This week my ministry group got to plan a Women’s Retreat for about 20 women aged 11-25 years old. I was super excited for this weekend as I have several great memories of attending women’s retreats as a youth and as a young adult. There’s something so special and beautiful in spending the weekend with a bunch of women talking about all the things and worshipping the Lord!
We met with Auntie, the women who run the girls home, on Wednesday and got to visit her beautiful and spacious house that hosts all the women and girls for the weekend. That’s when the excitement started to set in. She even wanted us to spend the night and really make it a girls weekend so we could soak up every possible minute with these special girls. We had planned a weekend based off of the training that our Beauty For Ashes coordinators, Maddie and Jackie, had received. Our weekend was filled with worship, activities, testimonies, movie time and more!
We were split up into small groups so we could really get to know the girls throughout the weekend. All of these girls were rescued and now stay at the women’s home that was right next door to where we were staying. Bekah and I had a small group of 5 girls aged 11-14 and they were adorable! I really loved getting to know them. These girls were able to open up and share some vulnerable parts of their past and how God has redeemed them. It was amazing to see the healing that had started and will hopefully continue!
Check out these cuties: Shalome, Amrita, Axsa, Nisha, Sunita
Each of us led different activities and discussions on topics such as forgiveness, worth, view of God, identity, etc. I led part of the discussion on worth and how God is the only one that can determine our worth. We may not always feel valuable or worthy, but we know that God says we are so we have to choose to believe it. One of our activities was to ask God about our worth and draw a picture representing how He sees us. One of our girls drew a self portrait but she was surrounded by a massive diamond and wearing a crown. She told us that God says she is worth more than the biggest diamond and calls her his princess. Yeah girl! So many great lessons and activities that sparked some good discussions in our small groups.
At the end of the weekend, we had a girls hour filled with makeovers, mani & pedi’s and hair curling. It was so fun to just be girls and get excited over makeup and nails and hair. Especially since I was wearing the same dress for the third day in a row. To top it all off we had photo shoots and took lots of silly photos together. The smiles and giggles that were shared just made the night perfect.
Despite getting super sick the first night, (throwing up off of a three story balcony-don’t recommend) I had so much fun with these girls and I wish I could have spent more time with them! Getting to spend the weekend teaching and discipling these beautiful teenagers was extremely encouraging and uplifting for me as well. It was most definitely my favorite ministry of the month!!!!
