We had a difficult start to our retreat when we met at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning in a hard snow fall. We left Baumholder at 9:00 a.m. and it was still snowing. It would be a 10.5 hour drive to Schloss Mittersill in Austria, the site of our 2010 Presidents Day Weekend retreat.
Schloss Mittersill is a special place for Debbie and me. The facility is over 1,000 years old and is really cool. But more importantly Debbie and I have been here several times in the last 20 years and have strong memories of God doing powerful things in our lives and the lives of those we have come with.
We had a total of 91 people who gathered here this weekend. Our group was involved in a number of activities during the day: a 14 km sled run (the longest in Europe), skiing, swimming, a horse drawn sleigh ride and several just took time to take an afternoon nap.
Annie celebrated her 4th birthday with us.
In the evenings we met together for worship and Bible Study.
Throughout the weekend there was good conversation about how the Lord was working in our lives.
On Monday we drove home in much better weather.
We love these quick retreats. When we are away from the normal business of life there are many opportunities to consider the deeper parts of our hearts and lives. We thank God for such great opportunities.
Thank you for your prayers for us. This week we will have dinner and discussion on Wednesday night and our normal Friday night dinner and Bible Study and a full weekend.