Well, it’s been a while, and it’s been a season.

I haven’t blogged since September 16th, just after I got back from the Paris retreat, and just after my husband had his big fall. Life has changed since then. That concussion changed our lives in ways we still don’t fully know.

If you didn’t know, I will quickly wrap up what happened, because this newsletter is meant to be an encouraging Christmas letter to all of you!

Lance fell when I was in Paris and we still don’t know how it happened. It was in the middle of the night, in a cabin with his friends from “Holy Smokes” and the next day he text me in Paris that he had fallen and his face was all messed up. (His friends were very helpful while I was away btw) That lead to me coming home instead of him coming to Paris and having nose surgery a week later. The Dr. said the bones were like a bag of potato chips that he tried to put back together as best he could. Fast forward two months later and he wasn’t able to work, he shuffled when he walked and he couldn’t barely button his shirt or tie his shoes. Something was VERY wrong. He was fine after the nose surgery and then slowly things took a turn until we had to get him into his normal Dr stat! What took place next was emergency surgery for a burst blood vessel and the ICU for a week afterwards. We almost lost him... And we would have been having a VERY different Christmas right now if that had happened.

Needless to say, I have not been blogging, preparing for next years retreats or doing anything outside of taking care of him and making sure normal things get done in life. I do want to apologize that I haven’t been reaching out for payments for the Italy retreat, or updating everyone on things… and there will be no Christmas cards this year. But, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel and will get “back to business/ministry” in January!

Thank you to everyone who has reached out, prayed and shown so much kindness to us during this time. We love you and appreciate all the prayers SO much! It truly is what carried me while he was in surgery and ICU for so long. He has another CT scan on January 3rd and a follow-up with the surgeon on the 10th and we should know more then. Lance is doing remarkably well though and we praise God that He spared his life and he is recovering so quickly!

Now onto why I wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

We had THREE retreats this year, and it was such a GIFT to meet all of you that joined us in Italy, France and Vermont! I feel like I have such a treasure chest of new friends and it was a blessing to host and serve you in all three places. What a JOY to come alongside you and share these places with you, to encourage you to share your story in God honoring and art-filled ways, and to see what coming away with us meant to you. It was beautiful to watch friendships blossom, to see mother/daughters, sisters and friends spend time together, and to hear plans to make the time to do it again. Getting away from our busy lives to focus on the Lord is so important, and I am so honored to play a little role in that happening this year for you.

And to those of you who would love to come away with us, but haven’t had a chance to yet… We are so thankful you want to join us some day and we pray the Lord will show you just the right time for it!

We look forward to this next year and what God has for our retreats. I will say that we don’t quite know how many we will do yet… but we may add more to 2023, Lord willing. I’m kind of waiting on a certain daughter’s plans (hint, hint) before I can commit to new dates for retreats. So as of this moment, we only have the Bellagio, Italy retreat scheduled for June 3-10. If you’d like to join us there, I think there are a couple more spots (I haven’t been checking so don’t hold me to that) but there may be another one in the Fall and we may hold a retreat in the U.S. as well!

Lastly, I want to share an incredible message with you…

I don’t have my own eloquently written or deeply stirring words to share on this Christmas Eve, so I share a message that was originally spoken on a cold, wintery Christmas Eve, in London, England 1882… by the very eloquent and deeply stirring Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

And like Spurgeon, I will ask you the same thing He asked his friends on that Christmas Eve so long ago…

“Beloved friends, if wise men of old came to Jesus and worshipped, should not we come also?”

In this day and age, where self worship is applauded, and deeper “knowledge” is searched for,  I find myself drawn to the simple reminders of this “prince of pastors” to pursue Jesus over self.  To have feet that traverse the narrow path, and to have hearts that worship Christ alone.

Wise men still seek Him…

I’ve linked the entire sermon HERE. (And I’ve shared some of the highlights of it below.)

This month as I’ve read through Luke, it reminded me to seek the baby in the manger… and then see Christ’s road to the cross.

“Then He told them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”” Luke 24:44

As we celebrate Jesus in the manger the next couple days, I pray it opens your hearts to the reason He came.  And let us remember to worship the Giver, not the gifts. 🙌🏻

Part of Spurgeons sermon on Christmas Eve, 1882:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.  When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” — Matthew ii. 1, 2, 9, 10.

“Beloved friends, if wise men of old came to Jesus and worshipped, should not we come also? My intense desire this morning is that we all may pay homage to him of whom we sing, “Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given.” Let those of us who have long worshipped worship anew with yet lowlier reverence and intenser love. And God grant— oh, that he would grant it!— that some who are far off from him spiritually, as the Magi were far off locally, may come to-day and ask, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have come to worship him.” May feet that have been accustomed to broad roads, but unaccustomed to the narrow path, this day pursue that way till they see Jesus, and bow before him with all their hearts, finding salvation in him. These wise men came naturally, traversing the desert; let us come spiritually, leaving our sins. These were guided by the sight of a star; let us be guided by faith in the divine Spirit, by the teaching of his word and all those blessed lights which the Lord uses to conduct men to himself. Only let us come to Jesus.

When the star had come to the place where the young child was, it stood still: and so should the gracious mind become settled, fixed, immovable. The wise men knew where to find that star, and where to find the young child by it: so be it with us. Oh, you that have hitherto been diligent in leading souls to Christ, never indulge for a single moment the notion that you need a broader philosophy or a deeper spirituality than are to be found in Jesus. Abide in him. Cry, “Oh God, my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed.” There is nothing beyond Christ which is worth a moment’s thought. Do not lose your paradise in Christ for another taste of that tree of knowledge of-good-and-evil which ruined our first parents. Stick you to the old points: your one subject Christ, your one object to bring men to Christ, your one glory the glory of Christ. Standing by your Lord, and there alone, from this day to the last day, you will secure a happy, honoured, and holy life. They said of Greece after her fall that it had become so ruined that you might search for Greece in Greece and fail to find it: I fear I must say that some professed preachers of the gospel have roamed so far away from it that you cannot find the gospel in their gospel, nor Christ himself in the Christ they preach. So far have some diverged from the grand essential soul-saving truth beyond which no man ought to dare to think of going, that they retain nothing of Christianity but the name.

Is not this a good day on which to set out to find your Saviour? Some of you that have postponed it long, would it not be well to set out at once ere this expiring year has seen its last day? These wise men appear to have set out as soon as they discovered the star: they were not among those who have time to waste in needless delays. “There is the star,” said they; “away we go beneath its guidance. We are not satisfied with a star, we go to find the King whose star it is!” And so they set out to find Christ immediately and resolutely.”

“When wise men seek our King they are wise indeed.” Spurgeon

I pray you all are have a blessed Christmas and Happy New year!

Hugs to all,

Laura