This was a wonderful family trip. Jeff and I have been trying to prioritize doing marriage conferences where we can actually bring the kids with us, and this was wonderful for many reasons.
First, the invitation happened to fall over a long weekend for our kids’ school, so we could get a little mini family vacation in, in a wonderful environment.
Secondly, the invitation also fell during the famous Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, where hot air balloonists from all over the United States come to Albuquerque. They have mass liftoffs of 700, 800, 900 hot air balloons at a time, each morning for two weeks. I had heard about this, but had never seen it.
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o, Friday, Jeff and I did a radio interview at the radio station that is based out of the church. That was really fun because Peter, the radio host, was a great guy that we really enjoyed visiting with, and it was neat to see how very professionally the church was handling the radio stations on site. They had many very well equipped studios in one section of the church, and were clearly doing a very good high quality professional job with running these radio stations. That’s always great to see because I love it when the Christian broadcasting world has high standard and it’s able to reach a lot of people. So, that was fun.
Then that evening, we had a really neat event. It was a marriage conference, and Jeff and I when they first invited us, it was envisioned to be a Friday night and a Saturday morning as a citywide event. We have found over time that unfortunately the longer a marriage conference goes, the more hours that are involved, the less likely it is that men will actually come. I tell women in my women’s events that men just have a certain capacity for relationship discussion, and after a while their brains just fill up and their eyes start to glaze over, and something that could have been really interesting and productive becomes very difficult for them.
So, I was very pleased when the church decided on their own that they would just do a Friday night, and expand the Friday night and have two different sessions with dessert in between. They trained it in a way that was really attractive, not only to the wives, but also to their husbands.
So, that ended up being a really neat event. Joey, one of the pastors on staff was a hoot-and-a-half. He should be a stand-up comedian in addition to being a pastor. It was great to have a fun light-hearted event.
Then Saturday morning was terrific for a totally differently reason. We got the kids up at 5 in the morning and joined some friends and went out to the giant field where the Balloon Fiesta is held everyday during this two week period. In the middle of the field of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hot air balloons, watch them all liftoff, it was an absolutely spectacular site to see 700 balloons ascending all at the same time. It was just mind-blowing. I am thrilled when I look and see the really neat things that God is allowing us to do as a family.
Yes, the travel takes a toll, and yes, it’s difficult and unusual sometimes to live this life on the road, but how wonderful that God also gives us sweet gifts of being able to see these things that we probably would not otherwise see.