2024 LCNZ Spice Retreat
Spice Retreat
Theme: “When Life Gives You Lemons”
12-14th April, 2024
At: Home of Compassion, Wellington
The challenge of the weekend was RAIN. Our first challenge! Flights from Auckland were delayed. The flight from Napier was cancelled. Diane Davison travelled Napier to Auckland, Auckland to Wellington and arrived at retreat at 11pm on Friday. Did we let this basket of soggy lemons get in our way? NO!
Our second challenge! Rain stopped us from going for a lovely walk on Saturday afternoon, so we sewed and talked and shared and built relationships, as some learnt new skills, and others embraced well known skills. But the rain did not bother us as we enjoyed the ambience and warmth of the Home of Compassion and all it had to offer.
The highlight of the weekend was the bonds that were made as we got to know one another and appreciate the vastness of experiences that each one of us has had. The studies brought out the sweetness of God’s grace poured out on us, assuring us that we are not alone, we have support from one another, and even more, we have support from our loving Saviour. We do not need to get weighed down with our load of lemons but allow God to add the sweetness of his word and love to our load, turning our lemons into lemonade.
We thank the Lutheran Church of New Zealand, through the Council of Synod for funding this retreat. This has been a blessing to all who attended and has been a very valued time to build connections and support for one another. We also thank Debbie Venz for her support and help to get this retreat happening. And a special thank you to the four women from the Wellington congregation who supplied all our food needs for this weekend. Without this help, the retreat may not have been possible.
Lastly and mostly, we thank God for his love and guidance allowing doors to open to make this weekend happen, for His ever presence in our lives, ready to sweeten our lemons when we are ready to surrender our loaded baskets.
Jenny Bartholomaeus
Spice Retreat Leader
Attendees at Retreat:-
Patsy Chen – Botany, Auckland,
Leanne Whitfield – Christchurch,
Ilene Thiel – Wellington,
Julie Kitchen – Mountainside, Auckland,
Karen Lam – Mountainside Auckland,
Diane Davison – Hastings,
Janine Marr – Upper Moutere,
Jenny Bartholomaeus – Sydney
