Who am I? This is a lifelong question that we all seek to answer. At the ladies' retreat earlier this month, this was the question that was being addressed. We started together with a time of fellowship, worship and heard from our speaker, Jamie Redcay, who spoke so eloquently on this topic and reminded us that staying rooted in Christ, we are God's children. And we are warriors whose strength comes from the grace of God and the peace and freedom we find in Him. There is so much chaos in the world around us, but we can push through knowing that we are loved and cared for by a God who so lovingly and carefully made us. These words of reminder and encouragement were so special to hear.

Probably the most meaningful time of the retreat for me was the breakout session I took part in. My friend Katie Beth and I decided to sign up for the Kintsugi session. Now neither her nor I are very big fans of arts and crafts, but for some reason we felt drawn to giving this a try. Kintsugi is the art of taking broken pottery and putting it back together using glue mixed with gold to fill in the cracks. Sounds simple enough, but it was actually quite difficult, and the more broken our cups were the more gold we had to use. After a while when I finally got mine put together I realized that the inside golden filled cracks looked actually much more beautiful than the outside of the cup. And this reminded me, that although I may feel broken and bruised on the outside, God has filled in all of my cracks and made something beautiful for me to pour out into the world around me. I just need to trust in Him and accept his grace and love on the daily.

For my friend, Katie Beth, when she looked at her cup of brokenness she was reminded of this difficult time of transition that she is in. Katie Beth is a missionary teacher who was recently informed she would need to leave her current placement and find a new one. This is not an easy thing to hear as she served in this place for over 10 years. So as she worked harder and harder to get all of her pieces of the cup to fit back together she thought of how it is God's grace that puts us back together even from the most broken of circumstances. And He will continue to work in our lives until we are whole again, no matter how long it may take.

Overall, the ladies retreat was a wonderful time full of beautiful reminders of who we are in Christ and how we can remain rooted in Him through whatever circumstances we may find ourselves in.