This weekend, our church was blessed to be able to take a retreat together in the beautiful piney woods of East Texas. It was so, so good to get out of the city and just have time to learn more about one another and share a time of worship Sunday morning in the 100 year old chapel.
Ben (my hubby, also the pastor) told us at the beginning of our time together we had four “jobs” for the weekend:
Rest– hopefully a little more than usual. Many of church members are med students/researchers/Phd Students/moms(!) that don’t regularly get a lot of shut-eye.
Recreate– the camp where we stayed had lots of things to do for fun, and we did most of them! Thanks to 70 degree weather in January, we were outside most of the time.
Read- we are starting to study the life of King David next month, and Ben encouraged us to get a head-start on reading about his life, as well as reading other books
and finally, (build) Relationships. On a normal Sunday, we have to set up/break down the whole “church”, plus the kids’ area, and greet new visitors, so it’s often hard to get to know each other in that few hours. This weekend was great for lots of one-on-one time!
I didn’t get in as much of the resting part as I would have liked (due to a teething baby), but the rest of it was such an idyllic weekend.
One of the things I love about our church is how the members love on our kiddos. We don’t have a ton of kids in our congregation (but that is slowly changing due to a baby boom!) but my kids L.O.V.E. the adults in our lives.
check out her writing!
If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend getting away from the regular rat-race of life to just take time to enjoy nature and develop relationships with those in your lives.
And now, I’m trying not to think of the mountain of unpacking that awaits me! 🙂
About Kelli Hays
