I'm Back!

Yes, I made it to and from Hershey in one piece. I actually took an extra day off work yesterday to recover from the trip. Sunday we got back to town at 3 pm but Greg dragged me off to a museum before church, then we ushered at church (it was our week), and then the communion team had a dinner after church for team building and fellowship (we had a great time) but all that made me one tired and worn out cookie! I didn't get home until 10:30 pm.

The retreat was fantastic. I would say it was much better than my last one (this was number 3 by the way!) and that was partly due to my awesome roomie Alice. She was easy to get along with, in fact a little too easy since we sat up till 1 am on Saturday night chatting and sharing some stuff. Good thing there was mandatory morning silence times or we would never have made it to class! Thanks Alice for being so great!

This year I volunteered to usher (along with many other woman from our class) and it turned out to be a great experience. I was a little skeptical since I usher at church and it can be a real thankless and difficult job. People in Manhattan are very self centered and unwilling to sit where we ask them to (one guy yelled at me last Sunday, AT CHURCH!!!!!). But the BSF leaders were a pleasure to serve. There was no comparison to my other usher job. They were all smiles and hellos, gracious to move when asked, willing to go wherever we directed them just for the opportunity to have a seat. I usually had my entire section filled (EVERY seat) in under 15 minutes because they were all on time and I was then able to sit and enjoy the singing. At church ushers don't sit because we seat people up to the last 5 minutes of the service (yeah, they are late and rude!). As a BSF usher I was assigned a really great section in the middle front, right in front of the podium so I had a great view the entire time.

The bible teaching was great. We studied selected chapters from the book of Isaiah. I will post some points and principles later for those who are interested. The best thing I think was Jane Roach's doctrine presentation on the glory of God. It was awesome. I can see why she is the director of the training division. There were presentations from all the division heads but there have been 2 new positions created since the last retreat. Director of Domestic Operations and Director of International Operations. The Domestic Director, Candy Staggs, is our old Area Team leader and so it was really fun to see her in her new job, so perfectly suited for her. It was like knowing a BSF celebrity. The most encouraging speaker was the International Director, Dr. Chuck. It was really cool to see a man on the directors staff first of all and it was so encouraging and also humbling to hear about BSF classes in other parts of the world. In areas where class members are traveling miles and miles on foot to study God's word in a language that isn't their first, in classes that don't even have reliable electricity, in areas where bibles are hard to come by, in countries where Christian's are heavily persecuted, and on and on. It was convicting when I think about how often I complain about have to teach after a long day, or if our students have to share a space and don't get their own room. We have it so good in our class and in our country. We also got to hear about all the prayer groups that have been praying for YEARS for classes to start in their city and about new pilot classes that have started including the newest class in Jerusalem where ex-patriots, Christian Palestinians, and Messianic Jews are studying side by side in that evening woman's class. He also had some encouraging things to say to the men's classes (greatly outnumbered by the woman's and in some cases on the brink of being cancelled for lack of attendance). It made the ladies in our class realize that we need to be praying for the Men's NYC class to restart. Dr. Chuck's talk moved me to tears, changed my attitude, and helped me set some goals for the remainder of the year. He was awesome.

I always love the singing at retreat. We get the chance to sing many songs we never tackle in our classes and I walked away with a couple new favorites. On the last day we sang It Is Well With My Soul and our whole row was crying. This is a hymn we sing all the time, no problem but when we got to the verse that says:

"My sin,
oh the bliss of this glorious thought,
my sin not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross,
and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my soul"

And then 1,300 voices strong sing the chorus and I don't think I have ever heard a hymn sung with such joy and in such a powerful way. Wow! A great way to end the retreat!

The food was the only part that wasn't great. The vegan option was generally lettuce or roasted veggies. One day I did get some white rice and on another day pasta with my veggies which isn't really nutritionally sound so I was glad I brought other provisions. But the table conversations made up for the poor food choices. Plus there were twizzlers in the gift shop so I couldn't complain too much ;)

Anyway, I could go on and on but I will take a break for now. It is good to be home with Greg and be able to sleep until 7:30 am again instead of 6 am. I hope you all had a nice weekend!