How to Make the Most of a Week at Big Sandy

It has become a yearly event around here. Each year our kids count down the months, days and hours until the next Family Conference in Big Sandy, TX. We all adore relaxing at the campground, reuniting with old friends, making new friends, participating in the fun activities for the kids and the learning from the awesome speakers during the conference. We cannot say enough good things about it, our kids love it, we love it and we plan on going back every year, Lord willing! Click here for Family Conference website

          

Since I got SO many emails and FB messages this year asking me a ton of questions about the specifics of camping at this conference I will try to post more details on what to expect and some practical advice and tips.  

  

1. If at any way possible you can camp then do so!
The campground is so enjoyable and it is how you will meet the most people! Everyone we meet says that Big Sandy is SO much better than Nashville or Sacramento's conferences because of the campsite surrounding the conference center. Buy, rent or borrow a camper if you can or just tent camp. We know several families that tent camp every year and they are just plain awesome! There are also small (shed sized) cabins available or dorm rooms (hotel sized) available too. For more info on pricing or housing info click here.

  

  

2. Dress modest but don't freak out about a dress-code.
There is not a strict dress-code and you will not be judged if you are a female wearing pants. You are camping so dress comfy but bring some nicer outfits for the 3 conference days. With that said, most women wear modest, dress-casual skirts and dresses, yet some wear floral print lace-necked dresses and some wear pants and t-shirts. Men wear pants or shorts to the knee and polos or t-shirts, some men main be in a dress shirt and slacks for conference days. There is a dress-code for some of the children's programs but those are clearly stated in the conference guide.

  

3. Pre-cooking and freezing is the way to go!
Although, daily meals are available for purchase at the conference center via their meal plan options. I always prepare and pre-cook all food so that while camping I am truly on vacation. I try to make crockpot meals for every dinner so that I am not inside the camper tied up with cooking but can be free to relax, play and fellowship with our kiddos and others on the campground. Just combine your ingredients in a bag, freeze it, then put it either defrosted or frozen in the crockpot the morning you need it.

  
Tip 1: Put smaller mason jars of condiments you need, like mayo so you aren't taking up fridge space with that wholesale gallon jug of mayo from Costco. Also, freeze your crockpot ingredients flat so you can stack them.
  
Tip 2: Write instructions on freezer bags and have a meal plan list to follow day to day.

  
Tip 3: Pre-make sandwiches, like a thousand PB&Js, and put them back in bread sleeve and freeze them. Let them defrost in fridge the night before that way they will be ready for lunch time. Also, we made carrot coconut flour muffins ahead of time and froze them so we had healthy muffins for a quick breakfast item on the go!

  
Tip 4: Bring LOTS of Smores ingredients as there will be a lot of campfire fun!

  

 4. Prepare to have a TON of fun!!!
The conference itself is typically three very full days (Wed-Fri from 7am-10pm) with registration starting at 11am the Tuesday before and the first two speakers on Tuesday night from 6-9pm.  The past three years we arrived at the campsite on Saturday morning after a 12-14 hour all-nighter drive. We can then relax, fish, canoe, bike, play, and fellowship all day Sat, Sun and Mon before the conference craze starts, then we usually leave anytime on Satuday following the conference. Next year we may arrive even earlier because the campground itself is just so much fun.

  
  
Tip 1: If at all possible bring the kid's bikes. The kids typically spend the entire week on their bike! The campground is huge with many exciting adventures and bikes (or golf carts) help get where you wanna go faster. Walkie-Talkies to stay in touch with kiddos are a good idea too...as most days we only see our big kids at meal time ;)

  
  
Tip 2: Don't try to see all the speakers, pick your favorites or ask someone who the speakers that are worth not missing are. All the speakers are great and you can go see them all but you will wear yourself out (we know, we did the first year!). We usually skip the 2pm-4pm sessions somedays just to catch a nap!

         
Tip 3: Prepare to make lots of friends! Print out business card sized family pictures to hand out to new friends. We also printed our email and phone number on ours this year and the kids handed out all 60 to their friends. They write their address on the back so their friend can write them as penpals the entire year until the next family conference!


Our Family Testimony Video
Once our week of fun had come to a close we left earliy on Saturday so we could make it back to our church by Sunday morning. Our church had asked us to give our family testimony as well as sharing more about our new daughter, Brittany. Here is the video of Brian sharing at our church on Sunday, April 26th, 2015:

Also, after three years of prayer we finally took the plunge and applied as members so we can begin Wisdom Books as our homeschool curriculum. We received our box of member goodies at the conference and have already begun this week with Wisdom Book 1. We LOVE it so far! It truly is a curriculum with a firm biblical foundation and yet such a deep and rich study of God's creation and order, through language arts, math, history, geography, science, law and medicine! We are excited to see what each new Wisdom Book will bring!

Here are posts from our past two years:
Big Sandy Family Conference 2013
Big Sandy Family Conference 2014


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone 

Is Adoption a Calling?

We dreamed of our future family. Our perfectly planned two child family. One boy and one girl, in that order. Well, maybe a third, but only if we didn’t get our two genders on the first two tries. We had our two baby names picked out. One boy and one girl. We were already following the American Dream step by step. Nice apartment as newlyweds. Two brand new cars. Then a big mortgage on a big beautiful house. Add in our credit cards, beautiful financed furniture, stylish, new clothing that we never had time to wear because we were always working in our uniforms, nice dinners out every other night and big, expensive vacations. Isn’t two kids, a 50 hour work week, a truck load of debt and a life of living far above our means the normal American Dream? We were normal. We were happy.

But then we were hit by a whirlwind. We were pursued and our hearts were captured. The desire to live a life of the American Dream was torn from our minds and replaced with a new desire. A desire to lose our lives. A desire to give up our lives to serve. A desire to serve others until the end of our lives. A desire to please, honor and obey the One who laid down His life as a ransom for ours. A desire to be willing to be used in any way that He would chose to use us to further His kingdom and for His glory.

"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28 

We gave our perfect future family to God. We asked God to choose for us how many children we would have and asked Him to build our family in any way He chose, through birth or adoption. We put our life spent chasing the American Dream on the altar. We sold our cars and bought ones we could afford with cash. We sold our house and bought one we could afford with cash. We gave up one income so we could best care for the blessings God gave to us through adoption. We live within our means and by God’s provision through tight budgeting, growing and raising much of our own food, buying used clothing, items and furniture from second hand and thrift stores. God changed all aspects of our dreams, our desires, and our lives.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present you bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2

When we are born again we truly are new creatures. We serve a new King, in a new community. We are no longer part of this world but aliens from a distant land just passing through. While we are here we serve our King through serving others. But how do we know our calling? How do we know God’s will for this new life?

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification;” 1 Thessalonians 4:3a

When God saved us we were instantly justified. We were forgiven, washed clean and made new creatures in Christ. Our justification was like standing in front of the judge as Christ petitioned to adopt us as His own. We were adopted in that moment. Justification says “you are My child,” sanctification says “now live like you are My child.” Sanctification is the life long process of our lives becoming more and more like Christ. One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 1:6-9 where God compares this process of the testing and building of our faith to that of a blacksmith as he plunges the gray stone into the fire. As the flames lick this stone slowly the dross melts away into the heat and revealed is a brilliant, shimmering yellow malleable liquid that we call gold. That is us. What a picture. But do we step in the fire willingly? Do we kick and scream and fight when it gets too hot? Are we keeping our eyes glued to our future hope? To Jesus who is more precious than gold and whose image we are conforming to?

Sanctification hurts. It is like being thrust into fire. It burns. But sanctification comes with a great promise! That we will one day be as precious and shining as gold. A promise that one day we will see glorification. A day when we will be finished, given and new imperishable body and taken to our permanent, eternal home. Oh, how there are days I am so homesick and long earnestly for that day. Lord, Your will be done, Your kingdom come.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to becomes conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:28-31

As we walk through this Christian life, as we walk through our sanctification God will continue to work on us by putting His Word into our mind (“cognition”). He will then plant seeds of “conviction” that will one day bear the fruit of “affection.” Terms were taken from this article, The Steps of Biblical Sanctificaion by John MacArthur.

To turn this post to our heart for adoption, let me say that as we allowed God’s Word to sink deep into our hearts our cognition of God’s character deepened. We see that God loves and cares for the orphan. Because we are being conformed to Jesus’ likeness we therefore will also love and care for the orphan. We see that God created all humans in His image and put an intrinsic value on every child regardless of their physical, emotional or mental capabilities. We value life, all life, because God does. We truly believe that God will place this same cognition in the minds of all His people at some point in their sanctification. That cognition is the seed that grows into a plant of conviction. Because God values all life and loves the orphan we grow a conviction as God’s people to step up and put those words into action.

That conviction will come in many ways but often is in the form of adoption. Everyone we talk to about our family always says something like, “we have thought about adoption one day.” I have never met a Christian that didn’t mention their personal love for adoption. Because, we believe, God has written His love for adoption on all of our hearts when He adopted us.

This may rub some wrong but we do not believe that adoption itself is a “calling” from God.

What!?!

If God picked and chose certain Christians to adopt then I am the last qualified for this calling of taking care of His children! I love clean, quiet, order and normal. I am introverted and really don’t like attention or touch. I am not a very fun or huggy or soft, motherly natured type person. I am all business and structure, a “let’s get her done” kind of gal. I am more equipped to climb a corporate ladder than kiss boo-boos and counsel young hearts. Did I hear the call of God wrong? Maybe He meant for me to lead a Christian business from behind a computer in my quiet of my childless house.

God doesn’t call the equipped, but I promise He equips who He calls!

We definitely don’t feel we were audibly “called” by God to adopt children. We were called to follow God and sacrifice all for Him. As we surrendered we followed God where His heart is. His heart is with the poor, the needy and the orphaned, therefore that is where we followed Him. Are we “called?” Yes, called to love others as ourselves. We don’t want to be poor, hungry or without parents so why would we leave others in that condition? Did we always want to adopt? Absolutely not. We wanted what we viewed as the easy road, birth children. But we had that still, small voice, that passing thought that said, “we will adopt one day because we were adopted.” Slowly, as we stepped out in faith and willingly obeyed that conviction deep in our hearts. God grew that conviction into a tree that bore fruit of affection for adoption, that affection turned “one day” into TODAY. God today we will adopt. We won’t make them who you love suffer any longer as orphans. We will take on Your heart for the orphan and cure their plight today. We surrendered our lives when we submitted, just as Isaiah the prophet did before us (Isaiah 6:8), “Here we are Lord, send us.” In that surrender God did an amazing work tilling our hearts, changing our desires and equipping us for this road of adoption He “called” us to.

This past week we tilled up a 2000sqft area that will prayerfully be a plentiful garden. Brian did most of the tilling as it was quite the difficult task. A small but powerful machine with rotating blades designed to dig deep into the hard earth and make it soft and ready for seeds. Our dirt was compacted and hard after having much heavy machinery drive on it while moving our mobile home onto the property. The tiller had its work cut out for it. It took several rounds going over and over the hard soil. Each time the tiller passed over an area of dirt it dug deeper and deeper cutting up huge roots and digging up large rocks and stone that couldn’t be seen on the surface. Slowly the soil began flowing freely and easily through the blades as it stirred a black living substance that will miraculously grow our food. Holding onto that tiller as it fought and leaped against the hard ground it gave me a picture of my own heart. A hard heart that God forced His perfect tiller over. He tore through the surface of selfishness and continues to dig deep, cut roots of anger and bitterness and throw out stones of pride. Until more of my soil begins to resemble that perfect, rich and soft magic that will grow great fruit for Him. What a picture Jesus paints in the parable of the soils in Matthew 13.

We are told all the time how AMAZING we are. How awesome what we are doing is. How great it is that we “found” our calling in this life. I cannot tell you how incorrect this is! We are the furthest people from amazing. We don’t always walk willingly or immediately. We don’t always want to follow the convictions God puts in our hearts. Why? Because this road is hard, tiring and at times lonely. We are human, weak and fearful. We don’t feel ready or equipped when we take the leap of faith and say, “yes” once again. We walk in faith (“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1) and then pray and pray that God would give us an affection for this conviction. He always does. Each time He calls us again to this road of adoption through conviction He always grows that affection within us later. So even when we are scared to walk this road again we can remember that God has proven faithful in the past. He will grow in us that affection if we will walk in faith now.

Do we feel supernaturally "called" as adoptive parents?
No, this is just the way the universal "call to sacrifice" has played out in our personal life.


Let me leave you with this quote that is stuck deep in my heart.    

“No generous impulse is from Satan. All good and generous impulses are from God!” - Jodi Ware, wife of Bruce Ware from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Satan isn’t out there tempting people to care for the orphan. He is against all things good and holy. He wants you to give you 1000 reasons why you can’t possibly be called to do God’s will.

If you have ever thought that adoption would be something you could see yourself doing one day then maybe, just maybe YOU have been “called” by God.

Posted by Shannon

Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone

Fun and Fellowship in Big Sandy, Texas!

We are tearfully headed home from our 2^nd trip and week spent in Big Sandy, TX for the annual ATI Homeschool Conference. We arrived early on Saturday morning and enjoyed 4 days of camping fun with our family, meeting new friends and fellowshipping with the families we met last year. We were encouraged in our journey and were encouraged by what the Lord is doing in other families’ lives. From the moment we pulled up our big kids were off finding all their penpals and friends from last year. Once the 3 day conference began it was go, go, go! We would quickly grab breakfast, get some dinner in the crockpot, run the kids to their activities and programs and be filled with great speakers’ teachings and sermons. The conference itself was so encouraging and gave us a year’s worth of application to pursue in our Christian walk, the number one teaching we will bring home is the Power of Prayer by David Gibbs. We hope to pursue of journey of nonstop and very powerful prayer this year!

Here is our blog post from our 1^st year attending this conference, when our discernment was peaked and ready to decipher theological and doctrinal error: A Week in Big Sandy with the Duggars
 

This blog post is to share some pictures of the fun we had during this year’s conference but before I share, I would like to address the current Gothard issue so this is not read as if I am naïve to happenings. Gothard was not present at this conference as he has resigned and has released a statement online (click here for Gothard’s statement). ATI as a whole is not a person but a ministry, a ministry that truly strives to equip families to love and serve the Lord, their families, and others. The families we have met and continue to meet (including the Duggars and Bates) are real people, saved from real sin and serving a very real Jesus. As humans we can and still do fall into sin and temptation, it is why we need a personal, loving Savior. Whether innocent or guilty we do feel Gothard did the right thing in stepping down and stepping back to evaluate his own walk with the Lord and reconcile with those who feel or were wronged. This is just another homeschool conference with great and encouraging speakers to help strengthen Christians, parents and families in their walk with the Lord. I do believe that the ATI’s ministry began to encourage families and provide teaching and curriculum to help them along their homeschool journey, but along the way instead of worshipping Jesus and using ATI as a tool, ATI and Gothard have been worshipped and followed to the point of idolatry. We must always evaluate our own heart and motives, the Lord tells us in Proverbs 4:23 to “guard our heart.” Our heart focus should be Jesus! Gothard needs prayer, he and many other men of ministry are not perfect, they are men like David, who although may be men after God’s own heart they are human and can fall into lust, temptation and great sin (James 1:14-15). It should hurt our heart when we see a man fall and hurt our heart all the more when they bring a whole ministry with them. We were thankful that the conference continued this year under new management, it was an encouragement to our family.

Here are some pictures from our trip:


                The twins Sunday best!                                       Risa and Sam with Jim Bob Duggar!


  
     Anthony and Sam chillin' with Jason.                                  Daddy walking with the twins!

  
       Six little children standing on a log...                                             Cool Dudes!

                             
             Mirabel and Sam on a family walk                    Maggie hitching a ride from big brother

  
        1st fun-filled day at planned activites                                            Mom & Dad

 

  
       Risa and Titus at Children's Institute                               Samuel and Anthony at ALERT

                             
                   Mirabel at Pre-Embassy                                 Maggie hanging with mom and dad

  
               Best friends when awake...                                                     ...and asleep!

Stop by our 5 Kids 6 Months Facebook page where I will be sharing some other wonderful families’ websites and blogs that we have met while camping here! They are real, imperfect and in love with Jesus just like us!

Click here for our blog post about the 2013 conference
Click here for our blog post about the 2015 conference

Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone