missing the dales already...

Speaker’s week was amazing. I really needed the time to get away and just relax. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I just slowed down. Monday was spent cleaning the flat and packing, and traveling to the Yorkshire Dales to the retreat center and settling in. Tuesday I hiked with a group to Bolton Castle, about a 30-45 min walk. The weather was warm and sunny, and we picnicked in the castle garden. Inside the castle they had a café, and I had my first experience with sticky toffee pudding. It’s an ingestible bit of heaven in a bowl. After getting back to the cabin, I crashed til dinner. The only damper on the day was that my throat was killing me. I’m 98% sure that I had/have strep throat. (By the end of the day, it was pretty hard for me to even swallow, and that continued for the next few days.) Wednesday I went with a different group to Aysgarth falls, which was about a 2 hour hike. It was great, again we took a picnic lunches. The hike was beautiful, through fields with lots of sheep and lambs, and the falls were a lot of fun. However, I got water in my wellies, and hiking back with wet socks is not fun. Thus, the sore throat was abating, but was replaced with multiple blisters! Yay! The next few days I was hobbling around like an old woman. Needless to say, Thursday I didn’t really go anywhere, but stayed around the retreat center and cabin and just enjoyed the view there. Friday we packed up and came back to York.

Each morning the ladies and gents split up, and we’d hear a word from Cheryl Broderson (Chuck Smith’s daughter), and each night her husband Brian would address the entire lot. I learned so much there through their teachings and what the Lord has been telling me for a while now, about trusting in the Lord when I don’t know what’s going on, or when I’m sick, or even in the good times. God speaks in the wilderness, and when we trust in Him, we’ll continue to bear fruit, even in drought. A few verses from the week to ponder:

Hosea 2:14, 16 “’Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring here into the wilderness and speak kindly to her…it will come about in that day’ declares the Lord, ‘ that you will call me “my husband” and will no longer call me “my master”’”

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”