The retreat was really special. There were two other new widows there and we managed to connect really well. The others were terrifically supportive. I got more hugs than I can count. Many of the people had read my story of Bob's passing either in The Herald or on the church's blog.
We had two guest ministers. One was a minister of reconciliation and another was a psychologist. Both were women. The men cooked for us and I'm afraid to get on the scale. It was a lovely weekend...a little on the cool side....but beautiful. I slept well. I just bundled up in a sleeping bag and slept great!
In the night last night the smoke alarm in my cabin went off. I took the battery out but it was hot wired in and although the alarm stopped, the beeping didn't. I finally got up and took my sleeping bag and pillow over to Leslie and Karan's cabin and took one of their empty bunks. Then I got back to sleep, using a meditation technique we were taught on Saturday. It worked!
We had several great lectures and even some fun games to try to teach us to be better listeners.
Leslie planned the communion this morning. She set up tables and brought over benches (pews) to sit next to the tables. She projected the music on the wall.
Then they passed out small loaves of bread and small goblets of grape juice and then we sat and ate the bread and drank the grape juice after she read the prayers over them. It was very impressive and more like a holy meal then the regular communion. Everyone was very impressed.
All in all, it was probably one of the most impressive women's retreats I have ever attended. Lots of prayer and testimony too.
The two women together are the director of the retreat on the right and the woman on the left is one of the other new widows. Her husband died five weeks ago.
The lone woman at the top is Jeannie, the psychologist and the one at the bottom is the church's reconciliation minister, Sandy.
Check out this link for the story found in our Herald magazine about our struggle with Bob's death.
http://heraldmagazine.wordpress.com/
You may have to copy and paste it into your browser. .
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