staff retreat and a new year...

While we were confident that having staff retreat at our house this year would help save money and build intimacy with our team of twenty-five...I've got to admit come Friday night, I wasn't so sure it was a good idea.  What if everyone was upset that we couldn't afford to take them to the restaurant in town?  What if no one liked our American food?  What if everyone was disappointed?

I did everything I could.  Asked Noel to come watch the kids.  Asked Gertha to come help me make lunch.  Asked Emily to make pizza and coleslaw to go with the baked spaghetti.  Made the cookies the day before.  Made more than I thought we'd need.  Bought three cases of Cokes and Tampicos.  Mopped and prayed.  

And as soon as our family started arriving, I knew it was going to be ok.  They're fabulous.  We were together.  It would be good.

It wasn't good.  It was GREAT.

We started with lots of worship and hymns, Matt shared a devotional, went through some business, had lots of snacks, brought in all the fans, and ended with an hour of prayer that was fabulous.  

Each department sat in the middle, shared prayer requests, Matt encouraged each person who had anything that needed forgiven or any apologies needed to do so, and then one person would lead the group prayer for that group while everyone else prayed for them softly.  It was AWESOME.  

Powerful, meaningful, intimate, transforming.

Don't get me wrong.  It was a lot of work, but serving this special group of men and woman as we all head into a new year together was SO sweet.  

And I don't know why I was worried about the food :)  Two pizzas, 3 heaping 9x13's of baked spaghetti, six dozen cookies, a huge bowl of coleslaw and two cases of Coke and Sprite...check!

So thankful for the men and women God has hemmed into the Emmaus family, so thankful for an amazing day together on Saturday, so thankful that He continues to WORK and SHOW UP and be present in the concerns that we have.  So thankful for a fantastic student retreat, for joyful reunion with our students, for new classes beginning tomorrow, for continual prayer, for His continual presence.

Update for the many asking...

the power situation is complicated and pretty much the same.

No power when the generator is off, running the generator as little as possible, hot nights.

HUGE shout out tonight to one of our visitors, Bob, who is paying to run the generator all night tonight!  Our first night in weeks with power...  whoo-hoo!