I’m here in Huntsville for the week after seeing my sister get married this past weekend. The ceremony was at our sponsoring church (where we grew up and where my family attends), Memorial Parkway Church of Christ. Afterwards they had a reception on the church lawn under a big tent. It was a beautiful wedding and a great night to reunite with family and friends. Best of luck to the happy couple, Ashley and Charlie!
Barton’s back in classes this week learning about conflict resolution styles with the rest of the team. He’ll be flying back to Alabama this weekend for our Friends and Family Retreat, held at Memorial Parkway.
We’ve been running at full speed since returning from our survey trip. Two weeks ago we had a team retreat in Howe, Texas, where Barton spent his childhood. We stayed with some old family friends of his. We had a great time and were able to sort through some core issues before the end of our time here in Dallas. I’m including some pictures from that retreat as well as a few from the wedding. We just finished up the final version of our Vision and Strategy document after countless hours of prep work. This will be a very useful tool to us on the field as we will have already outlined policies for different situations we’ll encounter while we’re in Peru. Last week we had a great series of classes from a marriage counselor, Galen Jones. He presented some really practical material that will help us with many of our relationships with others.
Cole is growing fast and getting stronger ever day! He reached a milestone this week (rolled over from his back to his tummy) and my mom was able to see him do it for the first time. He can now roll both ways and he’s well on his way to being able to sit up. It’s been so much fun to watch him grow!
I’m grateful to be able to spend some time with my family for a little while and for many of my family members to meet Baby Cole for the first time. He’ll get to meet even more of his family at the retreat this weekend. We’ll be sure to post more details about our retreat this weekend later.
-Allison
