Christian Momma

What an awesome time!

The River Church hosted a Woman’s Retreat this past weekend (Friday evening – Saturday afternoon).  It was a great time of fellowship.

My car load arrived later than I was supposed to, but still early.  We hustled through the set up and registration then headed off to dinner.  I was in charge of the media…I was so grateful to have other women there who had done this type of thing before!

W was so happy to get to know the women of our church.  We spent time in the evening on Friday just talking.  A couple of the women I already knew fairly well, and a couple that I didn’t know well at all.  I have never laughed so hard…that’s what it’s all about.  Making friends and bonding with other women!

On Saturday, before lunch, there was a question and answer time.  At breakfast we were all given index cards to write a question on…the question could be about ANYTHING you wanted.  I was so excited when the question of “When is the next retreat?” came up!  How exciting that the women had so much fun that they were ready to start thinking about the next retreat!!

For those of you who didn’t attend, I strongly encourage you to try and attend the next retreat.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!

Are you purposely going out and connecting with people intentionally?

That was a question asked of us today in church (maybe not exactly, but very close).  I can honestly say, no, I’m not.  I should be, but I’m not.  I am a shy person by nature…I’m not nearly as shy as I once was, but overall I am…that is until I get to know you, then it’s a whole new ballgame.

If I’m in a crowd of a lot of people where I don’t know many people, I will stand near someone I may know, but not talk much, just listen.  I find it really hard to go out of my comfort zone and talk with people.  I am working on it…

How many times have you passed someone on the street and ignored them?  Or just didn’t even pay attention to them because you were so focused on yourself.  I’ve done that a lot.  How many people have missed out on something because I wasn’t open to talking to them or paying attention?  What if all God wanted me to do that day was say “hi” or smile at someone and I didn’t do it because I thought it was very insignificant?  That “hi” or smile could have changed the mood of that person for the day.

What about people in your own family?  How often do they get ignored or missed by you because you are too busy doing things that really aren’t important?

How many times has life gotten in the way of you calling up that friend you haven’t heard from in a long time?  Or that church member that didn’t attend church that Sunday?

Reaching out intentionally…Opening your eyes to those around you who may be hurting or just need a quiet little smile to change their life.

God wants us to reach out to the lost and hurting.  Speak into the lives of others to change their life.  How many times I’ve missed the opportunity to do that with so many people!

So I have been spending a lot of time looking for the 2010 VBS’s that are out there.  Do you know there are a lot to choose from?  Choosing is overwhelming me right now.  I will sit down with a group of people from church in a few weeks to talk over the different options that are available to us.

Here’s what I’ve found so far…

Lifeway is offering 2 different VBS’s this year…Saddle Ridge Ranch and Route 254.   Then there’s Group who is offering 2 different ones as well…High Seas Expedition and Egypt; Joseph’s Journey from Prison to Palace.  Answers in Genesis is also offering 2 different VBS’s…Amazon Expedition and Operation Space.  As if those weren’t enough to choose from, Standard is offering Hero HeadQuarter’s….Cokesbury is offering Galactic Blast…Gospel Light is offering SonQuest Rainforest…WordAction is offering Deep Sea Adventure…Concordia Publishing House is offering Planet Zoom…Sunday School Publishing Board is offering Xtreme Spiritual Makeover…Bogard Press is offering Soul Survivors on Danger Island…

I know there are more out there that I haven’t mentioned…but those are the ones that I’m taking a closer look at for the moment.  I will probably look into others after I process all those listed above!

So the question is…How do you choose?  What I’m doing is listing out all the information for each VBS so that I can present it to those who will be helping me choose.  Of course Prayer is the MOST IMPORTANT part of choosing.  Once you decide the reason you have a VBS in your church…the purpose for your VBS, and then through prayer and all the information given about each VBS on their web site, you can start to rule out different curriculums for your church.

I am currently compiling a spreadsheet overview as well as a detailed sheet for each of the above VBS for our church.

Overwhelmed??  Why, yes I am!!