Women's Winter Retreat

by Jaime Goldsmith

Remember those times of carefree nights with your girlfriends at a slumber party? Well those memories came back alive for the OCC ladies who spent their Friday, February 6, at the Holiday Inn eating loads of great food and sharing laughs with fellow sisters in Christ.

The evening began with a get acquainted game, a welcome from Debbie Dunbar and Laura Kemper, and some devotional time by Shirleen Geiger. Then the “hostess with the mostest”, Nicole Essex, prepared us for an out of control game of Bunco. We had loads of fun, but the evening was far from over.

After prizes and snack time, our first ever Lip Sync Contest began (or should we say “Lacey Casum’s top four countdown”?). Sixties music was the theme, and Sonny and Cher stole the show. Special thanks go to Kaye West and Diana Booth for giving us all a memory we will never forget! The other acts, Laura Lee and the Lee-ettes, the Five Hot Mamas, and J.P. with her wonderful performance, were all outstanding as well.

Coffee and muffins greeted everyone Saturday morning. Christ was the focus in worship and devotion to prepare our hearts for the message. Our guest speaker, Karen Chartrand, gave us scriptures of hope after we learned of tragedies that she experienced in her life. She quickly changed the tone of the morning back to that of the previous evening as we learned “How to Deal With Difficult People”. Ironically, we learned that we may be the difficult person in someone’s life as Karen took us through the four distinct personality types. Karen Chartrand is a highly accredited college professor and speaker, but she was very real with us as she shared a valuable message for each of us.

For women, time with the girls is hard to come by, especially when some wear many hats in life, but those seventeen hours were just perfect to get us all recharged. Girls just wanna have fun (especially the sanguin), and fun was had by all. We hope that you will join in on the fun next year if you were unable to participate this year. YA YA

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