Burnett Family

Last week, Abbie and I got the opportunity to go down to Big Sandy, TX with some friends and attend Family Camp. We rode down with the Mount family and during the week, Abbie helped baby-sit/big girl-sit ;) their younger girls (this was the whole reason we got to go). Also while we were down there, we were able to spend a lot of time and room with the Chatham family!

 
I love my sister!!! <3

Abbie and Brittney Chatham 
 
 
Abby Mount-this little girl is so sweet!

 
Charity and Brooke Chatham

Brenna C., Abbie, and Brittney C. enjoying Lew Sterrett

 
Lew Sterrett

 
Sunday morning hike and devotional.

  
Lots of exciting volleyball games! The Mount guys did a wonderful job coaching us! It was very helpful.

THE TOWER.

 

Brenna C, Charity, and Abbie waiting in line to go rappelling!

 
Rappelling was one of our favorite activities! We went so many times. We would go back next year just for the rappelling…and volleyball! =D

Sophie Covey, Dennah E. and Abbie

 
Charity and Brooke

Brittney and Charity

Brenna, Charity, Brittney, and Brooke
We were blessed to be able to spend so much time with the Chatham girls! From staying up late talking and snacking, to rappelling from 44’, horse back riding, volleyball, and a trip to Wal-Mart in the rain…we are blessed to have ya’ll as friends! Thanks for all the fun memories. Hope to make more soon!

Charity

Abbie enjoyed joining the Mounts and a few others on the “confidence course”.

 
Abbie and Abby. :)

 
Don’t fall off!!!

 
It was a blessing to spend time with the Mounts and get to know them a lot better! =D

A big thanks to Mrs. Mount and Brittney for contributing pictures to this post!

We are hoping to go next year with our WHOLE family! Right Dad?!?! =D

The Northwoods staff with Eric Ludy – we had such a fun time fellowshipping with the staff there! They are a great team with a servant’s heart.

On Saturday morning, Eric Ludy preached two more messages – Wrestling Prayer and Hero Training. The Lord especially used the one on prayer in a powerful way – we didn’t want to stop listening! Just imagine what would happen if each attendee got a true grasp on effectual, fervent prayer!

Eric graciously agreed to do Q & A during his last lunch with us before heading off to the airport. :)

Our family with Eric

More times of prayer…

By now ya’ll must realize, we played a lot of volleyball…on the very last night, we had 8 teams of speed volleyball going at once! It was a blast! =)

Saturday afternoon, we had break-out sessions. Mrs. Kathy Fagala shared with all the women…

…and Mr. Wayne Fagala shared with the guys. It was a blessing to be able to talk heart-to-heart and glean from their wisdom!

(Check out the convertible truck in the background. :)

That evening we all went down to the lake and had a cookout. I think the pictures will give you a nice idea of what a special and refreshing time we all had together.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Singing around the campfire was really special.

S’mores = YUM.

 
The NWCC director surprised us with fireworks at the end of the cookout! We just had to sing the Star Spangled Banner. :) We then moved to the Lodge to continue fellowship and … volleyball, of course!

Bob Norvell preached the final message on Sunday morning, encouraging us to live as the tabernacles of God.

Caleb did a great job managing the sound booth – thanks, bro. ;)

Hannah was very happy to have 2 of the young ladies from her Journey team there.

=D

Saying good-byes…

Journey Reunion 2011

To God be the glory!

Here’s a go for a recap of our preparations and first night of the Journey Reunion!

Northwoods Conference Center (NWCC)

This place is stunningly beautiful in all seasons of the year…especially fall!

 
We arrived on Tuesday evening, ate chicken fajitas on the dock with the staff, got settled into our rooms, and loosened our stiff joints with invigorating volleyball…the first of many games to be played. :)

 

Wednesday: It was so nice to have a whole day to set up and prepare – everything was a “calm busy”.

 

There was LOTS of cleaning to be done, centerpieces to put together for the dining room tables, bouquet for the podium, and this and thats. :)

I loved how these centerpieces turned out = rustic elegance. :)

We even managed to squeeze in time to get our annual family pictures. Might as well take advantage of such a beautiful location while we’re there, right? We know from experience that it’s much more efficient to have someone else behind the camera, instead of using a tripod, running back and forth to check the pictures, etc., so we were grateful that Chad Paine helped us pose and snapped the pictures for us! Sorry, you don’t get to see any of them, yet. :)

Thursday: The cleaning crew worked hard to finish up all the last details, we set up the registration table, and people began arriving!!

***YEAH!!!****

By the way, John-Clay did an AMAZING job designing the website, name tags, schedules, and all our promotional materials!! Everything looked classy, professional, and fun. :) Thanks, J-C! We’ll definitely “hire” you again next time. ;)

It was rewarding for us to see the excitement on people’s faces as they arrived, so happy to be there! Several had stories of miracles God worked that allowed them to come. He is so good!! What a blessing to reunite with old friends.

After so much anticipation over the last months, weeks, and days, it’s hard to explain how thrilling it was for the Journey Reunion to BEGIN! =)
That evening, Bob Norvell preached for our first session of the weekend. His message was a fitting exhortation on evaluating whether we have active revelation of God in our lives, and to be Samuels (and Samuelas :) in this world.

God worked in special ways to allow the Fortune family to be there. They served in many capacities throughout the Reunion, including ministering to us in song.

Dr. Gothard, who began the Journey to the Heart ministry five years ago, led everyone in an hour of prayer. WOW! It was a precious time with the Lord and each other as we all knelt and communed with God.

We could sense immediately from this first night, a beautiful spirit of unity that lasted throughout the conference. This special group had invested their time and money to get away and seek God.

Everyone wanted to be there.
Everyone wanted to go deeper.
Everyone wanted to seek God with all their heart.

And as He promised, He richly rewarded us! (Hebrews 11:6)

 

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in
the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
Jude 1:20-21

More to follow! :)

Just in case anyone is wondering, we didn’t fall off the face of the earth, but, we DID go all the way to the upper peninsula of Michigan and back, in our big green van! There’s our shadow in a corn field. =)

 

 

I love my family, and this was a trip of a life-time! All 10 of us were able to go together…something that doesn’t happen very often any more. The purpose of our trip was to coordinate and attend the Journey to the Heart Reunion.

Here’s how it started: Journey to the Heart is a 10-day retreat that 5 of us older kids have each been to. It’s a set-apart time to seek the Lord, and each of us has been very blessed to have had this opportunity. We enjoyed it so much, made some really close friends, and had a desire to go back to the Northwoods in Michigan where it is held. Back in December, we popped the idea to the Journey office about having a reunion for everyone who has attended Journey to the Heart. Long story made short, they loved the idea, but didn’t have the time to do it themselves, so they asked us if OUR family would like to coordinate it! After much thought and prayer, we excitedly took on the project and for the past 6 months or so, we’ve been planning, creating, organizing, designing, adjusting, promoting, recruiting, and praying!! It’s been a wonderful, HUGE, learning experience for us that we wouldn’t trade for anything, and now after months of preparations, it was finally here!! We can’t wait to tell you all about it, but we have sooooo many pictures, we are going to spread it out over several posts. This post is just to document our travels UP there. =) Ya ready?

Our first stop was in St. Louis, where we went to church with the Burns family (check out their exciting new film in the making!). We arrived early, so instead of sitting around, we stretched our legs and walked across this mile long bridge. There was a nice breeze, and the sun was shining which made it very refreshing. :)

 

This bridge used to be a part of Route 66.

Macho-man. ;)

After church, we went to the Burns’ house and ate lots of delicious nachos…

played foos-ball…(while eating cookies??? :)

enjoyed some very entertaining games of “occupation telephone”…

go Nick!…

…and played a late night game of Settlers of Catan…

 

and of course they played it, Burns’ STYLE! We’re convinced that’s the only way to play Settlers now.

Thanks guys, for your generous hospitality, a great time, and all the good laughs! Now YA’LL have got to come see us! =)

  

We didn’t get very far down the road, when we stopped and got some REAL apple cider at a quaint little shop, then continued on our way.

We were driving through Iowa and decided we couldn’t pass within 15 miles of the Bontragers’ house without stopping! So, we dropped by for about 30 minutes. They were having a huge Labor Day party, with tons of people, but they still showed us great hospitality, and served us ice cream! =) Next time we come through, we’ll definitely have to plan on staying longer!

Back on the road. Iowa was probably my favorite state that we drove through – all the rolling hills and picturesque farms were a sight to see!

 

Monday night, we arrived at the Dorninks’ house in Minnesota! (Dustin and Melody were on J-C and Hannah’s Journey teams in 2009.) We were definitely feeling a difference in the weather by this time…in a good way!  We had a great evening/late night/early morning (if ya know what I mean ;) filled with great food and fun fellowship.

 

Big game of 1-100! Grab the pen!!!

They endured our my pathetic volley ball skills. :) …but we’ll have to play again sometime, because I improved at least a little by playing so much last weekend! =)

 

Ya’ll are so much fun – thanks again for opening your home to us!

 

Check out all that corn! We decided that for every corn field up there, there is a pasture of cows down here. :)

On the 3rd day of travel, when we were about an hour or so from our destination, we stopped at Lake Superior and stretched our ‘tired of traveling’ bodies. :)

 

Gorgeous shot, Charity!

This is a great way to streeeeeeetch after a long van ride! =)

 

Enjoyin’ the fresh air!

 

That water felt good!

 

Final leg: I see 2 mischievous lookin’ guys in the back row, hmmm. ;)

*Ahem, after 24 hours, split up into 3 days in the van, the chances of getting a little goofy increase considerably. :)

almost. there.

 

You should’ve been there to see our excitement when we saw this sign and pulled into the long awaited drive-way of the NORTHWOODS CONFERENCE CENTER!!! We are so thankful for the Lord’s protection the whole way and for Him sustaining us…and our van! =) Lord-willing, in the following post we’ll share more pictures and tell you about the great time spent with the Lord and our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Until then, God bless you all!

With summer comes fun times with family, homemade ice cream, hot weather, travel, and…lots and lots of FRIENDS! This summer has been no exception, as we have gotten many chances to get together with old friends and meet new ones.

When we traveled to Indy, Joe and Jerica Henline met us at Skyline – a Cincinnati restaurant that serves a signature chili. We had a great time catching up with Joe and Jerica and talking about their newest project – a short film entitled, The Forgotten Martyr: Lady Jane Grey.

Note: This isn’t your typical chili…it contains chocolate and cinnamon! I made it a little more Oklahoma-ish by eating it over fries instead of spaghetti noodles. :)

Next – Abbie’s good friend, Laura, was in OK for a week, so we drove up to the City and went to Cimarron for chicken fried steak!

Laura and Abbie spent a lot of time together coordinating the CI’s this summer and became great friends…with the specialty of solving all the world’s problems late at night. ;)

A few weeks ago, all of us girls attended a 2-day youth conference called Ultimate Quest. UQ began in Australia and is touring the States for the first time this summer. We came away thoroughly blessed and challenged!! This team does an incredible job of presenting Truth in an interesting and impacting way. Just the fact that you get to sit and listen to an amazing Australian accent the whole time makes it easy and fun to listen to! :) Each leader has a passionate desire to help young people make wise choices and follow God’s ways…because His ways WORK. UQ is highly recommended by our family. :)

Maggie and Carinna’s team

Mine and Abbie’s team  – we didn’t get a picture of Charity’s team. :(

 
What would you think if a total stranger from Alaska (blog reader) contacted you about stopping for a visit on their way to Texas?? Well, after asking a few questions :), we were happy to host Barrie for a visit, admiring her bravery to STAY with total strangers! But actually, I don’t think there are any such things as “strangers” when you’re talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you have never met each other before. We had a grand time learning about her family, beating her in Dutch Blitz playing lots of fun games =D, listening to her crazy adventures of missionary life overseas, and talking about the amazing way God leads us when we give all to Him.

Does anybody recall our gingerbread house competition with the Fortune family last Christmas? :) We’re still friends even after that (haha), and were soooo excited to see them on their singing tour here in Oklahoma!

Our grandparents’ church hosted them here in town for a Sunday night service. Once again, we were so blessed by their testimony and music. The Lord speaks through them in a powerful way!

Keeping up the tradition of fellowshipping at Braum’s. :) Lots of talking, pictures, teasing, sharing, and encouragement!

Fortune and Burnett girls – we outnumber the guys 2 to 1. :)

So, there’s a much-needed update on what’s been going on around here in the month of August! We have more things to tell you soon…so stay tuned. Until then, thank the Lord for the wonderful FRIEND that He is to you and the special friends He has put in your life. :)