This month started off with a lot of excitement for my retreat in Italy. For those of you who don’t know, I applied to participate in an in-person Velvet Ashes retreat in Tuscany, Italy. I was one of twenty-four women selected who serve in ministries around the globe. Velvet Ashes is an organization that gives spiritual support to women who work in cross-cultural ministry. Participating in their virtual retreats has brought a lot of encouragement during my time serving in San Juan and I am so thankful I had this opportunity to retreat in person with other global women. I went into the retreat hoping for rest, undisrupted time with the Lord, community with other global women, and clarity in my next steps.
The journey to get to Italy was a lot more eventful than expected. Thankfully, I was able to spend one full day at home on the front end of my trip and one on the back end between the DR and Italy. I left on April 9 from Charlotte, NC to New York. The next step was to go to London, then to Florence to meet the rest of the ladies and ride to the retreat together. However, my flight to London was delayed by 2 hours for “mechanical issues” that the pilot later explained was nothing more than a switch that got flipped that shouldn’t have been. Because of that delay, I missed my connecting flight to Florence and they rerouted me to Spain as there were no other options. So, I had a 6 hour layover in Madrid and arrived in Florence around 11:30pm. 5 countries in the span of 3 days.. What a whirlwind! Thankfully, one of the retreat leaders booked me a hotel room for the night. I was bummed that I missed the first night of the retreat, but the next morning, I took a train to Tuscany where one of the girls picked me up and took me to meet everyone else at the retreat location.
When I got there and went to drop off my stuff in my room, I was met with a sweet goodie bag! It consisted of a Velvet Ashes tote bag, with a Velvet Ashes coffee tumbler, notes of encouragement from my retreat prayer partner in Missouri, a giant Twix bar, a box of Cheez-its, face masks, a shawl, 2 books, the retreat workbook, and a little painting of the guest house we stayed in painted by one of the retreat volunteers! Gifts are not my love language, and they actually tend to make me uncomfortable, but each item felt so intentional and tenderly thought out. I just felt so seen and cared for from the communication I had with the ladies that helped me with the hotel room and transportation, from the goodie bag, and throughout each moment of the retreat.
The retreat was titled, “Listen: Hear my voice” and it couldn’t be more fitting for my current season in which it has felt extremely difficult to hear God’s voice. The retreat consisted of worship time, sessions on topics regarding hearing God’s voice, various hours of solitude time with the Lord, sharing groups, and just being in community with one another. My two favorite things from the retreat had to be the worship and the solitude time. When our voices joined together in an old stone chapel, accompanied only by a piano and a violin, I couldn’t help the tears welling up in my eyes. It truly was a taste of heaven. After the sessions, we had solitude time, during which we were able to go find a quiet place to be alone. During my first solitude time, I chose to walk through the olive groves. I picked a spot and sat among the olive trees. I looked out over the countryside below, prayed, meditated on the session we just heard, and quietly listened to hear God speak. Funny enough, I left my solitude times with more questions than answers, but they’re good questions that I can sit in with the Lord and grow in my dependence and trust in Him. It was so good to have some quiet, unhurried, undisrupted time with the Lord. Having intentional solitude time like that with the Lord is something I hope to implement into my routine on at least a monthly basis.
The time to just sit and connect with the other women was so special. Hearing what they do in their ministries, what they do for fun, how the Lord called them to where they are, and everything else that we shared together was such a sweet time of connection. This is something I also hope to implement into my routine – spending unhurried time with the community I have built here in the DR. I also want to slow myself down and spend some unhurried time with the team members that come in and out of the guesthouse each week. Connection just does so much good for my soul. I think it does for everyone. That’s how the Lord created us. To be in community with each other. To bear each other’s burdens. To share life together. To celebrate with each other. To pray over each other. And to just relish in the presence of one another.
The guesthouse we stayed in was called Casa Cares. It is a gorgeous historic villa filled with beautiful details. From the beautiful flooring, to different handles, to the painted ceilings, to the views it overlooks, I was fascinated by all the small details. I love things that have a lot of character and are unique. I think it’s because each item tells a story, has a meaning, and the care that was given to each item that filled Casa Cares radiated in a way that made the space feel so calm and cozy.
In noticing all of these things, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the hospitality and creativity of God – two attributes of God that I have been meditating on lately, two that I’ve never actually seen on a list of attributes of God. God is so hospitable in the way He sees us for who we are, flaws and everything, yet still invites us into relationship with Him. He creates a safe space where we don’t have to hide in shame, but can confidently approach Him with all of our shortcomings and we can trust Him with them. He wraps us in His grace and when it feels like we are invisible and unnoticed by others, He is El Roi, the God who sees. He not only sees, but He pursues. He cares so deeply for us on a personal level and created us for connection with Him. Along with hospitality, I have really been noticing His creativity lately–in nature, in people, in the way He orchestrates things, in unique details. If you haven’t gathered, yet, I’m a girl who’s all about her small details. I think I love them so much because you can just see how much someone cares about what they do in the little things. The things that probably 95% of people don’t notice. But I am a person who sees and feels so much love in small details and I just was reminded of that by my surroundings in Tuscany and am constantly reminded of them in DR through the rice fields, the wildflowers, the mountains, the way the sun feels on my skin, the crystal Caribbean Sea, and the list could go own. Our God is such a creative God and uses His creativity to remind us of His heart and His care for the smallest of details in each of our lives.
After three days in the Tuscan countryside, a vast majority of the retreat group went to Florence for a night. We did a cooking class together which was SO FUN! We made Tiramisu, ravioli with rosemary garlic mashed potato filling, chicken and veggies, and an appetizer with eggplant parmesan, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil!
From there, I headed to Rome by train to spend some time with a missionary family there that Jeff and Kamanda know. It turned out that some of the other ladies from the retreat also went to Rome! It was so sweet to spend extra time with them. We went to the Trevi Fountain (I threw a coin in over my left shoulder – apparently that means I’ll go back to Rome one day!), we walked around and saw the Pantheon, toured the Vatican and went to the Sistine Chapel, saw the Colosseum, took a vespa tour (which was my favorite thing we did), and went to Villa Borghese! At every restaurant we went to, we each got something different and shared so we could try lots of things! Jess, the girl I stayed with, took me to breakfast with some other Americans serving in the area and to see her art studio! On my last night, her family hosted a pizza night and I got to spend time with more of the Americans who live in the area plus one of my friends from the retreat! I really enjoyed that time!
I so hope to be able to participate in this retreat again in the future! It was an incredible experience and I’m so thankful for all the people I met and all of the time connecting with them.
Prayer requests:
- To prioritize and get into a sustainable rhythm of solitude time, stillness, and intentional time with community
- That I wouldn’t rush past what the Lord began in this retreat, but continue to sit with Him in it
- Deepened trust and dependence on the Lord
- Continued health and safety for my family back home
