ok, church is over, so i thought i'd share some of what women's camp was like... the parts i didn't share in church this morning.
first of all, let me say again, THANK YOU to the men who spoiled us rotten. when i was little i used to think men couldn't cook... that it just was not a gift God bestowed upon the male gender... that if it couldn't be thrown on a bbq grill, it was too big a task... and that since the invention of microwave ovens, most wouldn't even know what to do with a grill! so pastor dean, don, jim and jimmy, ya'll are awesome. and... i'm guessing the younger guy was jim's son? i don't want to leave you out, either. i don't know how much of the cooking you did, but you were definitely a part of the whole experience. and don, thanks again for the "special order" for this picky eater
and jenett and april, yall's little skit really was a blessing. yall did a wonderful job! i was very impressed!
now... i wanna tell about my little excursion on foot up to mountaintop. it's kinda the abbreviated version...
i wanted to do a little nature trail around there before leaving, and mentioned it to susan. so she asked if i'd like to hike up to mountaintop. i said sure! and she put her hand on my forhead and said "are you ok? you didn't even hesitate! (i'd backed out of trying the hike this june at family camp.) i just shrugged my shoulders and said "don't know if i'll make it to the top, but i'll go as far as i can." so at 5:30 saturday morning, we started our hike. when it started getting pretty steep, susan (bless her heart!) said "let's stop for a minute, catch your breath." so we stopped.... and then from that point on, she'd say "let's stop" about every fifteen or twenty feet. SHE didn't need to stop, she is in great shape. but she never made me feel weak or incapable. she didn't wait for ME to ask to rest. she told me to stop every 20 feet or so and rest for about thirty seconds. she was so encouraging, and when we made it to the top, it was such a feeling of accomplishment... not because i'd accomplished anything on my own, but because she was there every step of the way being patient, being encouraging, and helping me get there.
kinda like what God does. He's so patient with us, so gentle, He just walks beside us and says "let's stop and catch our breath" and gets ya where He wants you to be, step by step, inch by inch. ain't God good?
PS, anyone who was there this morning and heard my reference to the goldfish, i posted that part of my testimony somewhere on this board a little bit ago. ya can't miss it, it has goldfish in the title.
