Here is a picture of Sophie & her darling boots that light up! I'm so jealous!

And, Olivia's shoes light up too!

Visitors...

I just had to share with you ladies the precious visitors I had today. In the picture to the right you will see Olivia & Sophie Young- Mark & Allison's two girls. They stopped by the church today to 'Trick or Treat' me & our secretary, Teresa. TOO CUTE! They brought us each a back of candy corn with chocolate chip cookies in them. They spared no expense & had the cookies decorated just for Halloween! These two darlings visit me at least once a month (if not more) when there precious mom comes to work in the 2's & 3'S room where she teachings on Sunday mornings! I always look so forward to their visits but today was just flat out priceless!

Sophie had on the cutest pair of cowgirl boots you have EVER seen! Pink & White AND THEY LIGHT UP! (see the picture above this post) Just what every cowgirl needs! And let me just ask- WHERE CAN I GET A PAIR???

I was completely prepared to 'Trick or Treat' them right back! If you will notice in the picture Olivia is holding a pack of mini-M & M's she chose from my bag of goodies! Now granted I didn't take time to personally wrap bags of candy & make cookies- but I did purchase 90 pieces of chocolate for any and all children who will stop by my office (Lina Burchfield who is my favorite adult chocolate lover- I'm prepared to Trick or Treat adults too- so if your thinking you need to stop by today- bring it on!!)

What you may not know about me is that I shamelessly bribe the toddlers (or any child for that matter) every Sunday to come by my office and see me. I keep a stock of goodies in my office here at church and if the children will stop by after the morning Worship service they can take home an item from my candy dish! Yes I know- Shameless! I'll do just about anything to get a little time with these darlings & from time to time I even bribe a hug or kiss out of them! I have been threatened with a dentist bill from a parent or two before- but that hasn't stopped me!

Well enough of that! Be sure to read the past posts about the retreat weekend! There is more to come later!

Happy Halloween! Enjoy your families today!
Love to all,
Lori

Retreat......

Hello ladies....

Today I would like to share with you Leanne Phillip's and Jane Birchfield's follow up remarks on our 2nd Annual Women's Retreat. See there notes below:

• How did you experience God at the Retreat? What ways to did you see Him working? Through the messages we received from Lori and also the music. I saw a group of women becoming closer to God.
• What was your favorite part of the weekend? Lori’s messages, the music and the campfire
• How would you rate the level of Godly service you received? Out of possible 10 I give it a 9
• What did you like most about your small group experience? We really got to know each other
• What was the most important thing you learned? Get out of the box and try to make a difference
• How do you plan to apply what you learned? Trying to feel God’s presence with me at all times. Not just in prayer, not just in church. Everywhere
  Jane

(Jane- I'll pay you later for the sweet comments about the messages- just stop by my office! ha! Just kidding!)

Below are Leanne Phillips comments:

It was a wonderful weekend of fellowship with dear women and spiritual growth. We all were on such common ground of wanting to seek the Lord in all areas of our lives and encouraging each other through small group time and free time. My group was so transparent with each other and therefore such an encouragement with my walk with the Lord. The Godly service was such a treat!!!!!! I am grateful for the chance to renew friendships and laugh until you cry. I love you all. Thanks for letting me join you. Leanne

Thanks Jane & Leanne for your feedback! My prayer is that their comments will encourage others to dive into Women's Ministry here at Harrison!

Love to all,

Lori

Hello ladies,

I'm not sure if this picture explains anything to you or not. So let me put into words what I think this picture expresses.

Those in this picture (less our wonderful praise team & cooks) are those who put tons of work into making our 2nd Annual HCC Women's Retreat a huge success! This picture was taken at the end of our weekend and I think it shows how very tired we all were! But if you will notice the peaceful looks on all our faces....God took our efforts and used them for His glory! We Praise Him for any good that came about! He deserves the Glory! And we were all astounded at what God did in our lives and the lives of those who attended! God was there!

I have asked the ladies who attended the retreat to write up what the weekend meant to them so I can post them on the blog. I will post some each day but for today I would like to post Susan Hale's. Please read her words below:

"I am still reeling from the experience of this past
weekend. I would start to tell Alan about it and start crying all over again. He was very happy for me and I truly believe that I will look at things differently from now on. It was my first retreat but not my last! Thanks to you and all the
team that helped with it!"

Reeling from the experience- yes that describes me too!
Thanks Susan! I am so thrilled that you had a positive meaningful
experience!

Blessings to all!

Lori Drain

A Vision to Love

Hello ladies,

I only have a few minutes to post (I have a quiz today for class that I haven't studied for & I have class in 2 hours!!). I did want to let you know that I will be posting this week details about Women's Retreat so that those of you who weren't able to attend can be in 'THE KNOW'! Plus I want to debrief, so to speak, what I experienced over the weekend!

For those of you who attended the weekend would you please take time to write either by email or in a post what you came away with so that I can post it for others to see?

For today the only detail that I will share is God meet us fully there just as we prayed for expectantly! He alone deserves the Glory for the wonderful things that came out of the events! Let's just give Him some Praise today!

Blessing HIS Name!
Lori

Retreat!

Hello gals!
I took the liberty of looking up the word 'retreat' in the dictionary this morning. I was sadly disappointed with what I found. Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines 'retreat' this way "withdrawal, as from danger, secluded place, withdrawal". Obviously, Webster hasn't attended a Harrison Christian Church Women's Retreat before! For those of you who have- you know what I'm talking about!

I will agree retreat is a time to withdraw. When we choose to lead such busy lives for so long without withdrawing- we can be treading on dangerous ground! If I could give Webster a little help in his definition I would personally add these words 'worship, meditation, prayer, Bible study, fellowship' and for Heaven's sake-let's not leave out the 2 F's 'FOOD and FUN!'.

Last year's Harrison's Women's retreat was one of the most special events of the year for me. I don't believe I will ever forget that weekend for as long as I live. God meet us there- didn't he!!! It was such a privilege to wash the ladies feet with the Word of God and then to end the weekend literally washing their precious feet! What a memory! Jesus just baptized us with his presence and anointing! I've never ended a weekend more tired or more humbled! He did a work that carried us into the new year with renewed vision and purpose for our lives. And the purpose- living to please Him! I've watched you ladies all year work to do exactly that! You stuck it out in small groups, studied & prayed hard and served Jesus like mad! I'm so very proud of you! Thank you for allowing Jesus to do a work in and through you!

This week I'm knee deep in the Word and prayer as I'm preparing the lessons for this blessed event called 'retreat'! I'm so excited about what God has been teaching me through his Word this year and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. I've had some hard lessons to learn this year (and many more to come) but I'm sold out to allowing God to do whatever he needs to do in me to produce fruit for his glory (2 Cor. 3:18)! As the song says "Whatever you need to do, Lord, do it in me. Fall like fire, soak like rain, flow like mighty waters again and again!"

For those of you who are taking this journey called 'retreat' with me next weekend please know how very thrilled I am to serve you. The retreat team has been working so hard to prepare an event that will encourage you in your walk with the Lord. They are just as crazy about you as I am and nothing gets them pumped up more than seeing women walking humbly with their God!

For those of you who are not able to make this journey please know you will be thought about and prayed over! We will miss you! Also know it is NOT TOO LATE to climb on board! Let me know if you are interested! Please know nothing would please me more than to have you join us!

Lastly, please be in prayer for myself and the team as we put the finishing touches on the weekend! We so want to please the Lord with this offering! We are asking him to meet us fully there!

Blessings,
Lori

Just a quick Howdy!

Howdy girls! (Yes, a greeting in true Tennessean style!),

I am so sorry for the delays in writing! I have been out all week with my youngest son, Gabe, who has had pneumonia. He is feeling much better but is still home from school. I left him with GREAT-grandma to run to the office to get squared away for this weekend's worship service. I wanted to take a moment & tell you that I haven't forgotten you!

I have much to catch you up on but no time too today! I do want to leave you with something however. I have been thinking a lot lately about a word that I personally have taken for granted many times and I see it being thrown around a lot in our christian circles. The word is GRACE. The Biblical meaning of the word is 'unmerited favor'. We all have received grace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but nothing illustrates more beautifully Christ's grace than when we receive grace from another brother or sister.

I have to say that I have been the recipient of grace many, many times from others. Forgiveness when I deserved paybacks. Love when I deserved a cold shoulder. (Basically receiving something totally different that what I really deserved!) I would never truly grasped Christ's grace for me had I not experienced it from others here on earth. I have come to appreciate and love Jesus so much more through the actions of others. Please don't get me wrong- Christ's gift of grace compares to none other! He is the ultimate GRACE GIVER! His death on the cross and forgiveness of sin is the ultimate act of grace. But if you are anything like me you need many experiences to learn the lesson and appreciate the gift! So it is through God's children that I have seen and experienced first hand how this blessed gift is given- unselfishly and lovingly. For today and always I will be forever grateful to those who have lavished me with the gift of grace and who have helped me understand more fully what this precious word really means and how wonderful Jesus is.

My hope for you today is that you will think deeply on this word grace giving praise to Jesus for this unmerited gift of favor that you and I have been lavished with. I also pray that you will come to appreciate those brothers and sisters who have given you the opportunity to see grace at it's best!

Grace and peace to you,
Lori