For those of you who know us, you know that some of the advice we give to couples are in regards to investing in your own marriage. We also recommend a great way to invest in your marriage is to take some time out for a marriage retreat. A few years ago while Kate and I were speaking at one of these annual marriage retreats called the International Marriage Conference, we had the opportunity to meet Ron Deal. He was the keynote speaker, and we were some of the workshop speakers at this event. One night all the speakers sat down for dinner together, and that presented an opportunity to get to know one another. We always love going to these dinners because we get to know some really great ministry leaders from across the globe, and we get to find out what their passion is for serving others.
Like I said earlier, this particular year we got to know our new friend, Ron. We learned that he has a great heart and passion for blended families. He asked us what we do, and we told him about our ministry of Marriage Awakening. He must have picked up on something we said, because he started pressing us for more information. He mentioned that what we were doing for marriage was great, but questioned if we ever considered sharing our personal testimony regarding our blended family. I said it was very personal, messy, and complicated to say the least, but he encouraged us to let him know when we were ready to share our story with others. After much contemplation and prayer we decided that is was time to expand the ministry of Marriage Awakening to use our testimony to help others in the area of blended family ministry. The next thing I know we are being interviewed by Ron and have started recording two radio shows for FamilyLife Today (you can read more about that here).
It was a whirlwind of activity and after the broadcast aired, I heard that Focus on the Family was going to host a Blended Family Summit. This is an annual event put together by FamilyLife Blended. After
hearing more about this annual summit from Ron, I decided this would be a great opportunity for me to experience first-hand how this great ministry positively impacts blended families. I was amazed at how absolutely authentic and practical this event was. They were discussing real issues that blended families face on a day-to-day basis, and offering practical solutions on how to deal with the tough stuff. They weren’t beating around the bush, they were hitting the tough situations head-on. The content being discussed were topics that I have never heard discussed publicly before, probably because no one dares to mention these issues outside of the conversations with their own spouse. This event was definitely an eye-opener and something that was long overdue in helping these hurting couples and families.
FamilyLife Blended mentioned that they were going to be hosting another event called, 
Blended & Blessed in the near future, and that it could be hosted in your own local area. I knew this was something that we needed to do in our hometown because I knew that it would be a great outreach for our community. So that is exactly what we did. We are proud to announce that Marriage Awakening will be presenting this year’s local Blended & Blessed event in Springfield, MO. Please help us get the word out to everyone who is either in a blended family, or would like to learn how to minister to blended families.
About 40% of Americans are part of a blended family of some sort, that’s about 113 million people nationally. On Saturday, April 29, 2017, we are having a FREE community event that is designed to strengthen and encourage blended families. We will be talking about the 5 keys that are crucial to healthy stepfamily marriages. FamilyLife Blended in conjunction with Marriage Awakening and Evangel Temple Church will host a free event for the community in Springfield, MO. Please see the event details below and also note that space is limited so please don’t forget to register for the event here: SpringfieldFamilies.Com
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