Have you ever had one of those weekends that is so amazing that you want to share your experience with the world? Last weekend at the Living Prayer Family Retreat, I had such an incredible time being with my family, growing in Christ and meeting lifelong friends. This was an amazing start to kicking off my focus on Family Ministry here at Christ Lutheran. This is a ministry for the whole family where families can come together for fellowship and growing in Christ. I wish I could share the whole weekend with you but that would take more pages and time than a normal blog length, but here are some of the highlights. First, we were at Lutheridge, which is one of my favorite places ever! This is where I see God the clearest. It was perfect weather, a little chilly, but we had a gathering room with a fireplace that we kept going the whole time. Time with family was great. Pastor Matt and I decided that we weren’t going to look at our phones as much. I only used mine to take pictures. It was great to disconnect from the world and connect with my family. Next, the emphasis on prayer is a special one for me. Prayer has changed my life. Prayer is a part of who I am. I want to share with my children that prayer is a way to bond with God, to communicate with God and to strengthen our relationship with God. We looked at different ways to pray. We did everything from praising God through creating something with Play Dough to writing our prayers on fabric and weaving them all together to hiking and praying to God at the same time. Knowing different ways to communicate with God is something we wanted the families to experience. At the end of each day, we ended with spirit-filled worship and games filled with laughter and smiles. It was an amazing weekend! Here is a reflection from the weekend from Christina Masters, one of the participants: “We had an incredible weekend, and were all so sad to leave! Our hope for the retreat was to make friends and feel closer to our church family- and we got that and so much more. We developed ways to pray together as a family and our children made friends and spent time playing HARD without technology (what a treat!), Travis spent an entire weekend un-tethered to his work (which is a challenge since he owns his own company) and we all were able to worship, focus on God and community. I know that personally I have made lifelong friends and I hope that others feel the same of us- there is nothing like a strong church family and I am so thankful we have found ours. We love you all!” Come join us for the next family event, Family Ski Day, February 9!