CCH Church Retreat!

So we arrived home last night safely back from our time in Austria. I am not exactly sure where to start with everything! The Lord really did a great work of His Spirit at this year's church retreat.
We started off by leaving Friday evening to head to Spittal, Austria where a friend of ours would host us until the church retreat started on Sunday afternoon. We arrived on Saturday morning, around 4 a.m. and we were completely wiped out! Later on in the day we went to a restaurant that has an amazing view of the Austrian Alps. We went to this restaurant last year and really wanted to take the Fox's (Rhonda, Lauren, & Katelyn) to it again this year. We had a great time and the Lord really blessed our fellowship that day! Thank you again Daniel Ornelas for hosting us once more!

here is a view from the restaurant

As you have already read, this year's theme was "Spiritual Warfare." This was a theme laid on Pastor Edmund's heart, since it was really something that we as a church have been dealing with and so we decided to spend this whole week really dealing with this topic. All throughout the week the Lord was really aligning each of the messages from Pastor Brent Harrell (CC Rome), Pastor Edmund, and I. In fact, in the middle of the week Edmund and I were talking about how it was amazing how the Lord was doing this. I loved what Edmund said. He said, "It is like we are passing the baton to each other, and as one ends, the other one picks up and keeps going." I can honestly say that this was a praise report, as this is what I was asking the Lord to do through the teachings.

Noah enjoying the day in front of the castle

Many of the people were commenting on how blessed they were with the teachings and some even shared how this would be something for all of the church back home to hear. For some of them, it was their first time ever hearing teachings on Spiritual Warfare
At the end of the week, Pastor Edmund opened up the microphone for people to come forward and to share how the Lord impacted them throughout that week! What a blessing it was to hear from many different people in the church and to hear how the Lord really spoke to them with their current situations!

view from the dock, down below the castle

Aliyah & Katie enjoying the time with daddy down at the lake

Some of the other blessings that took place during the week was the fact that we had a few different visitors with us for this year's retreat. Not only were we blessed to have Pastor Brent and his family join us for the week, but we were also blessed to have Patricia (a sister in the Lord from Brazil) join us as well. This was her first time ever to Europe and she absolutely loved it! She also joined in with the worship team throughout the week and led some of the worship, both for the adults and the children's ministry. We were also blessed to have Rhonda, Lauren, and Katelyn Fox join us from CC Chino Hills to come and do the Children's Ministry throughout the week. They did a great job and the kids really had a great time! Last but not least, we had the Schneider family join us from another local Calvary Chapel here in Germany join us for their vacation. The Lord directed them this year to get a hold of us and to see if it would be possible for them to join us as well. They shared at the end of the week on how extremely blessed they were and how much the people from the church just loved on them as well!

Rebecca, Patricia, and I

We do praise the Lord for all that He did this past week and we look forward to what He wants to do from this point forward. We truly know and have been reminded that we are in a Spiritual Battle and we have got to fight this battle in the Spirit! We do ask all of you to please continue to be praying for all of those who were at the retreat to continue to "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." Eph.6:10