Lessons Learned from a Yurt Campout:

• Yurts are awesome.
• Women are game for nearly any adventure as long as there is a port-a-potty within 100 yards.
• Stories are always better around a campfire.
• Each of us has been gifted with a one-of-a-kind story that is authored by God and meant to be shared.
• Our stories are all about God.
• “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 2 Cor. 3:2-3
• Women are not defined by what they have gone through.  Our identity is found in Christ alone and being redeemed makes all the difference.
• “But you are a chosen race… a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9
• Food always tastes better cooked over fire and eaten with friends sisters.
• Sue Martin makes good caramel corn.
• You can’t judge a woman by her cover.  There is more to her than you see and it is worth the time it takes to get to know her…the real her.
• God calls all types of women.  These women have amazing life-stories that God has ordained for his daughters to live in order to shine a spotlight, not on themselves, but on God’s goodness.
• “…a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30
• Horrific circumstances do not make you a horrific person.  It makes the beauty and light of God’s grace shine that much more brightly against a dark and ugly background. 
• “to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3
• God can stop a pattern of generational sinning.  When he draws the line it is finished.
• Older ladies are awesome, they love to have fun and offer years of godly wisdom.  Listen to them!
• When nature calls in the middle of the night, you go.  Even in a thunderstorm, in the pouring rain, in pitch dark, while walking through mud.  This encourages prayer.
• “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” 1 Peter 3:15.  Always… be… prepared.
• Giving snapshots of how God worked in a situation or a phase of life is a great, short way to share with someone.
• A fear of spiders is hereditary.  I should have been more sympathetic to this mother/daughter freak-out, but I was too busy laughing.
• Ignorance really is bliss when it comes to spiders.  If we had known that a teenage tarantula was crawling around when we were sleeping… we would not have been sleeping.
• Tina enjoys practicing her God-given dominion over spiders.
• “He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’” Luke 19:40 We need to refuse to let a rock take our place in praising our God.  God has planned out our path, sent us on it and walks with us.  Praise him!
• Telling our stories is very important and one of the easiest ways to share Christ with others.  Write it out, practice it and share it. 
• God is the Hero of every story.