We have seen so much growth, so many healed, an overwhelming hope birthed, and lives forever touched by God. The Beautifully Flawed Retreat was filled with brand new girls, many fresh in their limb loss and the pain so raw. We had some incredible leaders there to help love the girls well. It is always amazing to see the way these retreats come together and how who is supposed to be there is there. I love seeing how a family-like bond is birthed, and how everyone genuinely cares for each other.

There are so many memories that stick out to me, like all of our retreats, but this Beautifully Flawed Retreat was so powerful and full of so many stories. One of the stories that stuck out to me most was that of a girl who had lost her arm to a dog just three months before the retreat. When she arrived she seemed guarded and a bit unsure of the retreat. She shared that she came not knowing what to expect, but certain she would not get much out of it. She was still processing her loss and working through the PTSD of what had happened to her. Over the days I began to see a working happening, and I saw her push through the pain of even getting out of bed, to the power of God’s healing. The last day of the retreat, as we were all saying our goodbyes, she came up to me with a tear-soaked face and said she was choosing to surrender to the Lord. She shared her story with me, saying she had run for a long time, and in losing her arm, she became angry because she could not understand. It was through the retreat she found peace, hope, and the need to surrender. I told her that the Lord has so much ahead for her life, she is a leader and God was going to use this story in her life in huge ways.