This past weekend, a few of us drove down to West Virginia to attend a Family Encouragement Weekend Conference there. The weather was gorgeous for travelling down and the scenery was beautiful, especially as we got further south.

We’ve often commented that American freeways are much better than Canadian ones. However, when we arrived in WV, we discovered West Virginian country roads differ from Quebec ones in a very different way! These roads are very narrow (so narrow in places that if two cars meet, one needs to back up to the nearest driveway!) and twist back and forth along the mountain sides. It was very picturesque, but also nerve wracking for some (not me 🙂 ). Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of the WV countryside, though.

The conference was very encouraging. The theme this year was that of staying the course with joy. Many of the sessions were exactly along the lines of what the Lord has been teaching me over the past year or two. Walking in the joy of the Lord at all times stems from truly trusting God – being fully confident that all He is allowing and doing in our lives is for His glory. And when we believe that, we can go forth with joy! Or as Mr. Neely put it: “What are we going to do when the events in our lives aren’t going the way we want? We”re going to love God; we going to trust God; we’re going to obey God; we’re going to serve God; no matter what.” And in this we find the depth of joy that the world does not know or understand.

And now for a few pictures… It may be observed that the place was well decorated!

During the children’s hour, there was a skit illustrating the need for keeping our eyes in the right place in order to be able to “sail on” with joy and not be “shipwrecked.”

And then the young people went outdoors for some games…

At the end of the day on Saturday, there were some specials.

And a few other shots…