Precise Moments

The Retreat

What can I say about my experience at the St. James Women’s Weekend?  For me, it was the beginning of the best year of my life.  Attending this women’s weekend seminar was not only fun, educational, enlightening, entertaining; it was, most assuredly, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled and Spirit-guided.  How else could I explain what has happened to me since last November?

I must be honest and admit that it was not the beginning of my period of “self-enlightenment”, but the culmination of it.  You see, for the past three years I had attended various self-help type seminars—personal growth, self-actualization, emotional security, personality integration, etc., etc., etc.  Basically, I was trying to figure out how my life had become such a disaster and why I was so unhappy.  No, it wasn’t just that I was unhappy, I was utterly and completely miserable and, in my opinion, my life during the past several years had turned to crapola.  In an effort to find myself, I joined St. James AME Church, the first of my many blessings.  Here, Rev. Whatley did an outstanding job of planting the seeds of love, growth and expectation.  Still, there was something missing.  I then began attending Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday evenings where Rev. St. Claire assisted me further by challenging me to read and study the Bible.  And then there was Rev. Parrott who not only challenged me, but also dared me to see myself as I truly am.  And then came Rev. Hendricks who not only challenged and dared me, but she also helped to prepare me to receive my blessings.  And, believe you me, these blessings are immeasurable and they are still mounting. 

However, it was not until I attended the St. James’ Women’s Weekend last fall, that I finally understood what I was really searching for.  In my attempts to “find” myself, I (mistakenly) looked every place, but the right place—inside.  I am certain that the growth that I needed to propel me would not have been possible had I not been in attendance at the St. James Women’s Weekend.

I cannot begin to tell you exactly what happened to us during that weekend only that we were transformed.  Just talk to any number of those in attendance as I did and they will confirm that we grew up, stopped our crying, and finally understood that God is indeed on our side.  We learned that as women we have always been very much in His thoughts, words and actions.  Everything we are is because He loves us.  There is nothing that happens in or around our lives that He does not play a role—it is just up to us to see it.  We learned that we come from good stock and inherited our talents from the likes of Ruth, Debra, Esther, and Naomi and yes, even Sara.  We accepted our strengths and knew that our weaknesses were of our own making.

On the last evening of the Weekend, I was awakened around 1:30am and as much as I tried, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.  I closed my eyes and thought about what it was that woke me up and why I couldn’t go back to sleep.  You see, the words were buzzing (loudly) around in my head and I could do nothing to quiet them so, I picked up my note pad and began writing.  So as not to wake up my roommate, I wrote in the dark.  In the morning when looked at my notes, I was amazed to see that I had stayed in the lines and that I could actually read what I had written, as it was almost perfect.