Well, I’m not sure when I’ve been this tired, but what an awesome day.
This morning we continued the retreat at First Church of God – I got there around 8:30 to sound check and get the videos set with the tech people for the worship, etc. Did worship and spoke at 10 about God training us, shaping up through difficulty and everyday experiences to be the people He needs us to be to use us for amazing things.
Then lunch and worship again at 12:30. Then the women went to some breakout sessions and I prepped the afternoon with the tech people and snuck out for a bit to call my kids. 🙂
We had our last session from 2:30-4, and it really was an amazing time. Afterward, I prayed with so many women who are going through so many hard things. This is a tough time for a lot of people, with everyday life things, and also made more difficult by the economy and job worries, etc. I know the Lord was working there, and so many women were ready to look to Him in their difficult situation – it was hard to hear so many tough stories, and so encouraging to see the Lord moving in their lives.
Then we had about 20 minutes to move my merch table and eat something before I needed to sound check for the evening service. The band here is great – very focused on praising God and facilitating worship. I was touched by their hearts for the Lord, and really loved meeting the worship pastor, Randy, and also his wife at the retreat – they are pretty new to the church, and already I’ve heard so many people expressing how much they are appreciated!
Now, here’s the incredible part. I had planned to use a retreat this weekend that I had done last fall for another group and just tweak it a bit. As I prayed over the retreat and what the Lord would have me share, I just basically wrote an entirely new retreat – the Lord changed it all. I knew He had something very specific in mind for these women, but when I went to the evening service, I was just amazed. I hadn’t told Randy what I was going to do during communion, just that I would do some acoustic songs simply with piano and voice. He stood up right before I sang and read sections of Romans 8 – the exact scripture I had just read to the women that afternoon, and the lyrics to the song I was starting with for communion.
The pastor stood up and said that the service was about looking to God in our difficult times, and trusting Him in them – a major theme of what I had just presented, and the subject of the song I did for the offertory. Then he read scripture after scripture that I had used on the retreat. God is amazing! Neither of us knew what the other had planned, but obviously, God had a message for this church this weekend. He is so good!
I’m so looking forward to being back tomorrow morning on the services and seeing some of the women from the retreat – the ones I talked to tonight were so amazed at how God orchestrated the weekend.