Barakel Treasures

Who is Sarah about to kiss? Well, it turned out Froggy was just that... a frog. No Prince Charming appeared after she smooched him. What happened to those fairy tales? Froggy even had the nerve to relieve his bladder!

This was after the hay ride on Saturday night, right before chapel. Nora stayed back to get some reading done.

Sarah and Tracey paddled around in the funyaks. I snapped the pictures, held their electronic goods and sat on the dock basking in the sunshine.

Nora was nicknamed Sniper! She did a great job at riflery and if you are having squirrel problems, she can certainly take care of that.

Tracey, Nora, Sarah and I went to Barakel's Ladies Retreat this past weekend and had wonderful weather along with a good speaker. Many good tidbits that I will talk about later. This picture was at the top of the zip line. Sarah will swear that it wasn't swaying in the wind, but she's wrong, it sure was!

Well, you know how I feel about the singing...high and definitely out of my range. However, one of the songs spoke to me this weekend.

Restore My Soul

Restore my soul, refresh my heart, renew my life in every part,

Reveal to me what sin remains and lead me to the cross again.

Relight the fire that burned so strong reminding me what You have done.

My one request is to be changed so lead me to the cross again.

There is another verse, but I went to Barakel to be renewed and restored. School began and praise God, it is good. This weekend really showed that I was becoming so busy that I was "forgetting" to complete devotions or putting it off until later in the day. This song hit me Friday night. Nothing like starting the weekend with a good kick in the pants!

The speaker, Elizabeth Givens spoke about 2 Corinthians 1-5. She waas easy to listen to and gave some good thoughts. We talked with our room mates from Battle Creek Saturday night about Fragrant Walkers" and what would we smell like in the eyes of others. Would we have a sweet smell that would encourage others or would we be not so sweet.

Another tidbit was the treasure of affliction in 2 Cor. 4:7-11. She talked about a cracked jar and how the light would shine through if the jar were in darkness. God's light within each of us that allows others to see Him. The glory of God keeps the pot from falling apart during times of trial and adversity. It is during these hard times that God holds us together so that later we can see how much we had to rely on Him. This truly hit home for me because of the loss of my parents. During that time, I never thought that I would truly work through the anger and loss. And yet, years later, I am here and happy. I truly had to allow God to work through my anger and hurt on a daily basis sometimes.

There was more and hopefully, one of the others can share something else but I am refreshed, restored, and renewed because my sin was revealed. Amen to that!