Please Join Us - Make 2013 Your Year

Click here for details and registration information.

Come to Huston Camp & Conference Center in Gold Bar, WA, for spiritual growth, friendship and the beauty of the outdoors. At this year's retreat, April 26 through 28, 2013, we’ll spend time considering the spiritual gifts God has given each of us. We’ll explore how to use these gifts to serve God while promoting joy in our lives. And we’ll begin to uncover the answer to the question, “What if every woman at Holy Cross were working in her giftedness?”

Our speaker, Jan Dwyer Bang, is founder of Boundless Results, a training, speaking, consulting and coaching business where she helps people make leaps forward in the areas of leadership, service, teambuilding and communication. Jan is currently enrolled at Western Seminary, where she is pursuing a Masters in the coaching program. While she travels nationally as a professional speaker and coach for major corporations in the secular world, Jan’s passion is to share the joy of walking with the Lord daily. She is a contributor to Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul 2.

For details and registration information, please click here, or contact Karen Orr at korrnut79@hotmail.com.

Save the Date!

The annual Holy Cross Women's Retreat is April 26, 27 and 28, 2013. Details to follow in late January. Mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you there.

April 2012, Camp Huston

Thank you, women of Holy Cross, for a delightful weekend of sunshine, laughs, stories and friendship. Highlights? For some of us, it was Bunco; for others, Donna Oiland's funny, sad and inspiring stories; or Eucharist on Sunday; the walk to Wallace Falls; a roaring fire in the fireplace; 3-D Bible stories with homemade props; talking with your roommate after lights out; delicious meals with no cooking or cleanup; small groups; the book exchange; quiet time; the music; a stunning view of the mountain; the labyrinth; sunshine; God's presence; a sense that at least for this weekend all is right with the world.

If you joined us, thank you. If you didn't, please come next spring: the 2013 retreat won't be complete without you.

– The Retreat Team

What's your story?

S ometimes it seems like too much trouble to attend,
T o upset the delicate balance of our busy lives.
O nce upon a time ... that's how the story begins.
R efresh your story. Say
Y es to this weekend retreat. What's your story?  


Find out how God is working in your life at the Women's Retreat on April 20, 21 and 22.

Got two minutes? Enjoy our little movie!

CLICK HERE

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who trust in Him.
-- Psalm 34

"Legacy … Reflections Along the Way"

That's the name of Donna Oiland's book, and we (the retreat committee) heard from a church member today who uses Donna's book in her work as a Hospice volunteer! We're looking forward to this year's retreat. How about you? Will your name be written in the story of the 2012 Holy Cross Women's Retreat? We hope so.

Here's a pic of Donna, who is a delight. She's warm and funny and happiest in her stocking feet. If you want to see Donna from the neck down, come to the retreat!

Do you love a good story?

At this year's retreat on April 20, 21 and 22, we’ll spend a few days dwelling in the power of our own stories. Donna Oiland is a local woman whose passion it is to help people tell the stories of how God has worked in their lives. Donna is a published author and a member of the Spiritual Care team at Evergreen Healthcare in Kirkland. You may learn more about her at www.nwspeakers.com.


Please consult your calendar and check in with God too: Is one or the other telling you to save the date? Good! Soon you’ll have the opportunity to register.

¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:1-3

Save the Date - April 20, 21 and 22, 2012

The 2012 Holy Cross Women's Retreat is scheduled for April 20, 21 and 22. Details to follow!

2011 Retreat Photos

Such a lovely weekend. Thank you, one and all.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

Time is running out for retreat registration, which closes Sunday, April 3. Don't miss out!

Please note that you may stay one night OR two – your choice.

We look forward to seeing you soon at Camp Huston.

– the Retreat Team

Breaking Out

– from Kim Eichner, Women’s Retreat Coordinator

I’m only mildly adventurous. Really I’m a home-body. But when my kids were young  (when I was still hauling a diaper bag everywhere we went) my mildly-adventurous-tendency was tested. There were days I  H A D  T O  G E T
O U T  O F  T H E  H O U S E! I had to forego the creature comforts and predictable routine to refresh my body and mind. And let the kids run around somewhere besides underfoot.

It was a constant trade off: go insane inside the same four wall vs. all the trouble to get packed up, load the kids in car seats, have an adventure, mess up the routine so that later they were whiney, to get outside the soon-to-be-padded four walls. It was worth it though, every time. Okay, nearly every time.

That’s how I see the Women’s Retreats. They are a lot of work. We have to haul stuff with us. We already see each other on Sunday morning. We have great worship services right here in Redmond. Why the trouble?

Because we hear from God and from each other differently when we break out. Without the predictability of routine, we can be delightfully surprised by God. He can show us new views of ourselves and of Himself. And even though we might come back tired in some way – from talking till 11pm with another night owl perhaps – we are refreshed by the very act of breaking out of our normal four walls. And it’s worth it in the end.

Break out of your four walls and into the simple beauty of Huston Camp for “Close to You – Building Intimacy With God.” I’ll see you there and we’ll have an adventure together.

Kim

Registration Cogitation

F ully convinced, that I need

R estoration, I'm

E dging toward commitment.

E ventually . . . and

D eterminedly, I'll sign

O n the dotted line. Joyfully, expectantly, I'll do it for

M e. It's done! I'm registered for the 2011 Women's Retreat.

Are you?

Cyndi McLafferty, Retreat Leader

Cyndi is a volunteer leader, teacher and facilitator for The Lazarus Center in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. The Lazarus Center serves a distressed region in which steel-mill closures have relegated 20% of the population to a place below the poverty level. Through the Lazarus Center, Cyndi leads the Freedom in Christ retreats held annually in southwestern Pennsylvania. Cyndi also is a member of Bridgeway Church in Ambridge.

Cyndi partnered with Kim and Jim Eichner in leading a series of Freedom in Christ (FIC) retreat weekends while the Eichners attended seminary in Pennsylvania. FIC retreats are designed to get to the heart of the matter of our freedom in Christ, allowing us to release the bonds that keep us from such freedom. Cyndi’s teachings at our 2011 Close to You Women’s Retreat at Camp Huston are based significantly on the FIC retreats.

Memories

Here are some of the reasons people attend the Women's Retreat:

the community of women
the setting
meeting people I don't know
the music
fellowship
healing prayer
guided Bible study
meeting new people
time for reflection and writing
connecting with one another
the "whole magilla"
a good education program
the fairy lights

Save the Date!

During the next couple of months we'll be building our blog, as we count the weeks and days until our fabulous weekend in April. This year, something new: TWO NIGHTS! If you can stay only one night that's okay, but if you'd like to revel in female fellowship for the whole weekend, here's your chance.

We'll be posting photos and reviews from previous retreats. In the meantime, we're asking those of you who have attended in the past to give newcomers a taste of what's to come.

PLEASE USE THE COMMENT SCREEN to tell us the most memorable feature of your last retreat. Was it the snow falling in the forest? Singing around the fireplace? A talk or a teaching? Sharing a room with a buddy? Please give those of us who've never attended a reason to come this year.

Ready, set, go...