Except for our trip out to Boise to interview at Cloverdale URC, Russ and I had not taken a trip together for several years. Since the church pays for one conference or education trip for Russ each year, we decided to take advantage of still having Caleb home and make a trip together this year. The topics and line-up of speakers at the Ligonier National Conference and the connections to awesome accommodations and fellowship in Orlando made the decision easy. The hardest part was leaving the kids behind! For three of the days someone from the church picked the younger three kids up around 9:00 and dropped them back off around 3:00. The boys came home around 4:00 and then they were on their own until the next morning. Nicolas stayed home from school on Friday with the kids. Nicolas had an BPYO concert on Saturday afternoon, so we left Orlando early Saturday morning and were back in Boise by 12:30. It was a bummer to miss the last few talks, but I wouldn't have missed the concert for the world. They sounded great...and it was our turn to take tickets.
We arrived in Orlando early (for the conference) and enjoyed a day at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near the Kennedy Space Center. Of course, even as we enjoyed a break from day to day parenting, we were wishing our kids were with us to see all the fascinating birds, to count the gators, and pick shells off the beach.
These little guys are so ugly they're cute...
Osprey making a nest...
Marilyn worked hard to get a picture of this feral pig...
Picnic lunch at the Visitor Center...
The conference theme this year was "After Darkness, Light." It was a call to the church to continue to be light in a dark and increasing secular world. The speakers included: Alistair Begg, Rosaria Butterfield, Tim Challies, Kevin DeYoung, Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Peter Jones, Steven Lawson, Russell Moore, Stephen Nichols, R.C. Sproul Jr., and R.C. Sproul. I think you can still watch the entire conference on-line here.
Mom and Dad with the couples they met on the Alaskan cruise...
One of the highlights of the trip for me was the concert on Wednesday night at St. Andrews chapel. R.C. Sproul wrote hymns that were orchestrated by Jeff Lippencott. The combination of beautiful music and meaningful lyrics made for an extremely worshipful experience. You can order yourself a copy of the music here. I bought four to give as gifts and all recipients have come back to tell me how much they appreciate the music.
St. Andrew's--R.C. Sproul's church
We wanted to be sure to say hello to Kevin DeYoung while we were at the conference, but it was hard to find him. We finally just decided to get in his book signing line one night. I had his book Taking God at His Word along to read on the plane so I just grabbed that to make our presence in the line legit. Unfortunately, I had the dust jacket on wrong so he signed the book on the back cover...upside down. It is a good thing we were more interested in just seeing him and saying hi than having a book signed!
All in all, the trip was a wonderful a time of spiritual refreshment and renewal. The weather didn't really cooperate since it was only in the 50s most days (and 70s both the day we arrived and the day we left!), but that was okay since we were inside most of the time anyway. I loved being able to see Mom and Dad and meet the others that stayed in the house. I didn't even worry too much about the kids! (They did great, by the way.)
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