Marriage Retreat 2009

A few weekends ago (march 13-15) John and I went with our church to Brainerd MN for a weekend away with our spouses. We really had the best time!!! Just so you know...I did an awful job of taking pictures this weekend...sorry mom (the one person that actually reads my blog). :)

Justin & Beka picked us up around 1pm to drive north several hours to Cragun's resort. Once there we settled into our room (with a wood fireplace..YES!), we freshened up before the first session.

The main speaker of the weekend was Dr. George Kenworthy. George is an amazing speaker that has a passion for marriages. His 4 page resume includes being a preaching pastor for 30 years (his church became known as the "church that saves marriages"), writing books & traveling around the world (literally) teaching church staff how to counsel couples. He deals with the worst of the worst marriages...those he refers to as "dead" and almost every time incorporate an affair of some sort. He's helped save so many christian marriages that are "100% over." He and his wife currently live in the twin cities area when they aren't out of the country. He said he's one of the only evangelical counselors in the are that actually pray when with couples...imagine that?!?. George's secret is that he steps back to allow God to work his magic. It's not him saving marriages. He asks the creator of the universe to help give each couple solutions and answers to their circumstances & there is no doubt it's our living God that does all the work. He brought so much life & knowledge to the scriptures and messages throughout the weekend that I won't even try to explain them since I'll do them no justice. He restored a lot of marriages that weekend simply by giving them something they had lost a long time ago...hope.

Justin & John at breakfast one morning...this pic. just cracks me up for some reason.

the view from our room...the lake was still frozen.

Saturday we had two sessions in the morning and by lunch time we had the rest of the day and night free. After an awesome nap (with the fireplace going of course) and a tournament of Rook we got ready for our date. Our only homework was to write our spouse a love letter. John and I are not the type to ever do anything like that without being told to in a setting like this, but we loved it. It was special. We picked a little restaurant on the lake. It was hilarious since we rode with Beka and Justin to arrive at the restaurant together and then split off into two separate tables. Later back at the resort we met friends at the pool and played a version of ultimate frisbee in the pool (guys vs girls) which was prob. not the best idea for a marriage retreat. I think we all walked away with bruises, but all our frustration melted away in the huge hot tub.

we almost took this carriage ride, but choose to nap instead. :)

Sunday we wrapped it up with sessions in the morning and grabbed a bite to eat with the Koen's and VanDalen's at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Overall we're glad we went & we really did learn a lot. I asked Dr. Kenworthy if he had ever trained any churches in the TN area and he said he just got back from Sevier Heights in Knoxville. He said they have a full staff ready to help council couples with the techniques George lives by and with prayer.

John and I want to continue to be involved in marriage retreats & take the time to focus on our marriage making it a top priority even early on. We didn't arrive with issues to work out or at whits end with each other, but we still walked away with a deeper understanding and commitment to each other & I don't care who you are, that's some good stuff! :) Yes it takes time and money to go to events like this, but can you really put a price on increasing your closeness with your spouse? I highly encourage anyone who can to go & learn something knew about each other while strengthening what's already there.

Feel feel to ask me about what Dr. Kenworthy spoke on or what we learned if you want to know. If you don't want to on here, email me or catch me on facebook.