Family Camp 2015 ~ Review

first day of camp

The Colony had the privilege of being a part of Macedonian Call Ministries, Family Camp.

We have close ties to the families who began this great ministry so we are a little bias, but deep friendships aside, this was a week that our family will not soon forget.

15 Years of friendships and 3 quivers full

After being contacted by one of the families to see if we were interested in being a part of the week, we were a little confused.  Usually this means packing up all the music gear, putting a band together, and making sure our kids are taken care of so that we can minister to the attendees.

But not this time!
This time we got the leave the instruments and guitar picks behind, actually I still saw a few floating around our living space, but our sole purpose for attending this camp was to be a family and grow spiritually together.

Instead of music gear, we had boys clothes EVERYWHERE!

It also happened to be at the college where Josh and I attended and we were able to drive around and show our kids where we fell in love, the place we had our first date (and basically stared at each other eating for an hour) and the area we made our first home together.

The site of our first date

I know my kids had a blast.  Here is the proof:

They lived off of the cafeteria pizza and Lucky Charms.  So much so, that Jude actually began calling the cafeteria, "The Lucky Charms", ha!

I could write so much about this wonderful week, but bullet points usually get us farther in a blog setting, so here it goes:

• We LOVED getting to have family worship experiences with our kids because usually Josh and I are on stage away from the questions of our kids.  We were enabled to have times to teach them how to hold still during a service and to listen to teaching which I think is VERY important.  We just haven't had many opportunities to be able to do this as a family.
• The camp allowed us to meet other families who are seeking the Lord and His leading for their families.
• Each family is assigned a "family assistant", but because of the size of our family we had two awesome young adults/teenagers who served and loved our family all week long.  Our family assistants, Noel and Jackson, became part of our family that week.  They took our kids (Jude) out if they were restless during the teaching, they helped lead the family devotion times, they cleaned up spills and stood in line for 30 minutes to get our kids ice cream (a huge thank you;), they helped us with group activities.  I enjoyed every minute of my time with them.  In fact, I still keep in contact with a handful of the staffer assistants from the camp and I believe we have forged some deep friendships that will last a lifetime! (we can't wait to see you Tammy and Noel!!!)
  
• The planned activities were family focused and were all intentionally planned to create talking opportunities and bonding within your own family unit.
• The family teaching as well as the parent teaching (when the kids went to their age-appropriate classes) was excellent.  Everything was based on God's definition of Biblical family and the importance of the family unit. 
• I loved that a service project was part of the week, giving our families a chance to love on other families in the community!  THAT, my friends, is the church.
• My favorite time was the prayer night.  The staff had set up the main gathering place with fancy tables and decorations and prepared desserts in a restaurant atmosphere.  Each family "checked in" with the hostess who showed us to our table and we got to enjoy our evening snacks.  This lead into a super special prayer time where the head of the household was able to go around and pray with each of the people in his family.  I might have cried a lot:-)

I really can't say enough positive things about our experience.

And I'm happy to say that we have a jar saving our pennies so that we can go again next year!

We'd love to see you there.

Check out the website and please contact me with any questions.

It is NEVER a waste of time and money to spend time with your family and learn how to move forward in your spiritual walks together.

We were all exhausted in the best possible way!