Women’s Weekend Retreat in Hesselberg, Germany, March 25-27, 2022

How do you express what women feel and experience during a women’s retreat? The topic “My God and I” presented by Dany Canedo, the new Women’s Ministries Director for both German Unions interested and intrigued me and my curiosity was very high.
It was nice to see the faces of old friends and new people. The spring-like decorations and flowers added to the feel-good factor.
After a short round of getting to know each other - without name tags (intentional cognitive challenge) - Dany started with the question "Where do I come from?".Using colorful slips of paper, she demonstrated her own biographical family tree.
Sabbath followed with "Who is God?" God is everywhere, not just in certain places of power, such as in Israel in the Church of the Nativity or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
She continued with the question "Who am I?" For this, Dany had tied strings to a central, thicker rope and decorated them like entwined branches on either side. She asked us to record on 5 pieces of paper our date and place of birth, three life-changing events, and how we were feeling at the moment, each pinned to a rope as it ran. Looking at the whole work of art up close was very impressive and made connectedness, community, and concern visible.
On the topic of "Images", Dany presented a long list of promises or designations that God uses to describe us in His Word. Our task was to assign God's promises to the women present by name using small her-shaped sticky notes and to pin them to the pinboard.
The theme was rounded off with the thought "How God sees me". The promises and names of God were deepened and internalized, and each woman was then allowed to take away the hearts assigned to her.
What else was there? The most beautiful weather, a goldfish pond, good food, afternoon coffee on the sun terrace, visits to the swimming pool and sauna, singing, music with piano and guitar, and all that the beautiful surroundings around the Hesselberg conference house offer. A completely successful weekend retreat for women!
According to a report by Dorothee Meiners