World Mandate 2011

Every year Antioch hosts World Mandate, a missions conference open to all. It has always been a time of refreshment for us and a chance to be stretched in so many ways. This year was no exception. Despite having the kids with us the majority of the time we were able to enjoy many speakers, worship times and visit Impact Now. Impact Now was a section dedicated to many different ministries from Human Trafficking and Disaster Relief to signing on for a full year of serving with the SERVE Project.

There was so much put into this conference and God was on the move. Some of my personal favorite quotes from this year are:

Jim Yost - The closer you get to Jesus, the sooner you get kicked into the harvest field because that's where his heart is. Don't look back at yesterdays success but start now today!"

Jimmy Seibert - The spirit of fear will enable you the rest of your life if you don't address it.
-Whatever you have, it's enough and it's needed in the nations of the earth.

Floyd McLung - Faith isn't about whether you have money or not, it's about whether you hear God and obey him.
-There are people who have the dream but don't have the discipline to inherit the dream. Who are you?

Christine Cain - The purpose of life is not to arrive at death safely.
-We were born to dispel the darkness.

There is so much that I can't even touch on in a short blog entry, but there was just a taste. Thank you Jesus for what you are doing!

In addition to a great time, we were able to see the 18 people who traveled down from South Dakota from The Crossing and Patmos! It was so fun sharing meals, fellowshipping and just being around familiar faces! Here's a picture of all the kids enjoying birthday cake at Fazoli's for Lainey's big day!

Family Night

The Bissons have officially started Family Night! We have always had family time but with our schedules being a bit busy these days with Elevate, Andrew's work and school things we decided to dedicate one night a week to 'intentional' family time.

It's only a couple hours but it's dedicated to getting to know each other and spending quality time together. One person in the family gets to pull a slip of paper from the container-and let me say, that's half the fun!

The kids had so much fun decorating an old oatmeal container that now holds all the ideas we came up with as a family. Here are some pictures from our first family night! We started out swimming for an hour and then went down to the Brazos to feed all the hungry ducks. All our bread crumbs we had stashed away finally served a purpose:) We love Family Night!

Latest Creations

So I've had a creative streak going on. Well, maybe creative isn't quite the word to use because I've copied all the ideas:) Maybe creative in the sense of "hummm...how do I copy that?"

So here are my latest copycat creations and an updated prego picture (tomorrow I'm 35 weeks)!

Grandpa & Grandma Visit, Elevate Retreat & More

In mid-August Andrew's parents were able to escape the farm and come down for a quick visit! It was wonderful to see them and the kids had such a wonderful time being "spoiled" by Grandpa and Grandma. We went out to eat, got donuts, enjoyed a long ride, shopped, and the kids played and played! We were all so sad to see them go:( We keep reminding the kids that a Christmas visit is only be a few months away. That always makes for fun conversation on time frames. Yes, that's after the baby comes, yes, that's after Aaron's birthday, yes, that's after Thanksgiving... Okay now it sounds really far away but really it will come fast:)

The following week Sydney started school (see earlier post) and then we packed up on the weekend and headed for a great weekend at Three Mountain Retreat Center in Clifton, TX. The Elevate Opener Retreat was so much fun and refreshing for our family. Being on staff this year has a much different feel rather then being a student like last year - but still so good! The kids enjoyed play times, movies and activities with their 'new friends' while the adults enjoyed great teachings, worship times, team building activities, group times and more. I do also enjoy the perks of not having the cook for the whole weekend!

Now we are trying to work on our duplex that we moved into. We are so thankful and grateful for more space. The kids room is practically finished and we are encouraged that it's done before the baby arrives! Andrew is going to start replacing our linoleum floor tonight (big project) so we'll see how that goes. He's been so wonderful at working overtime on this place to make it a great place for our family for at least the next couple years.

The next big thing up for us is World Mandate Conference! We are super excited about this conference. Every year God shows up to us in a new and exciting way. Major things in our lives have come out of attending this conference. In addition to the amazing conference, some of our friends from South Dakota will be attending so it will be great to see them too. We are also housing 3 people from the College Station church plant so that should be fun too.

So now you are all updated on the Bissons! We'd love to hear from you all about what your summer was like and how we can partner in prayer with you!