Women's Retreat

Since I last posted, we have been go, go, going!

The women's retreat was awesome. Last weekend, about 240 women from our Bellevue Mars Hill campus convened at a summer camp for teaching, community, and worship. Kayle dropped me off at Costco for dinner (pizza) and to catch a ride with Marilee (from my CG), Marilee's sister, and Michelle Bates. Marilee was also one of about 8 nursing mothers on the trip, so little Bolder came too. We arrived just in time for the 1st session, relieved to be out of the car because the sweet bundle of joy cried for the last 1/2 hour or so of the drive. I stayed in a cabin with some of the Proxy girls, though the cabin assignments were pretty fluid and we gained a few and lost a few for the 2nd night.

The theme of the weekend was Freedom in Christ- "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Therefore, do not submit yourselves again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). The teaching was very insightful and authentic with several very vulnerable testimonies and some great group discussion. I came away with a deep admiration for the other women in my church who spoke and led. The teaching that stuck with me the most was how God delights in me as His daughter. I, perhaps not totally consciously, thought that God was always disappointed in me whenever I mess up and sin, because I can never live up to the perfection He calls us to strive for. However, I realize now that that is a lie I've been nurturing. Instead, God rejoices in me and sings over me, just like I love to tenderly hold a baby and sing her to sleep. "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Isn't it beautiful that God loves us in this way?

The talks focused on our identity in Christ and how freedom from sin and shame is found in the security of our salvation and ongoing help in Him. I thought a lot about what I allow to "define" me- my status as "married without kids", my job as a teacher, my university education, my geekiness... No, my identity is caught up with Christ, my worth secured by His work in choosing, rescuing, and sanctifying me. "I am" a work in progress for sure, but, above all, a precious child of God on mission to glorify Him. I could go on and on about the things I learned or re-learned on the retreat, and I even came home with a long list of things to tell Kayle about. Just ask if you want to know more!

A few other highlights: The ladies all participated in a regional rodeo competition involving several very funny events. We laughed so hard in the chicken herding event, when 7 other ladies and I chased a very fast hen with a mind of her own! I also took part in a relay that involved lasso-ing another person and running back and forth with the rope. One of the ladies in our CG looked so disgusted as she untied a ribbon from a goat's tail during a different relay- it was all too funny. The event culminated with a line dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe.

The other highlight for me was more personal. One night before dinner, I walked by myself to the arena where the rodeo was. With the stars sparkling above and in pleasant solitude, I sang praises to God for about an hour. It was such a heartfelt outpouring of worship that I desperately needed and enjoyed.

I arrived home on Sunday afternoon just before Kayle got home from serving in the booth at church. He spent his weekend at a video game night with the guys, playing piano, and programming. Kayle has been practicing a new Chopin song a lot lately. It sounds lovely to hear music in the house so often now. Even though it was only a weekend, it was nice to see Kayle again- I sure missed him! We finished the weekend with some serious laundry to do!

On Monday, I stayed home sick in the morning with a stomach bug. I missed my four morning students and slept until 11:00. My boss called to see if I felt better enough to come teach my two afternoon kids, since he had trouble finding a sub for them. Well-rested and feeling much less achy, I went in to work for a few hours. In the evening, Kayle went to help the Connolly's (new to our CG) move to their new home. While he was gone, I read and listened to the sermon from Sunday as well as watched a tv show. I was still a bit groggy, so I took it easy to recover.

By Tuesday, I felt fine again, so I probably had just underestimated the energy loss from the retreat or caught something random from one of the many women I talked to. Last week was the first week I was scheduled for over 30 hours, so I was busy, busy, busy. Tuesday night, I went to a Proxy (youth group) Reconnect event at another leader's house. To our surprise, over 40 students and 10 leaders showed up to reconnect with each other after a long period of small groups. We talked, played Wii, ate tons of junk food, and competed in an extended charades/Catch Phrase game. They hope to have these events about once/month, but with CG on Tuesdays, I'm not sure how often I can go. It's tricky to have only one car sometimes and I don't want to be missing CG quite so often. Kayle did childcare at CG this week and I picked him up and joined the women for prayer time after my event was over. Long day!

Wednesday, my youth group small group had a feedback session to re-orient our focus and make some adjustments. We're going to switch from studying Luke with the sermons to studying Ephesians. We're also planning some events, tweaking the leadership meetings, and changing our prayer time among a host of other suggestions. Now, you all know how great I am with change, so this whole process has been emotionally exhausting and very humbling as a leader. Overall, I am excited with the direction of our youth group and the ownership of it that my girls have recently shown. It's been quite a year of changes though!

On Friday was the 3rd youth group meeting of the week. A local church built a huge rec center with a pool and gym. They host weekly open swims and open gyms (alternating) on Fridays for only $2, so my girls were begging me to check it out. I met 3 other girls at the pool, with ice cream beforehand, and we enjoyed talking, floating, playing Marco Polo, hitting a blow-up volleyball, and hanging out. There were a lot of young kids, but they mostly stuck to the side of the pool where cartoons were playing on the wall. I think everyone had fun and we decided that open swim was a definite social event to repeat.

Saturday morning, Kayle and I helped another couple from our CG move. There was a whole army of guys lifting and hauling everything, so I mostly occupied myself with holding Bolder so Marilee could direct the whole process. At the house, we unloaded everything, ate some frozen pizza, and marveled at how fast the job got done. Kayle and I decided to let the rest of Saturday be a time to rest from the busy week reconnect with each other. We went out to dinner at night and devoured some baby back ribs and parmesan crusted halibut. Both were amazingly delicious!

On Sunday, we got to church at 8am to set up for teaching primary. It was my last week of teaching on the "month on, month off" system. I'll help out every other week for the next month before teaching again in April. Kayle stayed in primary with me, since he wasn't scheduled in the booth, and I loved watching him be "it" for class-wide freeze tag. The kids really enjoyed playing with him. I taught on the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple. I brought a scarf, towel, and headband as costumes and the kids acted it out "reader's theatre" style. I think the kids understood that we need to approach God with an awareness of our need for Him without thinking that we are so much better than everyone else because of what we can do. After all, God is the one who gave us all our talents and possessions. The sermon was also good, about Jesus healing the leper and paralytic. After church, I took a long nap, went to Kat's house to talk for a few hours, and finally ended the day with a youth group leader's meeting (yg event #4 for the week!).

This week, I was a bit nervous about work because I had a new student scheduled to take physical science every day with me and enough students for 35 hours total. However, on Monday, 3 of my students either stopped coming for good or changed their plans for my class. None of them were my fault, just a coincidence of varying life changes and parent decisions. So, a week that started with 35 hours was promptly reduced to 25 hours in one day. This was actually a bit of a relief, since I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately with all the additional hours and evening events. I should get more students soon and I am happily falling into a solid routine with the ones I have.

Today is Tuesday and our second weeknight at home in a row. There is no CG this week because of the regional meetings, so we are finally catching up on sleep! Spring seems to have arrived with pink flowers blooming on the trees and temperatures in the upper 50s all week. It is unusual for us to have so much sun at this time of year, so everyone seems especially chipper lately. We miss you and love you all!

Angie and Kayle

P.S. I will try to find and post pictures from the women's retreat soon!