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More exciting news is happening at Tallgrass Spiritual Retreat Center! We're planninng Tallgrass Treasures and Tennessee Tunes, a silent auction and concert benefitting the retreat center on June 13, 2009 at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita. Celia Whitler, a singer/song writer from Tennessee will provide the "Tunes." The "Treasures" will be found at the silent auction, happening the same evening. There will be theme baskets from Arizona, New Mexico, South Carolina and North Carolina, as well as Wisconsin cheese. There are autographed books from various authors, including Billie Jean King (from one Billie Jean to another Billie Jean), Patrice Karst (God Made Easy), Liz Curtis Higgs, and more! We have a potter and a painter and a fabric artist all donating artwork. Gov. Sebelius donated an autographed 2007 commemorative inagural book and a blue tile with the Great Seal of Kansas on it. There will be Coca Cola collectibles and two nights lodging at Mt. Sequoya at Fayetteville, Arkansas, as well as other fun places to stay. Mark your calendars for June 13, 2009 and watch for more information!

Blessings, Billie

The Truck!

The great news of late is, of course, the retreat center's new truck! An email was sent out to Tallgrass supporters on a Friday that there was a need for a truck and by Monday the center received the donation of a 2000 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab truck with only 62,000 miles on it! Four days! It took only four days! It was really exciting around here that weekend. That email prayer request generated more email responses than anything I've ever sent out. Women were praying for the center to get a new truck. Women were sending the email on to farmer friends in hopes they might know of a truck. A friend in WI said if she had a truck she would drive it to my front door and hand me the keys. She didn't have a truck though! My daughter's farmer father-in-law looked all around SW Kansas for a truck. Women were including this request in Sunday morning's "Prayers of the People" in church or making sure it got in the church bulletin or newsletter.

I picked up the truck on Tuesday morning in Manhattan. Well, I kind of picked it up. I rode with the donor, but had forgotten my driver's license, so I was unable to legally drive it home! As soon as I was home alone with it, I took it for a peaceful drive out on the prairie. It was wonderful!

Even more wonderful have been the responses since I sent the follow-up email, telling folks about the truck. Emails have poured in, praising God, offering congratulations, and oohing and aahing over pictures of the truck. :-) It's like the center's acquisition of this truck is a reminder to folks that God is still present in prayers. So . . . now I'm asking for prayers for a plumber!

Blessings, Billie

Looking to 2009 at Tallgrass!

It's late this evening in December. Almost 12:30 a.m. I've spent the day working on two websites I manage and am too tired to work on the site for Tallgrass Spiritual Retreat Center. It's time to be getting it up and running for 2009, showing all the intresting retreats being offered, like Horse Sense: What a Horse Can Teach Me About Me where we'll go visit Jan Jantzen's ranch and handle the horses. There's Soul Strings where RoJean Loucks, Salina, will bring small harps for us to play - just for fun, not for the experts! MaryAnne Thurber, a police officer from Madison WI will come lead C.O.P.S. (Class on Personal Safety) to teach women how to be safe at home, in the car and out in public. Hazel Hutchinson and Mindy Graham will lead Body and Soul, a retreat combining the SoulCollage process as taught by Seena Frost and Healing Touch. Cheryl Miller, Lawrence, will facilitate Harmonious Home to teach women how to find organization and peace in their homes. Sacred Poetry and DreamPower will both be led by Dr. Mary Jo Grant and there's even more! Hopefully, I'll have the website updated by mid-December, then you go check out the retreat schedule for your self at www.tallgrassretreats.com/Retreat_Schedule-09.html

Blessings for the night, Billie