Hello! It’s a little strange being back to my ‘real life’ after spending 10 days immersed in World Race life (and covered in that infamous red Georgia clay-turned-mud), but I’m excited for the opportunity to share with you all that I experienced in the past week and a half!
As I mentioned in previous posts, I headed down to the Adventures in Missions headquarters in Gainesville, GA a few days before Training Camp to participate in the very first Beauty for Ashes Retreat for World Racers. This was a completely optional 3-day retreat that was opened up to all of the women who will be launching with me in January 2015, and this is the first time that AIM has hosted a Beauty for Ashes retreat for women of the World Race. It was planned and organized by a new department/program within AIM called Kingdom Journeys, and the leaders were women who had recently returned from spending 6 months hosting Beauty for Ashes retreats all over the world. It was such an honor to participate in this amazing program that is already bringing life, beauty, and healing to women in some of the very countries where I will be doing ministry in 2015.
“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”
(Psalm 107:2)
In addition to preparing us for the Race and Training Camp, the purpose of this retreat was to equip and train World Racers with some tools and activities that we can use to connect with women we will meet during our 11 months out on the field. The focus of Beauty for Ashes was to help us share our stories as women and, in doing so, recognize the Lord’s work of redemption and healing in each of our lives. We spent most of the time in small groups to encourage true openness and vulnerability in our conversations, and I loved getting to know two of my squadmates, Lauryn and Sally, on a deeper level! One of my favorite moments from the retreat is when Sally put words to the heartcry of every woman when we think about our self-worth – “Lord, help me to focus on the Christ in me, and not the me in me.”
“There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.”
(Mary Lou Kownacki)
I came into the retreat in desperate need of some soul-rest after the emotional roller coaster of the weeks leading up to Training Camp, and the Lord was oh-so-faithful to meet me in that place. Quality time is one of my top love languages, and these three days were chock-full of that! Over the past few years, the Lord has grown in me a passion for really listening to the unique stories of His children and speaking life and truth into the places where they felt abandoned by God, and that is the ultimate goal behind Beauty for Ashes. I am so excited to use the training I received from this retreat while I’m on the World Race next year!
“The Lord has anointed me to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.”
(Isaiah 61:3)
Check back soon for another post about Training Camp and to meet the team I’ll be spending the majority of my Race with!
|| Kintsukori — Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold-dusted lacquer resin that is considered more beautiful because it has been broken. As a philosophy, it speaks to breakage and repair becoming part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. ||
