From 11th to 13th April the CVC annual women’s retreat took place. A total of 76 women from our centres in Malaga, Granada and Alicante met together at Aguilas, located in Murcia.

The main theme for the retreat was “Good administrators” and the central verses were Ephesians 5:15-15 and Colossians 4:5. During the weekend the presence of God was tangible in each of the meetings and many women realised their great need to meet with Him and have a relationship with Him.

For the first of the 5 meetings, Graciela García shared with us about having a “passion for the Word” showing us that God’s will for us is written in his Word and she also stressed the importance of knowing what that is and living it out. Graciela also encouraged us to always remember the blessings God has poured out on us throughout our lives in order to strengthen our faith.

In the second meeting, Elvira Arias encouraged us to “Manage our money.” She gave us advice on how to manage our finances and spoke about not coveting what others have, but rather being content with what we have. Elvira emphasised that our worth does not depend on what we have but on who we are, “daughters of God.” And this truth is what should fill us.

In the third session Fuen Abellán shared with us about “Looking after our bodies” showing us that it’s a temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore we should be careful what we see, hear, talk about and say. She stressed the importance of taking pride in our appearance and looking at the type of life we lead. Finally, she encouraged us to be consistent in learning, being disciplined and persevering as it is honouring to God. Eva Pascual performed an excellent sketch to accompany the session showing the ways in which we mistreat our bodies, which doesn’t glorify God.

Susana García, in the fourth session, spoke about “Serving God” saying that helping others should be something that comes daily from our hearts. She encouraged us to discover what talents we have and use them to serve God and others so that we become more like Jesus everyday, reminding ourselves that he came not to be served but to serve. She also challenged us to serve out of the right motives: compassion, humility, obedience, mercy and above all our main motivation should be lovero corazón.

We also enjoyed a time of recreation and fun, which emphasised how great and vital it is to spend time together and enjoy being with each other.

On Sunday, the weekend concluded with Kathy Maza speaking on the theme “Train your Mind” in which she shared about how sin is born from what is in our thoughts and our minds. She talked about the importance of walking as wise women and with clarity of who our real enemy is using the example of Jael (Judges 4) who knew how to recognise her enemy and used the weapons that God put in her hands. She also encouraged us to analyse what comes out of our mouth or what is in our thoughts so we can check that it’s honest, just, pure…etc and in this manner act as wise women. Using the passage from Phillippians 4:8 she encouraged us to analyse what comes out of our mouth or what is in our thoughts so we can check that it’s honest, just, pure…etc and in this manner act as wise women.