Witness Wednesday #78 Catherine (ACTS retreat)

CLICK HERE for retreat info.Today, I will give my witness about the ACTS retreat I went on this weekend. One of the things that makes the ACTS retreat different and special is that you don’t know what to expect, and everything is a surprise. So, although I will be witnessing my experience, I won’t talk about what we did at the retreat as that is a well-guarded secret that I will keep out of respect for the ACTS community and out of respect for those who may be listening that want to go on an ACTS retreat someday.I was very excited when I signed up for this retreat. I had been wanting to go on one for several years now, and the timing never lined up. The first year I saw the flyer just after it had happened. The next year I am not sure what happened, and then COVID happened. This year, my friend invited me in July, and it worked out that I didn’t have anything planned for that weekend. I signed up and was excited about getting to experience one of these weekends.ACTS stands for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service. I don’t think I knew this before going. I don’t think I knew very much at all before going. I remember the flyer I had seen years ago talking about helping you live out the Acts chapter in the Bible. However, I think that may have just been the theme for that retreat. The theme for last weekend was Forgiveness. I love this theme, as forgiveness is so important. There are so many ways unforgiveness can block us from God and from His graces, and even our eternal salvations. I am all for more teaching on forgiveness.As I said, I was so excited for this retreat. I was really looking forward to it. Then, as it got closer, I started to get nervous. I was happy because I did know 3 other ladies from my prayer group who were coming, and I knew two ladies on the team putting the retreat on. I knew I wouldn’t be alone. However, when I usually go to a retreat, this is not the case. I started to remember how strange it felt to show up and not know anyone. In most cases, I have a schedule so I can see what is going to happen at the retreat. However, for this retreat, there was no schedule given to us in advance. This was a good thing because it let you be in the moment without constantly thinking about the next thing to come. However, it didn’t help calm our nerves before getting there.  Sometimes the unknown is scary.We met at the church and took a bus to the retreat location. This was nice and yet also a bit intimidating as we weren’t sure what we would be walking into. However, there were a few team members on the bus to welcome us. Getting off the bus, you could tell no one really knew what to expect, and everyone was a bit nervous. We were all shown to our rooms to drop off our stuff and then down to the dining room to eat some dinner. That is something I think I can tell you, we ate a lot of great food throughout the weekend. Especially as a group of women, we are used to providing meals for our families, and it is really nice when we go away that someone else does the cooking, and we just get to show up and eat. We even get to eat our food while it is hot, which moms of little ones don’t always get to do because they are usually feeding the children and then eating their meals afterward.Over the next three days, we got to know most of the ladies on the retreat weekend. There were over 60 ladies on the retreat between the team and the people registered for the retreat. Unfortunately, I did not get to talk with everyone on the retreat, but I did meet a good number of new people. What I saw on this retreat is what I see on all the retreats that I go to. Everyone comes in a bit nervous, not really sure what to expect, and yet by the time they leave, they have a bunch of new sisters in Christ. They have more people to walk with on this journey of faith.What I love most about retreats is t