Thrive

Today I want to mention a ministry called Thrive. From their website, their mission is
to encourage and empower Global Women (by providing care, resources, & community) to thrive and to be their advocate (by engaging and educating Christian communities to be equipped and empowered to pro-actively meet the needs of Global Women.)

This ministry was originally started by a missionary leaving to serve cross culturally & created a magazine to have community.  This led into having retreats for missionaries.  Fast forward to today....they have an online magazine that is emailed each week & they still have retreats held regionally.  I receive their emails each week & next week, I am blessed to be able to attend a Thrive retreat!

The Thrive retreats are for missionary women from North America who are serving cross culturally. In thanks to donors, the ministry pays for this retreat! There is only a small registration fee & transportation cost to your retreat location for the attendee.  The ministry covers all food & hotel expenses!  Because of this gift, a missionary can only attend a retreat once during her term.

Next week, Thrive will have a retreat in Lima, Peru for missionary women serving in Latin America. So this Sunday, I fly out to Lima, Peru.  I am going from Bogota by myself, but there are 3 other MTW missionaries who will be there (2 I have met, but don't know well, and 1 more person I have not met).  I will be returning back to Bogota Thursday night, so it is a 4 day retreat.

What will I do at the retreat?  Relax, speak English (maybe just a little Spanish to get by in the city), be encouraged (in English), & be pampered!  There are lots of options for self-care during the day.
Each day will begin with an optional fitness class, followed by a morning session time with a speaker & worship.  The afternoons & evenings are left for self-care options & time visiting with others. The retreat is fairly small with only around 30 attendees, plus volunteers (I think). Self care options include pedicures, massage, color analysis, hair cut (I am excited to get a hair cut!  I have only had 1 this past year), nurse, counselor, & prayer.  I hope to participate in as many of these as I can.  All of these services are done by volunteers who serve at these retreats.  This possibly would be something I would like to volunteer with someday.  Who knows. We will see how next week goes.

Here is a neat thing about this retreat.  They are spending 30 days prior to the retreat in prayer. They are praying for each person coming, speaker, volunteers, & attendees.  They are praying for each country represented.  They are praying for families left behind as women attend this event.  They are praying for persecution on the field, homesickness, language learning, illness & other things. They prayed for me on Day 10.

During the retreat, my understanding is there will be a blog, so if you want to follow it next week, click here & it should be updated with the Peru retreat.

Thanks for your prayers as I go to this.  I am traveling alone, but never am I really alone.  Pray I can be open with others of hardships here that can be difficult to express to others sometimes due to fear. Pray I can relax & enjoy myself.  I am looking forward to seeing a new place in South America. Pray for Avery & the girls next week while I am gone. Thanks to Avery for initiating me going on this trip & realizing this will be good for me. Pray especially for the girls on Tuesday as they have testing for their new school & I know they are a little nervous about the unknown.  Pray they remember math!!  And, when I get back from this trip, only another week to wait until we travel to the USA!!