John and I came up with a crazy idea....
Families are continually separated....at work, at play, at school, and even at church. There are Men's retreats, women's retreats, senior retreats, youth retreats and kid's retreats....What if we all just "retreated" together, learned together, worshiped together, and played together..???
We put our idea on the table and our Associate Pastors said to go for it! We had tried to put this together a year earlier but it just never came together...this time it all seemed to be falling into place. We really wanted to do it at Camp Charis where John and I volunteered years ago. (We know the director well and knew the camp was in a beautiful spot in Pelham GA and had many things to do.) The camp director worked with us and was so giving and laid back...he had never had a "Family Camp" on site so we were all new at getting something like this planned. John and I had gone to a Worldview Seminar near the time of our pre planning and heard a great local speaker. His name is Ryan Sprague, Husband, Father, Homeschooler, Pastor, Author, and former FSU football player. We really enjoyed hearing him speak and knew he had a heart for families so he seemed like the perfect fit for our retreat! We asked our best friends Jeff and Harriet to lead music. They have led music at many retreats but never a "family style" one. So basically our idea was "new" for everyone! Refreshing but scary all the same!!!! Our goal was to give families of ALL ages a chance to worship and learn together at the same time enjoying each other's prescence! The camp really does have everything you need for something like this!!!! They have a large eating and worship hall, a full size kitchen where they do ALL the meals for YOU! They have archery, swimming, canoeing, a huge play area with arcade type games, foosball, ping pong, etc, a snack shack, bath houses, campfire, hayrides, and best of all air conditioned COVERED WAGONS to sleep in!!!! We had 90 total people come to the Family Retreat! All have said they would do it again in a heartbeat!
Inside the wagons
Doing a little clean up around the camp as a mission project!
archery
worship time!
My adorable hubby in front of the group
This picture is my favorite....our friends in worship and prayer :) A picture speaks a 1000 words...I just love this!
Ryan did an awesome job of talking at a very high level of comprehension on vocation, families, jobs of a child, husband, wife, our role in the church as a family....and then he would come right down and talk to the kids in the same breath, have them shout out an answer or draw a picture.....we were all engaged at all levels! He wrote a family quiet time for Saturday morning where each family went off alone on the property and read scripture, sang a song, prayed for one another and answered questions...some families had never ever done anything like this before! We also had a lot of laughs as we played "ice breaker" type games as families...we found out that one family owns cows, another drives the former FSU tennis team van, another LOVES to dance each morning to breakfast, another loves popcorn, candy and a movie every Friday Night, another likes to talk like Scooby Doo, another has a family song (and they were MADE to sing it in front of everyone), and so on....the kids were so into it! We also played family charades where each family had to get up and act out a movie...hilarious!!!!
Sleeping quarters
This is what it's all about....
Taking notes for her daddy!
The whole gang! My dream came true....we all sat in one big room praying, singing, learning together...yes there were little mutterings underneath the speaker, a couple of mommies bouncing babies on their hips in the back but we were all their together in the Word of God, nothing fancy, no special programming or segregation by age. I loved every minute of it!
What a fantastic way to spend two days.....making memories for sure:)
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