TESTIFY TO LOVE: WOMEN'S RETREAT

Here is the outside and inside of the Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster, PA where the Pitman church of Christ's Women's Retreat was held this past weekend. Below is the Victorian Chapel where we had our Sunday worship service. The pictures would be incomplete without a picture of one of the many horses and buggies that are seen on the roadways of this Pennsylvania Dutch settlement. Sunday morning we woke up to a covering of snow to make it all look like a winter wonderland.

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Here is the back third of the conference room
on Saturday of the retreat.

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TODAY IS MEDITATION MONDAY
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I'll be referring to MEDITATION MONUMENTS shared by our 3 Women's Retreat speakers from this past weekend. These are big monuments of remembrance from how GOD worked in their lives. Our theme was: GOD WORKS IN ALL THINGS! I don't think that it was planned, but all three speakers connected with Isaiah 43. Here is that scripture, in part here, to lay the ground work for our meditation thoughts.

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Isaiah 43
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior..."
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Saturday Morning: Jackie Fenton
GOD Works to Transform Families

Jackie, is the wife of Horatio - one of our elders at the Pitman church of Christ. Jackie was born in Jamaica. She has had a very interesting life. I have chosen to post two MEDITATION MONUMENTS from Jackie's life that she shared with us on Saturday:

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1. Jackie's parents came to the states for work when she was six years old, leaving her and her two younger siblings to be taken care of by a grandmother for four years in Jamaica until her parents could bring the children to the states. God worked through a godly grandmother to help her overcome fear and to teach prayer, devotionals, Bible stories, church going, and a love for GOD to these young minds. This was huge for Jackie's spiritual development since neither of her parents were christians. As a young adult in the USA, Jackie turned to the GOD that her grandmother had introduced to her many years earlier in Jamaica. Jackie could TESTIFY TO THE LOVE OF HER GOD AND HER GRANDMOTHER!
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2. After Jackie's mother's death at the age of 45, Jackie and her siblings found out that they had an older sister who they had not known about. This sister, Clover, was a child of their father's. Clover became a fast friend. Today, in spite of any rejection that Clover experienced in those early years, she has put that behind her. Today, their dad is "penniless" and Clover chooses to support him by providing for him a home to live in and caring for many of his basic needs. Clover's actions TESTIFY TO THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF HER GOD that she has received and passed on to her earthly father!
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Thank you, Jackie for sharing about your fears turning to faith!

We can see how GOD worked at transforming your family.

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Saturday evening - Rebekah Lazar
GOD WORKS OUTSIDE THE BOX

Rebekah is a young adult daughter of one of our elders, Mike Lazar and wife Donna. As a college graduate, Rebekah was not ready to stay "settled down" to a job so after much searching she and friend Rachel went to the other side of the world to spend a year volunteering at a christian camp in New Zealand...but a real job came open at the camp with A LOT of responsibility. Rebekah saw GOD work over and over again until now her new favorite verse is Matthew 6:33: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Two MEDITATION MONUMENTS from Rebekah's year in New Zealand:

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1. GOD's faithfulness was obvious in how He used 3 people in major ways to impact Rebekah for the year...she is allowing this to TESTIFY TO THE LOVE OF GOD. Stephen left and she took over as director...Clay was focused on the spiritual growth of the camp and GOD used him to help her see that camp should be all about GOD and not just penciling Him in between 9-10...Rachel was "my supportive friend who took a back seat although she was equally talented and capable of running the camp..."
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2. GOD's faithfulness was obvious in how He used Rebekah to TESTIFY TO HIS LOVE and impact 3 people in major ways: Lynda and Rebekah did not start out seeing eye to eye but now Lynda and her mom are baptized believers and on fire for GOD...Rebekah impacted herself because the more she learned and grew, the more spiritual GOD allowed her to become and she grew into a spiritual leader... Hadley was a volunteer at the camp who went from living a non-christian life to living a christian life and texting Rebekah Matthew 7:7.
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Thank you, Rebekah, for allowing GOD to guide you into living "outside the box"...
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Sunday morning - Debbie Durham
GOD WORKS AS SOVEREIGN LORD

Debbie, the mother of three young adult children, lost her husband Gary suddenly on December 4, 2005. Their family had already been hit hard with Gary's loss of job and cancer. He had just come home from the hospital and surgery when he died suddenly. Two MEDITATION MONUMENTS from Debbie's journey are:

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1. GOD is sovereign in every season of life...even when it's the darkest. So, being left with a mortgage, single parenting, planning graduations by self, anticipating children's futures...it became so overwhelming that she could only turn to her Heavenly Father and His family. Debbie learned that she had to let GOD be GOD. She had to let GOD reign in her life...the word reign is in the word Sovereign. In the process of letting GOD reign, she adopted a new mantra: I CHOOSE JOY! As she began to choose joy and let GOD reign over her circumstances, she saw that she had built up walls with stones of doubt, fear, control, distress, anger, apathy, self reliance, rejection...in order to truly let GOD reign she had to remove the stones. At the end of her talk, she read us a little book called THE WALL. The more Debbie removed the stones from her own wall, the more she was able to TESTIFY TO GOD'S LOVE!
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2. "Every flower that ever bloomed had to go through a whole lot of dirt to get there!" Debbie's journey has been hard. Just like a flower slowly grows toward the sun, Debbie has slowly grown closer to the Son as she has learned to fix her eyes on JESUS. She shared four songs with us to emphasize the process of the journey: Lord, Reign in Me...If You Say Go...I'm Waiting on You, LORD...Every Season...
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Debbie remarried this summer and as we watch her and Glynn bloom together, we know that GOD IS SOVEREIGN...WE CAN TESTIFY TO HIS LOVE!
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Even though we had a great turn out at our Women's Retreat, we were very aware of those who wanted to be with us but couldn't for one reason or another: migraines, a broken ankle, children's illness, husband's work, school, and other things... We missed you Mary Lea, Debbie C., Marlene, Mandy, Diana, Kelly, Fran, Andrea, Kristy, JoAnn, Laverne, Melody, Tamme, Susie, Cathy, Rachel, Lori, Clare, Hope, Alana, Burt, Phyllis, Lea Ann, Cathy, Kat, Tanya, Debbie, Christina, Anita, Jen, Yvonne, Linda, Marlene, Joyce, Benja, Sue, Kelly, Sue...and many others....

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We do know that we don't have to go off to a retreat to experience THE LOVE! The Pitman church of Christ is known for it's love! Just this last Saturday, Patrick Mead posted on http://www.patrickmead.net/ about churches where he speaks:.
"Then…Pitman, New Jersey — another favorite place of mine...in the northeast. Amazing place. "
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I'd really like to hear your comments about what you enjoyed about the retreat or other things that you took away as MEDITATION MONUMENTS...please share! In fact, I'll get us started...I'll share first!

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Because of Jesus, we are family,
Patti