Back to the Garden, Take 3

Out of my window this morning I have quite a different view.

Dave and I drove from home in Czech late last night, and woke up at a hotel in the center of the city. Where are we?

Across from the central train station in Krakow, we are here this week for our third Josiah Venture marriage conference, called "Back to the Garden"!

Six years ago we hosted our first marriage conference at this same hotel, with around thirty couples. Three years later, at a different hotel in the same city, with almost twice as many couples, we hosted another conference to invest in our marriages.

And now we're back at the same hotel we started in, with one hundred couples, ready to dive in and work hard on going deeper in our marriages!

Dave and I will be with half of those couples, going through the foundational teaching of what it means to return to God's original design for our marriages.

At the same time, the couples who have already been through the material will be in sessions learning from two of our JV married couples, and from several couples who we've brought in from the States to do personal marriage coaching.

Each JV couple will not only hear truth from God's Word each day on what His design is for marriage, with time to process and work through those truths, but will also have the opportunity to meet personally with one of our eight coaching teams who have come to serve us and are equipped for helping couples take steps towards even greater intimacy and maturity in their marriages.

Putting on a conference like this is a joy! And a lot of logistics. Here to serve us is our JV conference coordinator, Martina, who has spent many hours wrapping her head around the details that it takes to get everyone here for an event like this. "Thank you Martina!"

Later this afternoon, couples will begin arriving through these doors and get checked in at this desk. We have been praying over this event for months, asking God to make this place holy and safe for each couple, giving them time and space to work on their marriages.

I am beyond myself with excitement over what God has for our JV couples in the next four days! The past conferences have resulted in much fruit in our marriages, and I expect that God has even more for us as we dive in to his good design for healthy, vibrant, rich and deeply happy marriages!