Moving forward into more retreating

In an hour or so the second half of my week away begins. It is the Women in Ministry retreat that I usually go to in March. This is my sixth time and I'm really looking forward to

it. (This was my blog post about last year's.) It brings together women from all sorts of backgrounds, countries, mission agencies, and ministries. The variety is refreshing, stimulating, and enjoyable.

As it's in the same venue where I've been running the Writer's Workshop/Retreat I hope that I'll be able to transition into it fairly easily. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends I haven't seen in a while and catching up more deeply with others I see occasionally.

Last year we had a speaker who told some very funny stories. I has some great laughter-therapy! I've already had some this time around too: at lunch today we had some fun going at our table. One of the great things about these retreats is the internationalism. I love the humour of my Scottish friend, Hazel, let's just say it's closer to Australian humour than some other countries.

I think, however, that I've done enough writing now. Aside from writing this blog post I've put together enough stories (nine) to talk for about 20 minutes. That's longer than most places will allow us to speak for, so I'm probably safe. I'm certainly feeling satisfied. That's a lot more than I anticipated being able to get done! Time to have a little bit of a lie-down before the Women's Retreat fun begins.