Mountain Musings

Times of Refreshing ~ NCFIC Conference ~ Repentance, The Reformation Continues

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." ~ Acts 3:19

Below is my annual photo of the Ridgecrest Conference Center, located in Asheville, NC, where every October we attend the NCFIC (National Center for Family Integrated Churches) conference. This year's theme was Repentance.

Here's a picture of Jonathan and my sister, Aunt Bet, who drives to Asheville each year to the conference from Greenville, SC, to pick up Granny for a few days' visit while we're attending the sessions: The very first folks we saw were our friends, Mike and Ginger, whom we always love to catch up with during free times. Here I am with Ginger:

Mike and Ginger are fellow Virginians. Here's Mike chatting with Tom as we first arrived and checked in:

Our keynote sessions always began with singing...in this case, an old time favorite is shown:

We always enjoy browsing the vendor hall each year. Here's Hannah chatting with the vendors from Florida who run Psalm 78 Ministries.

This was extra special for me because these folks attended our family's ice cream social back in May during the Landmark Events Shenandoah Valley tour. Since I wasn't part of that tour, I was meeting them for the first time:

Here's Hannah again with Hannah from Florida, daughter of the Psalm 78 vendors:

Here's one of the keynote speakers, Scott Aniol, whose message was on Repentance through Singing in Corporate Worship:

And my favorite workshop message was by Dr. Carlton McLeod, a pastor from Chesapeake, Virginia, who spoke on Repentance and Revival: The Power to Change Kingdoms...about Jonah and how God can revive people's hearts when there is no hope:

We ate our various meals during the conference with different folks each time, which was very interesting...getting to know folks from all across the country...from Idaho to Texas to North Carolina. Here's Jonathan conversing with family friend, pastor Marcus Serven:

There seems to be lots of Hannahs at these conferences! Here's our Hannah with another Hannah from Alabama:

And...another Hannah from North Carolina who's been at the conference several years as we have, but this was the first year for us to meet:

The Girotti gang poses with Hannah's sister, Lily, another first meeting:

These folks were attending the conference from Pennsylvania...and they were also at the ice cream social this spring! I loved talking to the family and getting acquainted:

As you can see from reading this post, conferences like this are about the messages...yes...but also a lot about meeting people and connecting!

These newlyweds came over to see us...and, of course, they wanted to see pictures of our grandsons! Luke was in Sarah and Eric's wedding two years ago:

Hannah renewed acquaintance with this nice young lady, whom we had met previously when we visited her church in North Carolina earlier this year:

As you can see, it was a beautiful day. Tom and I loved being outside during breaks getting some fresh air and seeing the fall scenery. It was another very good time at the conference!

I'll leave you with these lyrics to the theme song we sang throughout the weekend, His Robes For Mine:

VERSE 1:
His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.

VERSE 2:
His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.

CHORUS:
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone.

 

~DebSave

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NICU Reunion Fall Festival 2017

Hi blog world! It's your Georgia correspondent here! :) I wanted to share some pics from our fun weekend...this was the first year we have attended the CHOA NICU reunion. We didn't go last year, as Andrew was still on oxygen and a little fragile having just been discharged about 5 weeks beforehand. I've visited some of our nurse friends over the past year while at the hospital for different procedures, but this was a lot of fun to see more of them and all in one place.  

We checked in at the welcome table and picked up a t-shirt for Andrew. There was a big bounce house set up for the kids to play in, but Andrew was not interested at all. Ha! He preferred to go play with a big ball in the grassy area all by himself. There was a photographer there taking pictures of each family, so we went over to that area next....I liked the way ours turned out, although I wish the boys were smiling. There was just so much going on for them to take in, they didn't know what to think.  

There was a catered meal from a BBQ company, cake, and other goodies. We sat and talked with another NICU family that had been at Scottish Rite this year and compared our experiences. It was good to get to know some new people with similar issues. Inside, there were long lines to get face painting and caricatures. We didn't wait for those, but met up with our friends to talk - their little girl is just a couple weeks older than Andrew, and we were side by side neighbors for most of our NICU stay, with our babies going through a lot of the same things. The mom and I are good friends now, and it's always nice to catch up.

And of course...seeing our nurses and respiratory therapist was wonderful! I got pictures of Andrew with two of his four primary nurses and his RT....really wish we could have seen and gotten a pic with his main doctor, but he had already left for the day. We are so grateful for all the hours of loving care these ladies put into taking care of our little preemie last year - God sure used them to bring Andrew through some tough times!

We had a great time seeing everyone again! Maybe next time Andrew will actually want to participate in all the fun activities instead of being shy. ;) And since he wasn't even really smiling in any of the photos from the reunion, I'll close with this picture of my two boys...playing together on the day Andrew turned 18 months. (Aaaaahhh, can you believe he's already that old?!)

~Sarah

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Reforming Families Conference ~ Creation Museum & The Ark Encounter

At the end of September our family traveled to Kentucky to attend the Reforming Families Conference being held at the Creation Museum.

This was the 6th year for the conference, but it was the first time we'd decided to attend. The theme this year was Finding Joy in a Gloomy World. All the speakers and messages were excellent, but we were hoping that a lot more families would be attending--not very many folks took advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Here's Ken Ham below, founder of the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, speaking during his main session and inviting everyone to the Ark and especially during the Christmas season. There were two full afternoons of free time to allow attendees to visit both the Ark and the Creation Museum while in the area, which we did visit even though we'd been to both before: We wrote about visiting the Creation Museum back in 2007, 10 years ago! And we wrote about our visit to the Ark Encounter just last August...in case you'd like to go back and see those blog pictures.

Here are Hannah and Jonathan at the Creation Museum picnic grounds where they had planned a welcoming cookout for us...the beauty of the gardens surrounding the area was amazing: Here's Tom standing on the bridge in the scenic gardens with the Creation Museum in the background: I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the lovely landscaped areas around the Museum property, and I also enjoyed reading the various Scripture plaques located all over the property: Here are Tom, Hannah, and Jonathan ready to attend one of the conference sessions: This unique fossil greets visitors as they enter the Creation Museum: During our free afternoon, we toured the Museum. Here we are strolling through the Garden of Eden, complete with animals and Adam and Eve: We were unexpectedly able to attend a Buddy Davis concert at the museum on Friday afternoon. He was headed back to his home after a long road trip and gladly played and sang for anyone who happened to be in the museum at the time: The last day of the conference ended at noon on Saturday, so we made plans to drive to the Ark Encounter, only 45 minutes away, for the afternoon and evening. The day was absolutely beautiful, and the Ark's landscaping was my favorite part! They had added much more since we were there last August: Several topiaries, sculpted wire statues filled with moss, were scattered around the lake in front of the Ark with more to come, they promise. I thought the giraffes were very majestic and unique: The camels also were positioned strategically in the gorgeous flower beds: Here we are just arriving on the scene after being dropped off by the Ark bus: Last year when we visited, the queue line leading to the ramp to enter the Ark was all dirt and nothing had been landscaped. Here's a part of that area with trees and flowers to enjoy while waiting in line. Since we arrived mid-afternoon, most of the crowds had already gone through: I didn't take pictures inside the Ark on this visit since I'd taken so many and posted them last year. However, Tom posted a lot of pictures inside the Ark on his Instagram account, so if you'd like to see them, check out pleasant.view.woodworks on Instagram.

We did have someone take our family picture at the door of the Ark that God closed when Noah and his family were all inside:

The last photo is one taken of the bow of the Ark after we had exited. It is definitely a majestic structure and well-worth planning a family vacation to tour it. We would highly recommend going! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed being a part of our trip to Kentucky!

~Deb