Jen spoke at a women’s conference in Kosovo.
10/19/2025 – ladies book retreat
This weekend was sweet and tender. A dream that started to have some flesh to it. A year ago I had a longing of how to draw in those that are introverted and bit overlooked when so much of ” ministry” or “outreach” is designed for the extroverted, fast paced, louder volumed population. The question was what “Invitation of Presence” could look like. And so a book club was formed. Ladies who are not yet believers along with those that are, church hurts and pains, church restoration and healing, all stories journeying together but in a spirit of invitation.
This weekend was our first Annual Reading Retreat. We all brought a variety of books. And people could do as they like…. Read, walk, gather, be alone. No one needed to sorry for going off on their own. No apologies for heading off to bed to read those last chapters they were thinking about. No worries for laying in hammock for hours on end taking up the quiet and beauty of being.
At night we would gather and cook a meal together. Laugh and share about our books. And then as we rolled from fiction stories to our own personal stories, the beauty of deep connection was brought to light.
Both nights all of us shared heavy things from our own lives. Questions were asked, ears listened, truth shared building a bridge of further grace and peace.
This is what I kept praying into… Let us hold space for tender hearts to share and recieve.
May each of us be still enough to hear the guiding spirit of our Triune God.
This weekend deeper safety for tender stories were further cemented. The beauty to not just preach the idea of rest and slowing down but to do it together and grant the permission to be fully present in the here and now. I am touched and in awe of the depth of this very simple weekend has brought. With no big bells and whistles… Just a simple invitation to be.
Peace on Earth as it is in Heaven. I want to taste, and hear, sense a bit of Heaven more and more in my life.
Greg and Jen Weaver