Our 6th & Final Family Retreat

Once again, we had a wonderful time at the Joni & Friends Family Retreat!  This will be our final Family Retreat :-( (at least for awhile) because our family will be transitioning into a new season of ministry.  For those of you who have not heard, the Lord has called my family to plant a church in East St. Louis, IL.  You can read more at our website - City of Joy Fellowship.

Therefore, we made sure we enjoyed every moment of the retreat!  

The theme was "Hope Overflowing" which came from my favorite verse in the Bible -

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  
Romans 15:13

The Lord blessed Kempton to unpack the meaning of the verse in its context.
We were definitely encouraged to press on with hope through joy & peace! 

We were privileged to have Joni & Ken Tada attend this retreat! 

We had not seen them since 2009.

My Little Star

That's Carysse's "I am smiling!" face :-)

Elsa has been our babysitter/PCA for a few years.
We were so glad that she wanted to join us at the retreat this year.

Sweet bro-sis moment

Fun for Everyone! 

Christian wanted to give Kempton a kiss...precious!

Beautiful! 

My athletic one just had to join this volleyball game.

My creative one was busy making sand creations.

My two oldest sweeties

 I love this photo! 

 Sweet! 

These sweet sisters served our table at each meal.
They were definitely role models of diligent serving.

May these retreats continue to be a little piece of heaven for all the families who attend!

For the 5th Year...

God blessed us by His sweet grace at Joni and Friends Family Retreat!  

To take a walk down memory lane, check out our past retreats
'08, '09, '11, '12.

As you can see, we doubled in the number of children since our 1st retreat.:-)

Van full of blessings ready for the retreat! 

Our sweet family pic

My precious baby bear's tired face from a long day of travelling.

"Aunt" Mary & "Uncle" Bob loving on Caleb.

Hannah was our family helper.
We were so grateful for her wonderful service to us!

Ahh...sweet father-son moment

 Each year, the director of the retreat, asks me to make themed gift baskets.  These are one of my hobbies that I don't get a chance to do until the retreat. I make four of them and one family wins a basket each day.  

Winner of the Family Game Night Basket

Winner of the Glow in the Dark Fun Basket

Isn't she a doll!?!  Her family's blog is Not just an Ordinary Life.

My hubby was blessed to be the Camp Pastor again.  

The theme verse was Philippians 3:14 ~ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Carysse enjoying the water with her personal life guard, Jon.

The girls loved getting their face painted.

 Carysse was asked to tell a joke at the talent show.  

Kalia made a new friend. 

Christian hanging out with his buddy, Jon.  

 Baby bear having fun in the sun.

Hen says, "We had a clucking good time!"

August Highlight: Our 4th Year at Family Retreat!

Once again, the Lord blessed us with a WONDERFUL time at the Joni and Friends Family Retreat!  We previously went in '08, '09, & '11.  However, I was not planning to go this year.  The plan was for me to keep the youngest 2 at home and Kempton would take the oldest 2 to the retreat since he was the Retreat Pastor & Speaker again this year.  I thought that only a crazy woman would take a 2 month old to camp.  But after our sweet month together, I desired to go.  I wasn't sure if the retreat facilitators could accommodate our desire for having a 2 room suite-like lodging in order to keep the baby separate from the other 3 kids.  I didn't want him to disturb them with his middle of the night feedings.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

Well, we received much more than we asked for!!!  Our room was the perfect set up for our family of 6. God was sooo gracious to us in so many ways those 5 days.  I'm so glad that I decided to be the crazy woman & bring the youngest camper.  I would have missed out on so many blessings & precious memories with my family. Here are some highlights -

We walked in and found lots of goodies on each of the beds.

Here is the adults' room & of course Baby Caleb.

The kids each had a twin bed in the adjacent room.  

Kempton taught through Ephesians 2:1-10 during the 3 sessions which were all focused on the Gospel.  One of the key points was, "We don't grow up out of the Gospel, we grow into it!"    

Sister Lovin'

Christian's helper, Jonathan, serves us on a regular basis in our home as Christian's Personal Care Attendant (PCA) & gladly served again this year at the retreat.  We praise God for His love toward our Christian.  

Caryn with our friend, Joe, who we met last year.  Sadly, Joe's father died of cancer a couple of months before the retreat.  We were so happy to see Joe, his mother, & brother there.  

My little Kalia loves to swing.  You can often hear her chanting,
"Really high, really high!"  

Sweet Daddy-Son Dance

The girls posing with their new shirts from Grandpa & Grandma G.  

Christian's other favorite PCA, Luke, Jonathan's brother.  

Carysse's 1st time on a kayak with "Uncle" Bob & "Aunt" Mary.

Our Date Night photo before our delicious steak dinner.

Joe on Kempton's back.  He enjoys Kempton so much.  

He wanted to be around him the entire time.  

S'more makin' time!

S'more eatin' time!

Remember Christian's favorite friend, Elisa, from 3 years ago?
Well, she's still his favorite! 

We did flying/sky lanterns one evening on the beach.

Those things were cool!!!
They were so beautiful as they lit up the sky.

Kempton wrapping up the final morning session.

Precious Daddy-Son Moment

The youngest camper was a cute little trooper the whole time!