Burnett Family

Journey Reunion continued…

Each day right after breakfast, we had “God & I Time”, when everyone would find a place alone to spent time with the Lord. Some rose extra early and were out on the lake at sunrise…

    
And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

I wish you could have heard the singing!! Triumphant, whole-hearted, worshipful praise to God…

Robert did a wonderful job leading the music. Our Journey Reunion theme song for the weekend was “Higher Ground”, which really expressed all of our hearts’ desires for being at the Reunion! We sang it at least once every day. :)

Dr. Gothard spoke on the holiness of God and what that means for us as His children, and the importance of feeding on the Word of God daily. His sessions were full of practical truth!

 
Eating another de-LI-cious meal!!

 
Upon request, Mr. Gothard did Q & A during lunch. :)

Afterward, Wayne Fagala led us in a prayer time. We took the words from the hymn “Day By Day”, discussed them, and prayed. It was unique and powerful!

Each afternoon, two hours were set aside for recreation and fellowship! As you can see, volley ball was the favorite, although a few went kayaking/canoeing, took walks, or spent more time alone with God.

Numbering off for SPEED volley ball!

Go, Carinna!!

Those guys really had it going!! =D

Another one of our featured speakers, Eric Ludy, arrived that evening. He and his wife, Leslie, have authored many books for Christian young people and have a discipleship ministry based in Colorado called Ellerslie. Eric’s books and sermons have made a tremendous impact on our family over the last couple of years, and we were SOOOO excited that God miraculously made a way for him to come! If you haven’t checked out the Ludys’ ministry, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

His first message was on the Costly Gospel – how God takes us to deeper and deeper places of surrender that result in us finding our all in Him.

Fortune ladies’ quartet – “Holy, Holy, Holy/Holy is the Lord”

HQ guys’ quartet – “Are You Washed in the Blood”

In his second message, Eric explained how we can reckon our old man dead and let Christ live His victorious life IN us. I’ve heard those truths all my life, but that night gave me a new perspective. Oh, may we not just know these things in theory but in actuality!

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin.” -Heb. 3:13

“…exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the Day
approaching.” -Heb. 10:25

Can’t wait to tell you about the next day! Stay tuned…

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! :)