Stuff You Should Know...

After five wonderful years of ministry at Johnson Ferry, I have been granted a sabbatical this summer. We have been invited to get away from this place for a while so we can refocus on God, family, and what He wants to do in and through us. We hope to return with refreshed hearts and a fresh vision of ministry in the local church.

Before we head out the door, I wanted to communicate a few things to our faithful INFO for Families readers.

First of all, know that INFO for Families will carry on this summer. While I (Barrett) will not be posting, I have enlisted a crack team of guest bloggers to consistently post good stuff for families on this site. All of them are wiser than I am, so it should be a very rich summer on INFO.

Secondly, I wanted to get you thinking ahead about a few events for the coming year at Johnson Ferry. For those of you who are in the Atlanta area, I would be remiss if I didn't give you a heads up on the following:

*A big Fathering Initiative being spearheaded by our Men's Ministry starting in late September.

*Mark Gungor's Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage will be offered the weekend of November 11-12.

*The first of our quarterly Family Focus Sundays will take place on January 15. Rob Reinow will be our very special guest.

*Our annual Father-Daughter Dance will be February 9-10.

*An awesome Couple's Retreat is being planned for March 16-17. There WILL be dancing...though optional.

*We are in the process of re-tooling Family Camp on the beach over Spring Break. More details to come.

Finally, I wanted to give any parent out there who has tween or teen daughters a very specific directive. You should send your daughters to Leaves Me Speechless. This outstanding blog provides relevant Biblical insights and resources for the issues that our daughters are facing. The author (a teenager herself) has recently begun focusing on the areas of sexual purity and God-focused living. It's the kind of stuff you want your daughter to be reading, so please encourage her to visit.

And the fact that the author just happens to be my oldest daughter: pure coincidence. It's awesome stuff whether she is related to me or not.

That's all I know for now. Please be praying that the Johnson family gets from God exactly what we need this summer. He is ever faithful!