pretty sure I'm the luckiest person alive.