Journey Joys-October 30, 2016

On October 26 we had an active duty Military Family FHE.  We have been planning this for about six weeks.  We made arrangements to use the chapel on base.  We were assisted by Col. (Brother) Wonnacott and his wife Holly.  Holly did the refreshments because I really don't have the resources nor the extra money to fund such an event.  We gathered the information as to names and email addresses of active duty military.  Wards were our source and we really appreciated their help.  We then organized the information and Col. Wonnacott sent out an email to the active duty inviting them to FHE.  We approached the Chaplain about sending out an email to all those that indicate the LDS preference.   He said he would and he did.  We put it in the base paper.  We contacted all the wards and put it in their bulletins for three weeks.  Craig and I personally delivered an invitation to every military home that we had an address for.  Members were told that if any of them wanted to bring a snack to help with the evening, that would be great.  Holly make 125 cinnamon rolls, did the table coverings, plates and cups and gave the place an autumn feel.  Her family made a large pumpkin bean bag toss along with coloring and search pages for the children.  We were hoping to have 100 or so but really had no idea.  Our RSVP's were about 85 so we knew we were going to have some and we were thrilled with the RSVP numbers. However in the end our head count was 227.  WOW!  We were absolutely thrilled.

The evening began with members putting on name tags as they came in.  People didn't really start coming till 6:30 so we were late when we started.  Col. Wonnacott spoke for about 15 minutes.  We had invited Father Cannon to come but we were unsure of his plans because he never said yes or no.  However, as the event got underway, Father Cannon came back and took over greeting at the front door and then he stayed for most of the program.  When he left, he said that he couldn't believe how many came.  He said he could feel the energy and joy in our gathering.  We believe that he was feeling the spirit of all the wonderful members but just doesn't recognize it.  As Father Cannon left he offered to let us use the chapel whenever we would like to use it.

Tuesday morning, Col. Wonnacott received an email from Father Cannon offering to reserve the chapel for us on a quarterly basis.  He had the dates and times and said, would these work for you.  Of course our answer was yes and so we have 2016 dates reserved and ready to plan.

This was a great experience for us.  It was really the boost in the arm that we needed.  We have been slow in some of the work and I have to remind myself that our work is different than a young missionary.  I'm so grateful that we had the support of the members and that they want to do it again.