Just in case you’re still wondering how you can rest when the world is falling apart and so many people are suffering, here’s another invitation.
This (past) weekend I joined some 400 women in a remote location in South Carolina for a women’s ministry retreat. Longleaf pines pointed to the crisp blue heavens above, their needles whispering rest and peace with each puff of wind.
We needed that environment for the topics and testimonies shared—stories of illness, suffering, unspeakable loss in the context of hope, spoken by women who have passed this way before and found a way to hang on and move towards healing, hope, and meaning in the midst of it all.
In the larger context of our world right now (some of those women were taking their first break from serving their community in western North Carolina’s post flood devastation), you might wonder if it is even OK to enjoy the blessings you have.
Yet, even as we wept and held each other, there were moments of sheer fun—playfulness and laughter. And even those is the darkest of places found moments of respite in the joy of being alive together in the friendly competition of creating a wearable work of art from recycled materials.
Sometimes it feels like finding the little blessings and providential circumstances sprinkled through the expanse of evil and seeming bottomless pit of despair. Like looking up and noticing the twinkling starts poking through the dark canvas of night with such sparkle that you are captured by the beautiful.
Here are a few pictures—I hope you enjoy them and may this new week be marked by many moments of joy.
Alicia











