Women's Retreat/Luxembourg

I was blessed by my husband to be able to go to a women's retreat over mother's day weekend. (He posted something of his end of the weekend a few days ago.) I went with 6 other ladies from our church. The conference was in Siegen, Germany and was open to all the Calvary Chapels here. There were about 300 women there from several different churches.

Our guest speaker was a women named Carole Wolaver. Carole is a potter. If you ever have a chance to go and see her, you should! She was great. We were all really ministered to, she is very real and the visuals of the pottery really stick with you. One example I don't think I will ever forget is how as she was throwing a vase she had the one hand inside and the other outside and she explained that if she were to use only the one hand inside, the vase would collapse, and if only the one hand outside, it wouldn't have anything to pull up and stretch. Both hands - inside and outside are needed to form the vase. She compared this to our lives as Christians, we are formed by the hand of God in our lives, and also by the circumstances outside surrounding us. How often do I complain when the circumstances in my life aren't easy? But I am being molded and shaped by the Master Potter, and He will mold me into the vessel that He sees fit.

The retreat was Fri-Sun and afterwards I got to go visit friends in another city in Germany. As everyone else left for Freiburg, Dariah and I were off to Trier. Our friends Jacques and Francoise left Freiburg a few years ago to go back to their home country of Luxembourg and start a work there. They still live in Germany, but only about a 30 minute drive into Luxembourg. In the past 3 years God has been showing them more of what their ministry there should be. They are working with a student group at the university in Luxembourg city and they have a home fellowship. They are looking to move into Luxembourg in the next year or so.

Luxembourg is a very unique country as are it's people. It is very small, it is bordered by Germany, France, and Belgium. It has a pretty big variety of landscapes for such a small place (the area we visited reminded me a bit of Oklahoma, rolling green hills, pastures full of cows and forest...very green). They all speak Luxembourgish, French, German and English fluently. Towns that are only fifteen minutes apart are like two different worlds for the Luxembourgers, that's why Jacques and Francoise know they have to move back into Luxembourg in order to minister to their people. Going the 30-40 minutes is just too far, and to a foriegn country on top of it! It is a very catholic country, (where the veneration of Mary is taken to new heights) any thing else is considered cult, so it can be tough to reach people with the Gospel.

I really enjoyed the visit with Jacques and Francoise, learning about their country and seeing what God is doing in them and through them...it is so exciting!
Here are a few pictures of my weekend. It was a really nice mother's day present from my husband and family...I missed them for the 4 days, but was also ministered to and blessed during that time.

Carla(pastor's wife from Munich and Irina(our youth pastor's wife)













Some of the pots Carole made during the retreat














Esch, Luxembourg

Luxembourger Sparkasse (national bank), Luxembourg City. This is the highest peak in the city...pretty telling for one of the richest EU countries