Time for fellowship at the church women’s retreat
Investing in the children is a very common thing for 1Step2Step. Leaving early from work is far less common, but going away with the women of the church was something highly valuable. Thanks to one of these sweet ladies who sponsored me to attend, I had the chance to get to know many of the ladies better. Friendships with expats in Thailand has limited longevity. People come and go after a few months if they are volunteers and on average about five years for the families of those here on business. You get used to this. The number of volunteers has gone down over the years so church ladies have become a closer expat support. The chance to get to know these ladies while they are here is great and to take time to be away from Pakkred was nice too.
The retreat was not that far to travel, only an hour away, but the change of beautiful natural landscape was exactly what I needed. Seeing the mangroves floating down the river and the stunning flowers was lovely. Being with others was great. Deep conversations were so refreshing.
I became aware that my work has become easier, better relationships with staff, people grasping new ideas and being open to them. Sometimes investing in work means it’s easy to forget to invest in our relationship with God and the retreat helped me to see this. I thank God for nudging me to go and I thank the church for putting this on. The theme was “change” which impacted many people and the speaker had us all considering many things and left many eyes watering.
The only downside to this event was that it fell on the same days as Children’s day at work. The ward mums talked of many children going to the celebration from our ward so I’m hopeful.
God bless you all and give you the chance to get closer to Him.
Nicola Anderson