Snowball 2015

Every year, my church does an all girls retreat called Snowball. Typically, I'm not super excited about this get away, but I was so excited this year.

This year, I served on the leadership team with about 15 other girls, and together, we planned the entire weekend. We planned the fellowships and recreation time and every aspect of the retreat.

In quick recap...

FRIDAY NIGHT

Friday started off with pizza at the church and then we loaded the buses and headed to Double Head Resort in Town Creek, Alabama.

Upon arrival, we went to worship where Rachel Chan lead and Amy Pierson spoke.

Then, we had small groups and hit the hay in our very full cabin.

SATURDAY MORNING

2 cups of coffee and a bowl of cereal later...

Saturday morning started out with small groups on the dock

and then lots of picture taking before worship.

 After worship was recreation.

The recreation we chose was a scavenger hunt race kind of idea. My group planned this activity specifically and I did most of the physical work for this, so I found it really ironic that my team came in dead last....

But it was fun and that's all that mattered! 

SATURDAY NIGHT

We had another small group, more picture taking, and then dinner.

During dinner, I got to talk with Amy and Rachel and they absolutely won my heart. They are two of the sweetest, most funny, God-loving women ever and it was so obvious in everything they did. 

I got to talk to Amy one on one on our way to worship and she is so full of wisdom and grace and good ideas. If you ever get the chance to talk to her, take it. 

Following dinner, we had a prayer experience, which is pictured above. We had candles and mason jars (thank you pinterest!) for decoration, which helped set an incredibly relaxing mood.

Snowball has ALWAYS had a dance party on Saturday night and this year was no exception. The theme was what you wanted to be when you were 5. 

There were lots of doctors and lots of princesses. I was dressed up as a football player, but in all reality, I wanted to be Kk.

SUNDAY MORNING

On Sunday, we worshipped one final time, packed up, and headed home.

In the final worship, we actually partnered with an organization called Every Girl Counts for a mission project! Every Girl Counts sends feminine products to girls in Africa so that they don't have to suspend their education! For more information about Every Girl Counts and how to get involved, check out everygirlcounts.com! We've partnered with them for the past 3 years, and this year, we donatated products as well as we wrote notes to the girls who will recieve them!

All throughout the weekend, we studied Mark 8:34 and the book of Ruth.

At each worship session, Amy broke down Mark 8:34

She focused on what it means to deny yourself, dethrone yourself, and follow Jesus in daily life. 

In small groups, we read and studied Ruth 1 and 2, which is the story of Naomi, Ruth, Orpah, and Boaz. We analyzed and learned about each one's character traits and how God was at work at each and every one of them. We used SWORD method to break down each passage, which means we answered each of the following questions in the study.

1. What do I learn about God?

2. What do I learn about man?

3. Is there an example to follow?

4. Is there a command to obey?

By using this, discussion was so much more natural and open, since the leaders didn't have the "answers". I'd definitely  recommend reading any passage this way, even on your own! It analyzes so many different aspects of every story. 

This weekend showed me just how many ways God is at work and reminded me how lovely walking with Him is.

xo,

Lauren