Refreshment!

When we think of the word "refreshment" we usually think of a cool drink on a hot day, and for you in Saskatchewan, on a hot, windy day. :) Normally refreshment come after not having had a drink for quite some time and you are thirsty.
I need refreshment. I can't find a church that gives me the longing to go back. Most of the churches here are either filled with oldsters and are really slow or they are a bit hyper-charismatic. Neither feels right to me and so I haven't gone to church very often. So the only place I go regularly for Christian fellowship is my job. How blessed I am to have that. So I do get to have devotions at home with my kids as well as at school with the teachers, but there is something to be said for being in a room full of Christians and raising our voices and our hands in worship. I miss doing that. The last church I went to where I enjoyed being a part of that kind of worship was Midsun Community Church in Calgary.
Don't get me wrong. We still go to church. We attend the Oceanside Community Church on the Alberni Highway and it is a wonderful Church full of wonderful people. Mostly over 70 people. I have been invited to the Alliance Church by one of the teachers at school and we probably will try it, but that means driving all the way into Nanaimo and not just North Nanaimo, but almost into the downtown core. Do I want to drive that far to church every Sunday? I don't know. I just know that I need more continuing refreshment and I need to find somewhere that I can get what my heart yearns for. A church to belong.
So, I am going to a teacher's conference for Christian schools in Lyndon, Wash on Wednesday. I will have the evening of Wednesday, all day Thursday, and Friday morning to be with a large group of Christian adults who all believe in Jesus. There will be praise and worship, prayer and workshops. There will also be other opportunities to fellowship with other Christians.
I am so looking forward to this conference. My girls are in school every day so will only be alone for about 2 hours after school. Then Tye comes home to assist with making dinner. Then at 8 PM my wonderful, amazing niece, Carrie, will come and get the girls to bed. She will sleep here and get the girls up in the morning and out to school. On Friday I will return and be a new woman. Well, maybe not new, but refreshed.