Week-End d'Eglise: Week-End en Famille

This past weekend we had a 30 hour church retreat.  58 people came including all the kids (2 babies) and a team from a supporting church in Rochester, England.  It was a truly great weekend!  The weather was perfect.  Nearly everyone from our church was able to attend.  It was obvious that people simply had a fun time getting to know each other, playing games, and talking about God's desire for the family, our theme for the weekend and this fall.  

We started the retreat with a picnic lunch on Saturday at noon.  Honestly, with the way that the morning went, I was really anxious about how the rest of the weekend would be.  When Jordan and I were leaving an hour later than planned, having trouble with Judah's car seat, learning that every other member of the team was late, and that the team from England had 2 flat tires, I sent a text to my family begging them to pray.  Upon our arrival - basically at the same time as everyone else from the church - we were stressed and overwhelmed.  We finally got settled though and the rest of the weekend was ideal.  Praise God!

After lunch we were divided into 10 teams.  The teams consisted of kids and adults alike, with no two family members (with the exception of very small children) on the same team.  It was a great time of fun competition with various games such as broom ball, pictionary, and other get-to-know-you games.

Before dinner we had a discussion related to "the modern family".  A few people performed brief skits that brought out the idea of child-rearing, and we talked about the positive and negative aspects of the common attitudes seen through the skits.  Then everyone was given a piece of paper to draw faces of a "modern man" and explained why they designed what they did.  I was impressed with the participation and the deep thought that went into the silly designs.

After dinner the team from England led us in several team building games for the entire family.  It was great fun!

Rochester Baptist Church has been supporting Le Rivage through faithful prayer and finances from the beginning of our existence.  They do not want to simply support us though; they (and we) desire to have a partnership between our two churches.  So in December of 2014, perhaps you remember, Jordan and I visited their church and participated in the Charles Dickens Festival outreach (and we're planning to return this year with others from our church), and as a way for them to know us better, we invited a team from their church to join us for our church weekend.  They helped with our kids program, shared their heart for our church and the people of France, and spent time simply getting to know people.  It was a true blessing, not just for our team, but for our entire community. 

Sunday morning we had a more intentional time of worship and teaching from 1 Samuel.

The retreat officially ended after lunch on Sunday, but the majority of the group stayed until early evening, chatting in the sunshine, playing games, and taking advantage of the free high ropes coarse that was next to the camp where we stayed.

We were really encouraged by the weekend.  The majority of Le Rivage was present; people participated and seemed to have a good time; kids were hanging out with adults that weren't their parents; there was lots of laughter and deep conversations.  One woman asked why we don't do this every month.  Our prayer is that this weekend would launch our church into deeper relationships with each other and Christ.  We desire to better understand God's heart for the family - both the traditional family unit and the Church Family.  We thank God for the work He has begun!