West Ohio Girls' Chrysalis #47

This past weekend I got to serve on the team for the Girls' Chrysalis weekend. Sometimes I dread things like this... I mean, I am getting old. Seriously. It has been nearly 16 years since I went on my Chrysalis weekend. When I go back to Greene Street UMC in Piqua it kind of feels like stepping back in time. Things have changed some... but it still feels a lot the same. (And I am pretty sure we are still using the same markers from 1993!).

There have been times I have been called to be on a team that I have said no. It didn't fit in my schedule or work out somehow... it didn't seem right for whatever reason. There are times I have said yes and gone to all the meetings and what not with little busyness to worry about. This time I said yes, but was SERIOUSLY dreading the idea of being asked to do a talk. When Wendy asked me to do the Single Life talk I was... UGH... stressed. I've done it before but I REALLY didn't want to... and then life got stressful and work got overwhelming and I started running like a crazy person through December and JAnuary and I was really not all that excited about going to the weekend.

Then on Friday I went to the church.... and we started with some team stuff and then the girls showed up Saturday morning... and its all a blur. I had SUCH an amazing weekend. I have never laughed so much as I did with the girls at my table. I laughed (I didn't cry!), I was blessed, I was challenged, I watched God work in my beautiful little caterpillars lives, I was amazed at the selflessness of the team (which has not always- or ever- been my experience of a chrysalis team to such an extent), I was overwhelmed with the simplicity of living this weekend. I was blessed to not turn on my cell phone, to not wonder what time it was, to just sit... sit and enjoy the people around me.... sit and be blessed by conversations and laughter and the words of God.

Chrysalis is such a structured experience... the same 15 talks every weekend, the same food, the same discussion guides, flight after flight, year after year. Yet this time it didn't feel that way to me. Sure, there was still that structure, but it seemed to flow so much from the heart. No one was worried about doing things a specific way, no one was concerned that this flight be like all the other flights, no one was stressed that the music or talks weren't what they were when THEY went to Chrysalis.

It was nice... and beautiful... and wonderful. And even though I had to give my talk again, I was blessed to share my thoughts with girls who responded with thoughtful questions and beautiful insights.

West Ohio GIrls' CHrysalis #47... God is good.