Renewal Weekend Recap

We enjoyed all day Friday with Indiana North ministry-friends Jason & Mischele Denniston – youth pastors at the Fairmount Wesleyan Church. They met us at Kory’s home and then we headed off to the Indianapolis Museum of Art together for lunch and art-perusing.

After a good art-culture experience, we headed to a salon wholesale store in downtown Indy where Mischele gets lots of her product for the hair salon she runs out of her home.

Afterwards we met up with the 17 other couples from Indiana North here at the Holiday Inn Express in Fishers where we checked into our rooms for the night.

We all headed down the street to the Noble Romans pizza joint for some dinner and then to our next location – a “destination unknown”, which turned out to be the IMAX version of “Happy Feet”. Ella made it through about half of the movie before needing a diaper change and supper.

After the movie, our entire crew headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert and coffee. This is where I realized that I had made a mistake in assuming that our family could “blend in” with the other childless ministry husbands and wives who had come on this Renewal Weekend. Jess and I took turns in attempting to nurture our daughter who continued to make her presence known by vocalizing her want to NOT be at the Cheesecake Factory (maybe we should’ve offered HER some cheesecake).

So, we left the restaurant before everyone else to get Ella settled. When we arrived back at the hotel, Ella was in her super-excitable-mood and she giggled and laughed as Jess and I played with her. It was here that I made a decision to NOT continue on with the “Renewal Weekend Festivities” planned for Saturday and made the call to head back home to Warsaw when we got ourselves together this Saturday morning. We’re bummed to not be able to spend the rest of the day with our ministry friends, but I am glad to know that my family is happy and together. It was good to get away, but I know now that I probably should’ve just planned a getaway as a family instead of attempting to make it a ministry-weekend, too. Heading to Haiti this next week is already putting a stress upon our family and I should’ve seen that coming much earlier than last night, too.

So, our little family will enjoy our trip back to Warsaw this afternoon and the evening in our own home getting ready for church services in the morning. I’m sure I’ll get the recap from my ministry buddies about what the sessions were about today, too.