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The Question of Breakouts

Posted by Debby on March 3, 2015

A breakout session is defined as “a small group session, held during the main event and formed to focus on specific subjects relevant to the gathering.” In a retreat setting, we have main sessions taught by the retreat speaker. The main sessions are attended by everyone and geared toward the entire group. Then, if the event schedule allows, we develop breakout sessions in order to target specific groups or interests. Here are a few breakout suggestions:

Most often, for us, we do breakout geared toward the ladies’ situation in life–married, divorced/widowed, single, teen. Spiritually, all the women will profit from our main sessions. But in practice, married women face very different issues from single women or teens. So we like to provide a time geared to those specific needs.
Breakouts sessions encouraging women in “the basics” – prayer, Bible study, and fellowship can be very popular. We have used topics such as: How to Study Your Bible (beginner or advanced); Memorizing Scripture; Keeping a Prayer Journal; Intercessory Prayer; Discipleship; Friendship.
Another breakout option is to do a craft, as that can be an enjoyable and relaxing activity for women in their free time. Ideas could include a craft or hobby project (scrapbooking, photography) or a missions project that could be completed and then used in outreach.

Posted in: News & Information, Retreat and Event Planning

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Must-Follow Women’s Ministry Leaders

Posted by Debby on February 24, 2015

If you found RetreatinaBag.net, I have to assume you are scouring the internet for women’s ministry resources. If you are like me, you are using Pinterest to find ideas for your women’s events. I am excited to share with you a new resource for women’s ministry leaders. Ladies from two of my favorite women’s ministry resource websites, Gina Duke/Churchtown Ministries and Cyndee Ownbey/Women’s Ministry Toolbox (for more information, see links) have joined forces with others who have a heart to minister to women and to help those who serve women. They have created a Must-Follow Women’s Ministry Leaders Board on Pinterest. This exclusive collaborative board features pins from a team of women’s ministry leaders that will help you better reach the women in your church and community. Take a look at it!

Posted in: Money-Saving Tips, News & Information, Resources, Retreat and Event Planning

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Last Minute Scramble

Posted by Debby on February 17, 2015

Has this every happened to you? You are at the retreat, and people are arriving. They are coming to the registration table to check in, pick up keys and name tags and booklets and you are checking them off your list. Everything is going smoothly, until….someone shows up who is not on your registration list!

Well, this year that happened to us, and there was a mad scramble which I missed because I am not normally involved in registration at the retreat, and I wasn’t even present when this was happening. So today, my guest blogger is Pam, one of our leaders who was there:

Here’s what happened: Two women showed up, saying that they had registered for the retreat, but they were not on our list. We didn’t have money for the two of them, we didn’t have a registration card for either of them and therefore we did not have a room for them! We questioned them a bit to try to track down the mistake, but they were adamant that one of them had turned in their forms and paid.

We were tempted to panic. How had we possibly overlooked these two precious women? We had reviewed the registration cards and the rooming lists numerous times prior to the retreat. How could we have made this error?

This year our retreat was held at a retreat center. Had we been at a hotel, it might have been easy to get another room. Here we had to guarantee that we would occupy a certain number of rooms and pay for that number, regardless of our final registration numbers, and the place was full. Fortunately, we had one extra room that no one was assigned to, and we were able to give these two women that room. Had the Lord not provided in this fashion, we would not have turned them away; we would have doubled up on some other room and made a way for them to stay.

Our prayer in the months before the retreat is always that God would make a way for those He wants to come to the retreat. And He certainly did this time.

A week or two after the retreat, this lady came to the office between services and sheepishly help up the two registration cards that she had forgotten to turn in and the credit card payment slip. We were so relieved that it was not our error, and we had not overlooked her.

This particular situation had never happened to us before, and we pray it will never happen again. But if it does, we will let the Lord lead us though it and He will be given all the glory!

Posted in: Lessons Learned, News & Information, Registration, Retreat and Event Planning

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More Hints on Signs

Posted by Debby on February 10, 2015

Regarding doing skits at your retreat, I’ve said before that I like signs! With minimal scenery and props, a sign can give your audience a wealth of information in a small space.

While many times we will make our signs by hand, the above are some computer-generated signs created for our recent retreat skit. I asked Kristen to share some of her “secrets” for sign-making:

To create a sign using Microsoft Publisher, select a custom size blank page and give it the dementions of the foam board you will be attaching it to. Once you have your blank page, then Google to pull up a few websites were you can download free fonts and free backgrounds. I like 1001freefonts.com and backgroundlabs.com.

Once you’ve selected your background you can then paste it on the page. Make sure it goes all the way to the edge or a little bit over. Then add a text box with your sign wording. To make your text box transparent (so your background shows through), click Ctrl T when the text box is selected. You can easily move items around on the page by holding down Ctrl and Alt and using the arrow buttons to move the item. This allows you to line up things more precisely.

Now that you are ready to print, make sure your printer is ready. Most printers will automatically divide your sign into several pages (if your sign is larger than a standard sheet of paper). After printing, you will cut off all the white edges. Then carefully glue or tape each piece to the foam board, taking care to line it up perfectly. This way it will appear to be one large print!

See some of our other suggestions on making signs here.

Posted in: Little Things Make a Big Difference!, Money-Saving Tips, News & Information, Skits

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What’s New?

Posted by Debby on January 27, 2015

New and exciting things have been happening at Retreat-in-a-Bag!

I am most excited to announce our new downloadable Retreat Guide. This is the first of (hopefully) many to come. This Retreat Guide gives you resources specific to the theme “Hidden Riches,” including theme verse, ideas and links to decorations we used, color photos, teaching sessions outline, quiet time study and skit (reproducible theme graphics are not provided). I have to say that our recent retreat with this theme was one of our sweetest retreats ever, as we compared our Christian life to a mining expedition where we search for hidden treasures. And the greatest treasure of all is to know the Lord!

In addition, our Retreat-in-a-Bag book series, consisting of three books, is now downloadable. Up until now, they have only been available for purchase as a hard copy. Now you can get what you need instantly from the Retreat-in-a-Bag website. Compared to the Retreat Guide just mentioned, each of these books covers general information for those planning a retreat from start to finish, but they include theme-related resources as well (graphic, quiet time, skit).

We have been adding content to our free downloadables – with new skits, quiet time studies and even a new downloadable form or two. So if you haven’t been to the website for a while, it may be worth your time to take a gander, especially if you are planning a retreat for 2015!

Posted in: News & Information, Resources, Starting Points in Retreat Planning, Theme Ideas, Website News

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