Staff Retreat

The day after Easter, we boarded a plane for Basil, Switzerland. We landed in Switzerland and crossed into France (while still in the airport) to pick up a rental car. We found out we were in the wrong country to pick up the rental car! So we had to walk back into Switzerland. We then drove back over the border into France on our way to the staff retreat with the Life Agape office in Paris. For me this was a really fun retreat to get to meet the other 40+ staff in the Paris office that work for the NAMESTAN region (North Africa, Middle East and 'Stan' countries) that our Algeciras team is a part of.

During the week in the afternoons, we had some break time and we toured some local towns. There were painted Easter eggs hanging from windows and bunnies all around. It made me wonder where did this tradition originate? So I did some research....I couldn't find exactly where the idea originated but I did find out why:

A strong wave of piety ran through chicken farms from the 4th century onwards, leading to the custom of giving eggs on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox - a rather less spiritual way to celebrate Christ's resurrection throughout Christendom. Why? you may ask. Simply because the church forbade the consumption of eggs during the forty days of fasting that preceded Easter - but since chickens don't observe Lent, they continued to lay! Thus by Easter morning, people found themselves with a large quantity of eggs. It was necessary to share the surplus by giving them away. A basket full of fresh eggs is a nice gift - but when colored and painted with figures and designs, they became true presents: beautifully arrayed and designed to give pleasure.

How did I get off track talking about Easter Eggs? This post was supposed to be about the staff retreat. Ok...back to the retreat. Bailey Marks, retired International Director for CCC, spoke. Al used to tell me the story of when Bill Bright said to Bailey, 'How long does it take you to hear from God?' It was nice to hear the story from it's true source and to see this man's dedication to serve the Lord over so many years.