Central Plains Women’s Retreat
at Swan Lake Christian Camp

September 18 and 19, 2010

The Central Plains Women’s Retreat at Swan Lake Christian Camp was a blessed weekend!  Good weather, excellent food by Mary, the camp’s talented cook, inspiring speakers, worshipful music, and friendships made and/or renewed were refreshing.

The theme for the weekend was “Giving and Receiving.”  Ruth Entz Buller of Inman, Kansas, wife of Pastor Eric Buller and mother of 2 young sons, spoke on Saturday.  Ruth shared some of her early life stories and on living with brain cancer.  The Sunday morning speaker was Lynn Duerksen Stoneking. She and her husband Thomas and son live in Delft, Minnesota. Their son, Jackson, was born prematurely and she shared  this emotional journey.  Lynn and her husband continue the musical ministry started by her parents, Gene and Margaret Duerksen, and shared how this has shaped her life.  Our Sunday session ended with worship music and a communion service led by Pastor Stacey Waltner.

The weekend also included a choice of interest sessions of creative card making, led by Barb Hofer and Amanda Mettler, tying comforters, assembling school kits and watching the MCC video about their distribution, nature walks, and shopping at the Ten Thousand Villages display set up by Joyce Bucklin of Mt. Lake, Minnesota.  The evening ended with “camp songs” led by Renee Neufeld on the guitar, popcorn and board games.

Women of the Conference and friends should plan to attend the Central Plains 2011 Women’s Retreat at Swan Lake Christian Camp, in Viborg, South Dakota, on September 17 and 18, with South Dakota women organizing the main tasks, Nebraska organizing the special interest/craft sessions, and Minnesota bringing the music.