Wednesday, January 18, 2017

"I AM" Winter Retreat Reflection

I've been home from the Winter Retreat for a little over 24 hours now. Here's a short list of what I learned this weekend:

Gas stoves work best when the gas is turned on.
Always use less flour than the recipe says when baking bread (I usually follow this, but being away from home when we made bread I had to prepackage everything).
Everyone loves fresh bread lathered in butter.
You can say multiple times "we will be outside in the cold for a long time, please dress appropriately" and some will still show up with no jacket and no socks... and complain they are cold.
People will sing loudly if you encourage/let them.
Patience is something modeled.
Our students are some of the nicest and politest students on the planet (as told to me by multiple staff at the retreat center).
Jesus has a plan.
You may not realize a student is getting something out of what is going on, but they are.
Sheep are not dumb, they are defenseless.
People want to pray more, and will when given the guidance and/or opportunity.
"Hug the potholder" is a difficult instruction for some people.
Getting away from it all to focus on Jesus makes a tremendous difference.
Over the weekend some people spent more time focusing on Jesus than they did sleeping, and it still wasn't enough (they could easily have spent more time with Jesus).
When you're willing to listen Jesus has a lot to say.

And that's just off the top of my head in ten minutes. I'm sure there's many more.

If you went, what did you get from the "I AM" Winter Retreat?

T

Monday, January 09, 2017

Free Devotional For (Almost) A Year

It started yesterday, but I have been publishing a free devotional question a day for my book "21st Century Parables". If you'd like to join the conversation, you can see the questions at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Troyswritingandmusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@By_Troy.

You can purchase the book at:

Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/…/…/B01C98WZXK/ref=nav_timeline_asin…
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/…/twenty-first-centu…/id1087654669…
Nook - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twenty-first-ce…/1123469392…
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/…/…/ebook/twenty-first-century-parables

I'd love if this would help you out, to jump in with your thoughts in the comments, or even just to hear what you think of the book.

Enjoy.

T