Souls and bodies pampered
by Liz Harding
About 50 people involved in ministry in this diocese spent a sunny spring day at Dayspring Retreat Centre in Rothesay pampering their souls and bodies.
The morning was devoted to looking at the unique way in which God made each of us. We started with our fingerprints, tangible evidence of how 
different we are from each other. Then we went on a journey to discover our other unique aspects. At the outset we acknowledged we carry a lot of baggage, including the lies that we believe about ourselves. Through scripture we started to correct our own images to find the one that Gods sees.
We took a flashlight on our journey and shone it on different areas of our lives, the illumination also helped us gain a better understanding of who we are.
We each wrote prayers of confession to God, admitting we often look to things outside of God's love to determine who we are, then we committed ourselves to rely on God to form our self-image, basking in his delight in us.
A map showed us the direction we should travel on our journey and reminded us to always stay connected with God for guidance. We packed cups of different shapes in our luggage for this journey. They served us in refreshment and taught us that, just like the different cups, we are different people, vessels of God's love. We then committed to share our unique selves as an offering to share the love of God with the world.
Following a delicious lunch we focused on our bodies with manicures, pedicures, massages and facials. We made some beautiful jewellery to take home, we canoed on the lake and walked in the woods, delighting in the many different birds. An expert birder actually attracted birds to nearby trees with a tape recording of other birds then told us about each species. It was quite amazing to watch nature close-up.
This was truly an amazing day, full of Christian spiritual nurture and refreshment, a small gesture of appreciation for those who work so hard in our churches.
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to make the day such a great success, and to the Christian Education committee for their sponsorship of this event.Liz Harding is diocesan director of Christian education.
