The 2023 KDW Retreat concluded on Oct. 8. Women from across Kansas, as well as our friends from the Greater Kansas City region, enjoyed a time of fellowship and worship.
Retreat by the Numbers
- Total attendance 136 (75 midweek, 61 weekend)
- Offering $1,723.00 (designated for Reconciliation)
- Blessing Box $ 697.24
- Books $1,574.75
Two large boxes with items too numerous to count were collected for Kansas Christian Home bingo prizes. Items were also collected for the Wichita homeless veterans’ project. Thank you to Linda Galloway for offering to deliver the items. Donations were also graciously received from those who brought camp supplies. Thank you to everyone for your generous support of Disciples Women and the service projects.
The following is an article shared by a retreat attendee who took part in the craft workshop. What a beautiful correlation to the retreat theme:
Wow! Wow! Wow! What else can I say about the Kansas Disciples Women’s Retreat? It was absolutely amazing. The theme this year was “Recharge, Renew, Refresh, and Restored.” And the retreat was every bit of that… and then some.
The keynote speaker was wonderful. Her name is Rev. Terri Hord Owens. I could have listened to her for weeks and never been bored. I walked away feeling blessed each time she spoke.
I want to share my experience with the craft portion of the retreat.
It is called Kintsugi; also known as Kinsukuroi which means, “golden repair” — this is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi-lacquer that is dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. I debated for quite some time if I really wanted to do this craft.
I asked myself, “Do I really want to bring home a broken piece of pottery that’s been glued back together? After all, I’m needing to get rid of stuff at home. I finally decided to do the Kintsugi since a fellow FCC lady was teaching the class and a couple of other FCC ladies planned to participate.So, I looked at the different pieces of pottery available, still thinking there wasn’t anything I would want to break and take home. But a small vase stood out to me for some reason, so I broke it like we were instructed to do and began gluing it back together.
I got lucky because it broke into five rather large pieces, and all the while I kept thinking, “I could just leave it to dry and not pick it back up.” But then, while sitting in the Chapel, a totally new outlook about the broken vase, which was drying at that time, suddenly came to mind.The meaning of the class Kintsugi was not just about a broken piece of pottery, but rather the broken piece of pottery symbolized a person who had been broken, and the glue was God putting them back together. If you are not broken, maybe you know someone who is. With the love of God, faith & trust, a broken person can be put back together.
Is my vase perfect? No. But none of us are. Will my vase hold water? No, as I see cracks that still need more glue, yet it lets the light of Jesus shine through. Will this vase mean anything to someone else? No. But it means a lot to me knowing I can always turn to God and trust him to put me back together. I am so happy I did the Kintsugi craft and brought my vase home.
Thank you, God, for showing me that there is much more to a broken, unwanted piece of pottery, because “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)