Broken and Beautiful

It's podcast Tuesday! So many stories from our weekend...hope you enjoy!

Listen here...

I've asked you to pray for my friend Michelle during the past couple of weeks. If you missed the news over the weekend, she did receive a heart transplant on Friday, but I'm heartbroken to tell you that she passed away Sunday after a blood clot entered her brain and caused a stroke. Her family shared that she had perfect peace going into surgery. She told them she would be fine whether she woke up to them or woke up to Jesus. And I fully believe she meant it. But I also know her family is devastated to have to say goodbye to her so soon. As they come to your mind in the days and weeks to come, they would welcome your prayers. Her husband has their four daughters to raise, and they are all so young.

I do share a tribute to Michelle at the end of the podcast, so I'll not write much more about that here today, but I wanted you to know. Thank you for joining me in prayer for her over these past few days!

That news was the broken part of the weekend, but there were so many beautiful moments at the retreat, and I wanted to give you a peek into them!

I loved having Ryan with me this week. He was such a help to me, not only in running my technology and carrying all the things and helping with errands, but also in supporting me in prayer and conversation. Things always run so much more smoothly when I have him! :)

He also serves as resident photographer, so here are a few shots he got of the sessions. (I had a different sparkly shirt for every one! The theme was "Sparkling for Jesus.")

I wrote letters for Ryan to open before every session. He said he really liked them. :)

One of the challenges I gave the ladies was to surrender some specific things to the Lord at some point during the course of the weekend. This was the pile of surrendered prayers by Sunday morning. Isn't it a beautiful sight?

We prayed over them and gave them permanently to the Lord:

We also had a special time of prayer for Michelle and her family.

Right at the very end of the last session, as we moved into a time of communion, the clouds rolled back and the sun appeared for the first time:

The weekend ended with a beautiful time of worship and communion:

My heart was so full when we drove away. God was at work in the hearts of these beautiful women! I can't wait to see what He does in and through them!