Beauty For Ashes
This is a place where God gives rest to women who are weary. This is a place where God rescues women who are lost. This is a place where God comes in a heals hearts who have been broken. This is a place where women find their true worth. This is a place where women find there true identity. This is a place of restoration, healing, love, and joy. This is a place where women can find rest from the things that have eaten them alive before.
This is where I found my freedom.
On Friday my team and I put on a Beauty For Ashes women’s retreat from 12-4:30 pm. We had Tea and Cookies. We gave them all name tags. We gave them all journals. We wrote them all hand written letters when they walked in the door. We wanted to make them feel special and welcome. When we started the retreat we first introduced each other, got to know each other, spent some time in laughter and fellowship, then had some worship before diving into the deeper parts of the retreat.
Each one of my team mates spoke at a different point of the retreat about a different topic.
Kendall spoke about how we view God and she had the women draw out how they view God. This activity was really cool because sometimes we can draw what we aren’t willing to say.
Then Keia shared the story of the Woman At The Well and did a short teaching on it. Keia also shared her testimony and I think by her doing so the woman all opened up a lot more in there separate groups.
Brooke then shared a story about “A Saddened Heart” along with her testimony and had the women draw a picture of a time when they had experienced a saddened heart. This exercise really opened the women up and you could see the shield they kept up till this point slowly come down.
Sami then made everyone Tea and I passed out the cookies for our Tea and Cookie time and we all had a lot of conversation about what we had talked about previously.
Kendall then did a teaching on Worth and shared her testimony along with a “dollar bill” teaching and demonstration.
THEN IT WAS MY TURN…
I had offered the day prior to take the hour long talk on Forgiveness and to share my testimony. Wow. Not only is that a very deep topic, it’s a very painful topic for me. I was pushed a lot when I was preparing for this talk about what exactly I wanted to share when it came for my testimony. I eventually decided to share the things that I didn’t want to… but the things that I needed to share. I knew God would speak through me and so when I walked up to the front of the room to give my portion of the retreat with my heart pumping faster than it ever had before… I said a quiet prayer and then just gave it to God.
I talked first about how physical scars and wounds can fester if you don’t get the proper medicine to heal them… and that how emotional scars and wounds can do the same thing. The only difference is you don’t rub actual medicine on yourself to heal your emotional wounds, you have to learn how to forgive because forgiveness is the medicine for your emotional pain.
I then dove into my testimony
I shared all the parts I didn’t want to share and I told all the things I didn’t want to tell… and it actually ended up being okay. It turned out that God used my vulnerability to open other women up in their groups to be more vulnerable too. It was hard but God used the situation for his good and I ended up being a vessel for God in that moment.
I then had the women write out or draw a time when they have had an emotional scar or wound that they hadn’t dealt with properly before.
After they were done I got up again and talked about the story where Jesus says we must not forgive 7 times but 77 times. I shared with them that in that passage it’s not meaning a literal 77 times but it means whenever they hurt you again, whenever the memory hurts you again, or whenever it brings you pain, forgive. Even if it’s 77 times or 77,777 times.
I then talked about what Forgiveness IS and what Forgiveness ISNT. I talked about how to forgive and what that even looks like.
Theeeeeeennnnn I did a skit. I told a story about this woman that was hurt again and again and again in different ways and instead of forgiving, she kept trying to push it away or keep it to herself or dismiss it. Each time this lady did that In the story I would grab a random bag from around the room and pick it up and carry it. By the end of my story I was shouting about how I couldn’t take it any longer and how I had so much pain to carry. I then dropped my bags because I couldn’t handle it any longer. I had hit my breaking point. I then began to learn how to forgive others and myself for the things I had been carrying and I started to put my bags back to where I had gotten them. My weight was being lifted. My pain was lessening. God was taking over. I had gained freedom I wanted and the freedom I needed. That story really helped a lot of women see a physical example of the emotional pain they had experienced or were experiencing.
I then had the women write on a heart piece of paper a situation, person, or event that they needed to gain Forgiveness for or give Forgiveness to. When they were done I gave them an opportunity to put them up on a cross my team had made symbolizing them walking into Forgiveness and giving it up to God.
Keia then took over from their and talked about our next activity which was the washing of feet.
My team and I then began to wash everyone’s feet at the event that wanted us too. We would wash a persons feet and then pray over them. We washed women of all ages young and old.
This one little 5 year old girl even offered to wash my feet and I said yes of course and it was so so so cute.
The washing of feet gave a lot of people the opportunity to be served in a way they never have been served before and it was such a beautiful experience to watch them walk into.
We then did some worship and I closed in prayer.
The retreat was done. The retreat was over. The retreat went well. My team was exhausted.
We had put everything we had into this event and we heard things we didn’t expect to hear and we had to share things we didn’t really want to share and we were pushed as a team immensely. We are a group of girls aged 18-20 (Keia turns 21 next month WHOO HOOO!!!) and so we had to be extra mature when an older woman would ask us questions that were extra deep or when we taught the woman in our teachings.
Our team after the retreat went upstairs to our apartment and just sat and talked about everything each one of us had gone through. We debriefed the entire experience for each one of us and we found out that we even needed to hear what we had spoken about. Each one of us grew and was pushed and walked into freedom in a different way because of the retreat WE put on. It showed us that we weren’t above the women just because we were the ones putting it on, we needed healing too.
Beauty For Ashes was something since the moment i heard about it I wanted to do. Beauty For Ashes was something that grew me a lot. Beauty For Ashes is a beautiful event that heals, restores, and sheds love onto women of every walk in life.
Wow.
***Prayer Requests***
– We leave for Zambia TOMORROW! My team has loved loved loved Zimbabwe and so as we leave please pray for peace, joy, and love. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to all the friends we have made and this place. In the same way pray that Zambia will be just amazing and that God will work. AND PRAY FOR SAFTEY IN TRAVEL.
– My back is starting to hurt quite a bit. I used to go to physical therapy for it and get therapy massages but since being on the race… I haven’t really had the opportunity to continue those sessions. I have medicine and I have patches to put on my back when it is really really in pain… but the race has really pushed my back and so those are starting to not work. Pray that God will continue to heal me and that he will protect and remove the pain so that I can be used on this journey.
– Pray for God to continue to push me in this journey and that he will just move in powerful powerful ways.
Thanks Fam for reading! Love y’all! Keep being awesome!
