CVM African Retreat

We had the opportunity to get together as a CVM Africa team (plus a couple other locations) at the beginning of April. It was set at a location on a beach in Kenya. We had been hoping to have this retreat for a couple years and happy that it could finally happen. It was a nice getaway for everyone! The kids especially loved playing (jumping) in the pools and playing in the sand on the beach! 

Traveling with a family is always an adventure. We rode airplanes, buses, taxis, and even a ferry!! Josh and Abby especially liked the Ethiopian Airplanes. Now every plane Josh sees he has to shout out "Ethiopian Airplane!!"

We stayed overnight in a fancy hotel in Ethiopia while we waited for our connecting flight. The airline provided us visas for the night, and this hotel with 2 buffet meals. And the kids found a nice little play area to burn the last of their energy. 

Getting to Kenya seemed exhausting. We had to wait for 90 minutes to get through passport control, and 2 hours for the ferry. We arrived at our beach resort hot, tired, but glad to have landed. 

The resort was amazing!! There were several swimming pools we could use. The beach was lovely with perfect soft, white sand and warm water. We had a private hotel room, albeit a good walking distance from the main lobby and dinner area.

The kids enjoyed finding a fish pond on the site. We had to make time to see the fish anytime we passed by. And there were lots of monkeys! And camels on the beach if anyone wanted to ride camels. Denise found an 18 inch monitor lizard. And we found a few other large centipedes and small geckos. And Abby found a crab! We found lots of sand crabs on the beach one night as well.

Our mornings were spent in meetings with our colleagues. And we had free time each afternoon to spend with family and each other. We loved being able to connect and pray together with others on our team. We talked about things like strengthening our marriages and families, staying safe on the field, preventing burnout and depression. We worshipped to beautiful worship songs and studied God's Word together. We spent time to hear each others' blessings and burdens.