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Sweet Resource

This is a closeup of the little giveaway for our women’s event theme “Singing in the Rain.”  It perfectly brought in the elements of an umbrella and “raindrops,” represented by the Hershey kisses.  But note the stickers on he bottom of the kiss.  Were you aware that there is a place where you can buy these personalized stickers at a reasonable price?  We chose our theme verse to put on the bottom of the kisses.  However, the products on this website could be used in so many ways to make a sweet giveaway for any women’s event.  Check out www.ClassicCandyCovers.com.  _29B4214

Posted in: News & Information, Resources, Retreat Remembrances

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The Women’s Ministry “Family”

Family-Quotes-11There is a line in Psalms 68:6 which says:  “God sets the lonely in families.”  I found this awesome quote recently:  “God promised to put the lonely in families and a women’s ministry group is the perfect ‘family’ for many lonely women. Have your heart open and be prepared to be a family to them” (Kim Webster).  

That made me think.  Can we, as sisters in the Lord in women’s ministry, function as a family?  What are the distinguishing features of a good family?

  • A family can be made up of a variety of personalities (don’t we know it!), and is accepting of differences (age, personality, interests, level of growth)
  • A family should be able communicate without fear of ridicule;
  • A family learns and grows with one another;
  • A family should be where you are loved and accepted – as you are;
  • In a family, if you make a mistake you are forgiven and welcomed back;
  • A family is there for one another in crisis.

 

Posted in: Inspirations, News & Information, Realities of Ministry

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Three Biggest Decisions in Retreat Planning

3-Critical-Things-To-Consider-When-Selecting-the-Right-ERP-for-Your-BusinessIf you are considering a retreat this year, you may be getting a bit of a late start.   There are three critical decisions that I feel need to have been made by now, unless you have a very unusual situation–or you are very lucky.  Normally, we have found that a minimum of two of these three decisions should be made even a year in advance of your overnight event.

  1. Location – retreat centers and hotels are normally booked up to a year or two in advance. Normally we try to schedule our hotel one year in advance.
  2. Date – you may be limited by the availability of your chosen location or the availability of your speaker. If the two don’t work together you’ll have to decide which is more important to you: the date you want or the speaker you want (read more about this decision here).
  3. Speaker – a popular speaker may have limited dates of availability.

In our case, we are preparing for a late November retreat.  Our priority this year was to get the retreat location that we wanted and had used last year.  We found that they were booked into 2016, with very few favorable dates in 2014 available.  So we booked the location and date in December of 2013 and took a risk.

Our decision about a speaker was then limited to someone who could come on that date. We have just finalized our speaker(s).  In June, (nearly six month prior to retreat date) we will officially begin planning as a group-assigning responsibilities, determining schedule, and the many other components of retreat planning.

 

 

Posted in: Lessons Learned, Location, Location, Location, News & Information, Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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Singing in the Rain

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We just held our spring women’s event.  It was a dessert for women, ages 10 and up.  I thought I would share a little bit with you, as the theme, “Singing in the Rain,” was such fun, and would easily work for any event, including a retreat.

It was a theme we had seen somewhere online…we didn’t come up with it all by ourselves.  But what a great theme!  Doesn’t the Bible encourage us to “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!”?  There are so many potential theme verses, including Habakkuk 3:17-18 which basically says that even if everything is going wrong in our lives, YET we can choose to rejoice in the Lord.

Our schedule included showing a YouTube video of the song as performed by Gene Kelly in the 1952 movie of the same name.  We wrote a short skit for the occasion (check out our new downloadable skit here) and a devotional teaching.

The decorations were such fun. We collected umbrellas and rain boots from our women for use in decorations.  “Raindrops” made of beads and/or tissue paper were hung from the umbrellas. Rain boots were used on the tables with flowers and tissue paper.  Other additions included ribbon preprinted with music on it, as well as musical symbols that you can barely see hanging from the umbrellas. The pictures below give you an idea of what our simple decor looked like; in person, the decor was much more dramatic…Or at least we thought so!

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For the final added touch, the Lord brought a light shower that evening, to make certain that we were “singing in the rain.”

Posted in: News & Information, Skits, Theme Ideas

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I’M BAAAAAACK!

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Greetings to all subscribers to the retreatinabag.net website, old and new!  It has been about six weeks since my last blog.  Normally, my goal is to post something every Wednesday, but….

What’s my excuse?  Life happens.  In the last month, I moved an elderly relative from independent living to assisted living, with all the accompanying issues that are involved with a difficult transition like that.  Our women hosted our spring event, a women’s dessert (which I’m eager to tell you about).  Also, we finished our spring women’s study and began preparing for our summer event.  Weddings, baby showers and graduations…I could go on…but you get the picture.  Writing a blog post once a week got put on the back burner.

But I’m prepared (and excited) to get back in the swing of things, so look for a post in your inbox next Wednesday.   See you then.

Posted in: News & Information, Website News

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