October 2 Fall Retreat at Maranatha

Thursday:  My friend, Cheryl, and I attended the 2nd half of the GIR Fall Retreat today over in Norton Shores at Maranatha Conference grounds, right on Lake Michigan. About half of the people in our Sunday school class signed up for the entire overnight retreat, but I didn't really have the $$ to spend a night out there and since Cheryl is a school teacher and could only get one day off, we decided to just do the "day" retreat today. So Cheryl arrived at my house just before 7am and then we took my car out to the retreat, arriving in time for a very hearty breakfast.

After breakfast, we attended a session of teaching from Psalm 90 about being good stewards of our time in our old age and developing friendships and places of service. Cheryl and I signed up for a "tour" of Maranatha Bible & Missionary Conference Center at 10:45. The tour group rode in two separate 6-seater golf carts. The tour was led by Dr. Mark DeHaan, grandson of Dr. M. R. DeHaan (founder of Calvary Church as well as Radio Bible Class). Mark grew up throughout his entire life spending summers out here on the grounds; so he knew the history of this place very well AND was very entertaining in his telling of it.

This is a tiny replica of the original Maranatha Chapel that stood on the grounds until just a few years ago when it was demolished. 

This very oversized chair was donated to Maranatha ...

After the official tour and a delicious lunch, we had free time until later on in the afternoon. I took a very long walk down to the lake (naturally) and did a little exploring. This is the channel that goes into Mona Lake.

Look at the beautiful day we had! Perfect weather.

Beautiful location. I took upwards of 250 pictures, but many of them are duplicates that I can "play" with in order to design cards. Maranatha owns a very long stretch of beach property, so it was a nice, long walk.

Here are a few friends seated on the huge Adirondack chair: Ruth, Katie, Cheryl, and Sue (L to R).

And then Cheryl insisted that I get in a picture (notice the bottom of my sweats--WET) too, so here we are:

And then at 2:15, several of us climbed the 100+ stairs to what is called The Prayer Tower, with this beautiful view.

While we were up there, someone suggested we sing a song and since I had my phone with me that was loaded with all kinds of beautiful music, we lifted our voices and sang "Holy Forever!" It was very beautiful to sing at this location.

"Our Lord, come!" is what "Maranatha" means in English. What a day that will be! Please come soon, Lord Jesus.