The Ladies' Retreat Day

The Ladies Retreat day on Saturday 8th March was memorable. It all seemed to go very quickly, yet our reflections on the subject of forgiveness will last a long time.

The speaker, Mrs Gay Kennedy is a gracious and gifted lady and first shared her amazing testimony with us. Gay had became a Christian as a young girl on a Beach Mission at Criccieth. She obeyed the Word by deciding that marriage would have to be to a Christian but unfortunately her husband was the product of a very different culture. A practising Greek Orthodox he saw nothing wrong in casual relationships and sometimes a mistress. It was accepted as the norm for a young man where they lived in Greece. A spiritually bruising time for a young teacher of English, she nevertheless believed and kept her marriage vows. She was helped by broadcasts from an American Evangelical radio station. Eventually they came to England and a daughter was born to them (now in her 20s). Gay’s husband never admitted the sin of his way of life so repentance was not on the cards. But what a forgiving spirit she had to exhibit, helped by membership of a church now. Inevitably, her husband walked out on them, leaving great hurt to mother and daughter. Gay was guided and encouraged by her willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. She is full of praise and joy in the Lord – her favourite Psalm is Psalm 103.

We had two sessions of group exercises – what about sin and forgiveness in David’s life, that of the Prodigal Son and Saul? The questions on the work sheets made us thing a lot. Then she gave us scenarios of people she know personally – even more difficult and no easy answers. Interspersed with lots of tea and coffee breaks and worship times, Gay kept it moving along and presented us with advice on how we can call on the supernatural power of God to deal with hurt and resentment and develop a forgiving spirit. The atmosphere of openness and friendship at QBC helped everyone, particularly the speaker, as she thanked us for our response.

Lunch was a wonderful meal served up by Howard and his team of men. Thank you to them for working so hard including dealing with a mountain of washing up. Thank you also to Carol Murphy for inviting Gay, a long standing friend of hers, and for giving her hospitality for the weekend.

How glad I am that I came along. I shall get to work on my “roots of bitterness”, thankfully few, and mostly my own fault.

Joan Shipway

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