Women’s Ministry Retreat of the Hansa Conference, Germany

On Friday, the 3rd of May 2019, three of us went set off right after lunch to be on our way to the retreat venue at Wittensee in Bünsdorf. At the beginning of the year we had already registered and were full of anticipation. When we saw from afar a part of the lake Wittensee and several canola fields with their incomparable yellow colour, we were overwhelmed by the beauty of nature God created.
We quickly moved into our rooms to be ready to welcome the newcomers.
Great was our pleasure as we reunited with acquaintances and the curiosity for new participants.
Already at dinner we came closer, which was then reinforced by the introductory round in the evening. It can only be stated again and again that we were one heart and soul already on Friday evening.
The theme of this weekend was "The Lord's Prayer - A Challenge". The speaker was Brigitte Grohrock. She is French, married to a German, has two children and is already a grandma. She has a lovely French accent, which made her presentations special. We participants had secretly thought: "We already know the Lord's Prayer! Never mind. We’ll enjoy the community. "Brigitte”, who was of course pronounced French, took us through the requests of the Lord’s prayer in several sessions, letting the participants express what they meant for them. Then we heard from her what she had thought and researched. Our realization was that one should never say, “I know that already”, when topics from the Bible are concerned. We all learned a lot from each other.
Also the common meals and walks brought us closer to each other. A highlight was the gala evening on Saturday night. Evening wear or other festive clothes were required. It was a pleasure to see how beautiful we women looked in our robes. One participant, whose husband was an Indian, had a beautiful sari, which was admired by all. Festively dressed we took place at nicely decorated tables. Small stories were read and we had a lot of fun practicing a baroque dance.
The weekend was over too soon. A final round on Sunday after lunch revealed that everyone had taken a lot from the events. With a heavy heart, we said goodbye to each other and wished a good trip and "goodbye!" until next year.
Reported by Edeltraud Thäder