The staff huddle I have been longing for....

So my husband works at a great church and though there are many reasons why it is a great church, I am only sharing one with you tonight.

Since Journey has been around, Mike Burns, the senior pastor, has taken the current staff for a mini retreat somewhere in the desert. He does this to build the team, provide a rest for the staff, and communicate where the church is headed. In all the churches that Todd and I have worked at.. Journey is the only one that does this. It was sooo needed. I took my camera, but was having such a great time relaxing that I didn't get it out much.

I did happen to capture a few pics from our last night there. Mike took all 40+ of us to Kobe, a Japanese steak house ala Bennyhana's...meaning, the crazy chef cooks your food at the table and does fancy tricks and such. I am all about the experience and had way too much fun. :)


Here is the chef pouring a lovely ginger sauce into our little bowls.. I just liked the way everything was lined up.




Here is our teaching pastor and wife, Ed and Linda looking in awe at a fancy fire trick.... Oooooooo....



We were all sitting in groups of 6, and we kept hearing the occasional sad "aww.. man" coming from the other tables. One of the tricks the chef does is to pop a piece of shrimp into the customers mouth with his spatula. I am proud to say that all of our guys caught them.. There were no aww...man's at our table! And seeing as how you probably get out much more that I do, you probably already knew all this.. but I didn't... Let the simple girl live a little!! :)

Here are Rod and Jason looking lovely! And for the record, my man also was on the top of his game.. but he was too close for me to photograph...





A close up fancy fire trick... I am easily impressed. Oooooooo.. oh wait, I already said that.



Tara took a snap of Todd and I, and seeing as my husband doesn't like his picture taken, I am always happy when we get something... anything... even grainy, dark, ones like this. I am rocking my glasses, after trying very hard to be super cool all day with my Hollywood shades...but my contacts were starting to glue themselves to my eyeballs, so out they went. I am sure the 108 degree weather didn't help....



Thanks so much Mike. You don't even know how much we love being back in the family!! :)

And for all you couples whom I photographed as we were waiting, send me your email in a comment, and I will forward your picture to you.

And.. if you work at a church that doesn't take yearly retreats as a staff... get on it!!