So I'm not even sure where to begin when it comes to sharing about my experience at retreat. It was LIFE CHANGING! It really was. I kept hearing that phrase beforehand, from many different people who had gone before me, and I was a little skeptical. I kept thinking, "So what all are we going to do while we are there? How will it change my life?" Was I in for a surprise! I really did go into retreat as my old self - not very confident, doubting God at times, scared, and many other things that I don't need to go into detail about - and came out as my new self - my true self. New, changed, confident, dependent on God completely, rested (at least spiritually!), excited, humbled and FREE! :) I am so incredibly grateful that God called me to go through this training and prepared the way for me. And so grateful to be back home with my family and getting ready to take the message of freedom and hope, through fitness, to those around me!
Our retreat took place at the Lost Canyon Ranch in Williams, AZ. It was up in the mountains and was just breathtaking! It was so nice that it didn't even really feel like we were "camping". :) My week was filled with getting to know and moving alongside new friends, attending lots of different workshops on anatomy (my least favorite!), how to design and teach a class, cardio and resistance training, our original design, marketing, and the list goes on and on! It was filled with lots of physical activity - I've never worked out and moved that much in a week ever - mental activity (remember this and remember that!), learning more about who we are in Christ and what we've been called to do, doing things that made us uncomfortable and being okay with it, and LOTS of laughing and crying! It was an amazing week and very exhausting, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I went into retreat doubting if I was going to be able to do this fitness thing and actually teach and encourage people, but I walked out believing in a mighty GOD who I knew would be with me every step of the way!!!
I'm so grateful that Jason was more than willing to take care of the kids and hold down the fort while I was gone. He did MORE than amazing! I'm also thankful that Mrs. Martin was ready to help out as well and I'm so thankful for all her support, too! I couldn't have done it without all of you! (I feel like I'm up on stage right now accepting an award for something, ha ha!) Anyway, there is so much more I could say about it but I'd rather talk IN PERSON with you all. Love and miss you all so much, and please leave a comment on here if you can! I'd love to hear from you. :)
Now for some pictures!! We were encouraged to try to "unplug" as much as we could while there, but I did manage to get some pictures of my own and steal some from friends, too. :)
Tina and I on our way to Phoenix
(Almost) all 80 of us "Rev'ers" at the Phoenix airport
Beautiful view on the way up to Williams
One of the fun things we were encouraged to do each day was put on "war paint". If we felt like God had spoken something to us or given us a word to remember or believe, we would write it on our body somewhere. These were a few of mine. :)
On Wednesday it started to snow and it was a dream come true for me. I was SO excited! It was beautiful and snowed most of the day! We had lots of fun taking pictures in it.
The picture above was taken by our photographer and we thought it was so cool. We even became "famous" when she put it on the Rev Well Instagram page, ha ha!
The crazy wind and snow made our afternoon of trying out the "big swings" a little harder! It was so windy and the snow was coming down hard. Many of us were determined to do it anyway and waited in 30 degree weather for an hour and a half. (We took turns going and standing by the fire!) By the time we were done with our turn, my fingers were frozen! But it was worth it - so crazy fun!
Here is a little video of us dropping!
That was our dining hall behind me. So beautiful!
We LOVED being served and cared for during the week by the students of Young Life Capernaum Ministries. It is a program designed to give children or teenagers with disabilities a chance to experience the fun and adventure of camp life. There was a big group of them there to help serve in the dining hall. It was so nice to see their smiling faces each day. They got up on stage and sang Amazing Grace one day, and another day they performed a drum stick routine (one of the things Rev is famous for) to "Let It Go". It was awesome!
I had a video but I couldn't get it to upload for some reason. :(
Loved my small group!
Just some more random pictures of friends that I made while there.
And one with the founder of Rev Well, Alisa Keeton. The most amazing leader ever! I especially loved how transparent she was and that she showed us that she's not perfect either. :)
We did a really neat activity one afternoon in our small groups where everyone took a turn getting truth spoken over them. Our small group leader, Jolene, would write all the words that everyone said about us on a poster. After time was up, we had to say, "I receive that!". Sometimes it's hard for us to accept the things that people say about us or when someone gives us a compliment. It was an awesome exercise! So awesome that I made a poster for Jason today and hung it in the bathroom. :)
Thursday night was our last night there and it was filled with all sorts of fun and memorable things. We had a fire and water ceremony. Basically, we wrote on a piece of paper one or two words that represented things we thought God was asking us to give up, such as acceptance, anger, doubt, fear, and burned them over a bowl. Then our leader would pour water over it and wash our hands. One of the girls in the group put "not loved" on hers and when she was done getting her hands washed, we looked at her paper and it said...
loved. Pretty cool! :)
On the last day we took lots of group pictures and had our graduation ceremony. Alisa left us with some encouraging words and verses to go out and live by. We also had a special time of anointing with our small group. Our leaders anointed us with frankincense (spiritual meaning to this, but I won't go into it!) and prayed over us. I tried not to cry but that hadn't been going well all week, ha ha! I also had hat hair. :)
It was awesome!!!
We retreated with Holy Yoga so there was around 250 people total! Crazy!
Tired but happy, and ready to go home!
SO thankful for the opportunity to go and SO excited to see what God does with Rev in our community! Please pray for me in the next couple of months as I get this thing off the ground! Thank you! Love you!
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