Christian Momma

Our 31:30 Women’s Ministry at The River Church, is getting ready to have a game night for our fall kick off!  I’m excited!  I’ve missed getting together with women and just hanging out.

There will be games, food, fellowship, and don’t tell anyone, but I think there may even be prizes!!

Hope to see you there!!!

I am on the 31:30 Women’s Ministry team at The River Church.  We just had our retreat called “Freedom in Obedience”.

We had 3 speakers (women from our church) speak on different aspects of obedience.  Freedom in Obedience, Daily Obedience, and Blessings of Obedience.  All 3 of their talks were wonderful!

On Friday night, we had dinner, then after dinner was Worship time and then our first talk entitled “Freedom in Obedience” we heard about how to hear from God, that we can gain courage and freedom from sin through steps of obedience, and how we will “make it right”.  Most of the teaching was from 1 Samuel 3.

After a time of discussion we had a game night.  The first thing we did was an ice breaker game…all the ladies stood in a circle and a stuffed animal was thrown from the first person to another then to another.  The one thing you had to remember is the person you threw to and the person who threw to you (always the same 2 people).  As it went on, they would add more stuffed animals until we had a good 10+ animals flying.  I’ll say that there was a lot of laughter!!

Then there were 2 other main games going on, Bingo and Bunco.  Of course we had other games, like Apples to Apples, decks of cards, and a variety of other games for the women to play until they were tired.

The next morning, after breakfast, we had more time of worship before going into our next talk called “Daily Obedience”.  We learned things that can keep you from being obedient to God, like fear, lack of time spent in prayer and reading God’s Word, and complacency.  We learned why we should be obedient, what the result from being obedient was.  Our speaker sited many verses out of the bible during her talk.  A couple things that stuck out to me was “God is calling me to be obedient today…not 5 years from now”, and “Define yourself by Jesus and who he says you are”…meaning I am a Princess, a Child of the Most High God.  Also to “Choose life in all the decisions you make”.

After some discussion and a break, we went into a Panel talk,  our 3 speakers were part of the panel and questions were written on cards and placed in a bucket prior to break.  We had our MC asking the panel the questions (all anonymous) and they each had a chance to answer the questions our women had.  This takes the pressure off of the women having to speak up during a Q/A time on their own to ask the questions.

After a break and lunch, we came back in to our last talk of the weekend called “Blessings of Obedience”.  Again our speaker sited many verses throughout the bible.  We learned what blessings looked like, the power we have when we obey and so much more.

Overall it was such a great experience.  Many of the women I talked to really enjoyed the retreat.

I want to publicly thank all those ladies who helped make this retreat happen, you know who you are!

Michael is in the Liberty Junior’s production of The Beauty and the Beast.  They have been practicing for a couple months.  This week is play week…he has dress rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday for sure and possibly on Tuesday too.  Opening night is Thursday night.  There is also a play on Friday and Saturday night as well.

Since I’ve volunteered to help out with the hair and make-up, my schedule is jammed packed with dress rehearsals and running a child here and there.  We got a letter yesterday stating that Michael would need a tux shirt from Hobby Lobby…we forgot to go on Saturday, they are closed on Sundays, so that leaves me tomorrow after I drop Daniel and Andrew off at school.

Monday night is our first meeting for our Women’s Retreat planning.  And since I’m the one who will be leading that meeting, I guess I’ll have to attend that as well!

Wednesday is Daniel and Andrew’s Preschool Parade at the school.  I don’t think they understand what will be taking place, but once they figure it out, they will be excited.  And of course, the mom that I am, I will be there helping!

It’s funny, you schedule things in advance and it never fails that everyone falls in the same week!  I think I’m ready for this week to be over…we haven’t even hit Monday yet!!

I was asked to be on the Women’s Ministry Leadership Team a couple months ago.  I was so excited to become involved in helping Women get connected with each other…to strengthen the bond of friendship in our church.

Friday was our first meeting of the New Year at The River Church.  The title of the meeting was “Have a Soup-er New Year”.  It was a Soup dinner…there were lots and lots of yummy soups and breads and desserts!  We talked about Friendship and did a devotional called A Recipe for Friendship.  Then we spent some time doing a few “get to know you” type of mixer games.

One of the first things we had the women do as they entered was write something unique about themselves on a slip of paper along with their name and put it into a basket (folded of course).  We used these as a transitional type of thing.  One of the leaders read a couple of the slips of paper (one at a time) and everyone would just throw out names trying to guess who it was!  It’s funny the things you get to know about other people…and who knew one of my friends from church had the same talent as I do…zyxwv…

We also went around the room and told our names, a little about ourselves (how many kids, how long you’ve been attending the church, the city you live in, etc.), along with a “Truth or Lie”.  We had to come up with a statement that everyone would guess would either be a truth or lie.  I now know those women who really can’t lie.

However, I think the best game, by far, was another get to know you type of game we did.  We all got into a circle, the first person would take a small stuffed animal and throw it to someone while saying their name.  Then that person would throw the animal to another person saying their name.  As that animal went through a couple people, the first person would grab the next animal and throw it to the same person.  One rule about the game is that you ALWAYS throw it to the same person and you ALWAYS receive it from the same person.  Just imagine a circle about 25 women large and 6 stuffed animals flying through the air and people yelling each other’s names.  It had us all laughing…mine (and a few others) stomach hurt from laughing so hard!

We are also starting a Secret Sister program in the church.  We are hoping to get all the women in our church involved in this.  Each member fills out a form, then they will be matched up with another member that you will pray for, send encouraging notes to (using a designated return address of one member who has graciously agreed to helping), and gifts.  We will be revealing at our Women’s Retreat (May 7-8), or that weekend for those who are unable to attend.

Next month, we will be doing a Service Project.  We are making those No-Sew fleece blankets and giving them to one of our local ministries.  So, if you are planning on attending, please remember to bring your 1 1/2 yard or 2 1/2 yard fleece.  If you are making a double layer one, please remember you need 2 pieces of fleece the same size (one solid color and one print that match each other)

I hope and pray that all the Women in our church will be blessed by our Monthly Meetings which are the 2nd Friday of each month with the exception of April (Spring Break) and May (Retreat).