I love the way the snow looks after a winter weekend retreat. Thousands of footprints have packed down the trails and camp appears well used. The footprints represent trips to and from activity areas, conversations had and countless memories made. It’s all part of a retreat experience here at Barakel.

So far this year we have hosted three Father/Son retreats, three Teen retreats, and a College and Career retreat. We have five more weekends of retreats before our winter season is over. We are grateful for the opportunity this time of year provides for us to host a variety of age groups. It is encouraging to be able to witness the transforming work of God in lives from the six year old son to the 60 year old grandpa. Please pray that God will continue to draw hearts and lives to Him.

The weather has been… we’ll say “fickle”. On one hand, we have had very warm days and overall, not much snow. On the other hand, the snow and ice came big each time it came, and Tylee has already enjoyed several snow days off from school! All of this has made it a challenge to keep ice on the rink, but God has provided enough cold nights to make it work. We have been able to tube every weekend except one and the ski trails have been ready for two of the weekends.

Whether it was the weather or just that time of year, we were hit by the sickness train here at the Linsley house. We came home from a New Year’s Eve party to find Tylee up sick and within an hour Josiah was too. Tylee was able to fight it off on her own, but Josiah ended up with scarlet fever! Thankfully it quickly disappeared with antibiotic treatment. Simeon joined in a week later with high fevers lasting for seven days. Thankfully we are all better now and ready to enjoy the winter!

Yesterday we started teaching the second graders at the local Pioneer Clubs. It’s a great opportunity for us to get to know and share the gospel with the kids in Tylee’s grade. This year we are being “Truth Detectives”, finding out God’s truth about the world!

Through our work with His Love Family Resources, we are also beginning a new program called “Birth of a Family”. We start next week and along with two other couples, we will mentor young mothers and couples on how to have a biblically based family. Please pray for this. We are excited to see what God will do through it.

We have been given the opportunity to share our adoption story at the annual Valentine dinner for our adoption agency. Please join us in praying that we would not only be an encouragement to others but that the connection between the gospel and adoption would be clear in what we share. If you are in the Detroit area on February 9th and are interested in attending, let us know!

Our plates are full, but God has given us the grace and energy for each endeavor He has called us to.

Grateful to be able to serve Him,

Jeremy for the Linsleys