VM Summer Conference 2015

Last night we wrapped up our summer conference at Lake Williamson Christian Center in west central Illinois, and this morning we will begin out trek back home to Volga. 

This week has been so wonderfully encouraging for us! We are so thankful to be part of such a dedicated and godly family of missionaries. The Village Missions gatherings are always such a blessing for us.  

Brian Wechsler, the Director of VM, sharing an encouraging message

Experienced missionary men on a panel sharing their advice and experiences regarding mentoring/discipling others

To add to our already great week, we were able to get some much-needed alone time this week as our kids made their rounds visiting grandparents in Fort Wayne while we were at the conference! (The conferences are designed for missionaries to bring their families, but we remembered our exhaustion last year and thought that this year it might be nice to have a break, and a good opportunity at the same time for the kids to visit family.) It was a lovely week to be able to reconnect and get some uninterrupted sleep. ;) However, I am pretty excited to know that we'll be leaving soon and I'll get my babies back in a little over 3 hours! :D

Saying goodbye to my kids last Sunday

Time with the hubby!

<3

Fun time at Chuck E Cheese (and lots of other places) with grandparents!

And sleeping well at the end of the day!

Most of the week was pretty full: We had two seminars each morning with a break in between; lunch; "free time" (meaning time for Chris to work on sermon prep) or extra activities; dinner; and another seminar in the evening. It was full, but so good! 

Wednesday night is traditionally a "family night", where there is a special service and activities geared for the whole family. There was a talent show, where people could sign up to sing an encouraging song...

Stephen and Grace, missionaries from Bruce Crossing, MI

The Faulkenberry family, missionaries in Sebeka, MN

Others specialized in impersonations or tried stand-up comedy...

Chris telling jokes (I'll have to try later to try to load the video...no time now!)

There was also a hay ride...

...And a bonfire that got rained out.

Talking to the Taylors. Why do I always look so serious? I promise it was a good conversation ;)

We thoroughly enjoyed our time getting to know other missionaries and hanging out with those we already knew, but there's a time for everything...And now it's time to go home! Volga, here we come!!!

I will try to get on in the next week sometime to write more of an update on what's been going on in Iowa, but I at least wanted to take the chance to get up some pictures from our conference while I had a few minutes!