I hope you all had a Happy Valentines Day yesterday. Mark and I went to the restaurant where we took my pastor after he married us in Clackamette Park. We were remembering that after we were married and we took him out for dessert he said, “Well, now that I’ve married you, I should ask some questions.” He did the whole pre-marital counseling thing after the fact!
This morning after breakfast, Mark and I walked out to where the Clackamas River and the Willamette River meet. That’s the spot where we were married. It is significant to us that we were joined in marriage where two rivers join. We stood there and Mark prayed that God will continue to bless our marriage and will bless that spot as well.
Then we pulled up camp and ran a couple errands such as getting our AC repaired and dropping off our tow dolly before driving over to my older sister’s house. She had lunch waiting for us there, and we got showers. I got a little more done on my project while we killed some time. Finally my sister took us to where we’d parked our RV and we headed to the coast.
Reedwood Friends Church is having their annual all-church retreat this weekend at Twin Rocks, just north of Tillamook, for those of you who are familiar with the Oregon coast. We have been really impressed with the RV set-up at the retreat center. We’ve been without full hook-up since we left our job in California, but our spot here has sewer hook-up as well as water and electric.
We got all set up and had some dinner, then went down to the dining hall. People brought snacks to share tonight, as the retreat center doesn’t provide a Friday evening meal. It was good to get hugs from many of our friends and catch up with what’s happening. They asked us about our travels too. We saw a tiny girl toddling around that was still in arms last time we remember seeing her. We’ve heard she says a few words too. Things change fast when you go away for a while!
I brought Banana Scrabble down to the dining hall and got several people, including my pastor, to play with me. There were other games and things going on at a couple other tables. Besides our church, there is another group there this weekend. They mostly seem to be teenagers doing some sort of activity. It should be a lively weekend!
Denise, our Joni and Friends Oregon office leads an August Family Retreat for families affected by disability–the same as the camp I help lead in the Santa Cruz mountains–at Twin Rocks. I’ve seen many pictures from there. Fun to imagine you, Mark, and the church group in the settings I’ve seen. We will especially be praying as you make your way East, and miss you lots!
Oh, man, I miss you guys too! Thank you for your prayers.