Rebound '09 - San Diego, CA

In November we were privileged to attend the EFCA's Youth Pastor and Spouse Retreat (Rebound). It's an awesome time of connecting with other youth pastors and their spouses, connecting with your spouse, and connecting with God. It's such a time of refreshment for Jonathan and I. We are so thankful to our church and to the Central District for enabling us to attend again this year. It truly is a blessing!!

This year was probably the best year for us (although, South Padre in '06 had the best weather). ;) This was our best year because we knew quite a few couples from around the nation and it was such a great time of reconnecting and encouraging each other.There were a lot of couples from the Central District and it was fun to be with the wives again and talk about ministry from our point of view and how we can be encouraging our husbands, how we can encourage each other and just being candid with each other about our struggles in ministry and laugh about our experiences together. And it was great to meet new couples as this was the 3rd largest turnout in Rebound history. This year we also realized that with my introvert personality, I need a little downtime from all the people before we go back home (and I am mom to two little boys). ;) So we spent a few extra days after the retreat just to rest and refresh. And I am so thankful for that!!

I'm going to be splitting this over several posts since we have so many pictures (I'm just posting the highlights). ;)

Saturday
We arrived in the afternoon, checked into our hotel, had dinner with the whole group and attended the first session together. Then we went to the hospitality suite and visited with the other pastors and wives.

Sunday
We woke up "early" (7:30a, even though that's 9:30a at home; just another reason we love California), went to breakfast and skipped out on the session. ;) That's ok, there's no attendance involved. But we did go to church: North Coast (Larry Osborne's church - author of Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God). It was really neat how they had different venues with one message. They have a regular service with the pastor preaching live. And then they have other venues (we only took pictures of a few of them) each with their own style of worship with the same message streamed in live on video. It was pretty neat. We also visited the youth minitries and Jonathan had a great conversation with the middle school youth pastor and was really encouraged hearing about his 13 years of ministry.

the campus was in an old mini-mall;
there were booths set up in front of each children's area,
there were also booths for information and other ways to get connected

the Video Cafe venue

*a coffee-bar in the rear of the room and white chairs facing the screen;
the only instrument up front was a keyboard

the Traditional venue
* pews for seating and a piano in the front for worship

the Edge venue
* for 20-somethings
(but there were a lot of different ages attending),
they had a great worship band with more of a "rock" sound

Tower 6
* this is where the 6th graders meet

this is one of the youth rooms

"Refuel" sign near the vending machines

Then we went to lunch at Mariscos (recommened by the North Coast staff) and had a great meal! Jonathan had the California burrito which contained chicken, avacado, some more stuff and french fries. It was HUGE! I had fish tacos and they were delicious!! I just wish I could have eaten them both since we didn't have a fridge for our leftovers. Definitely the best fish tacos I've had! Yumm!!

this place was in the same strip-mall as the Mexican restaurant -
we didn't know if they made pizza-donuts or donut pizzas...

this is Jonathan's California Burrito
- told you it was HUGE!

Yumm!! fish tacos

Then we took a drive up north to Temecula, wine country, and toured a vineyard and tasted some of their wines. We had a great time taking pictures together by their beautiful landscaping. And Jonathan took some scenic pictures as well.

a beautiful-looking vineyard we saw as we were driving

South Coast Vineyard

Mark and Kari

Jon and Kristi

Brent and Sue

Us, Ryan and Mandy (PA), Jon and Kristi (Ames),
Mark and Kari (Ames), Brent and Sue (Ames)

After our wine tour, we drove back to the hotel for dinner and the next session which was a panel of veteran youth pastors and the president of the EFCA and his wife, Bill and Karen Hamel. All of the couples were so encouraging. I have to admit that I was a little nervous having the president and his wife there. As you can imagine, youth pastors like to have a lot of fun and in doing so they tend to break some of the "rules" that I make up in my head. I've definitely learned to relax over the years because I'd say that 98% of youth pastors have the same sense of humor. So being around the president I was nervous. But he was great and so encouraging!! It was so nice to see his love for the youth pastors and the work that they do! Praise God. After the session we went to the hospitality suite and enjoyed visiting with other pastors and wives.

More from our trip tomorrow. ;)