Recap from Conference!

This is directly from Gary and Barb their recap of the weekend!!

After months of planning, a team that outserved at every opportunity, the Guard your Heart Military Marriage Conference is history!

This past weekend, Barb and I, joined by our tremendous America's Family Coaches team, tremendous volunteers and more served some of the greatest heroes of our day...military marriages. Most of these couples represented the 2nd Brigade, which returned from Afghanistan this summer. Others were couples that had experienced deployments in Iraq or Afghanistan or have served our country stateside. But they all had one thing in common: they represented 1% of the population that defends the rest of us, the military service. And we are grateful and proud of them!

On Friday night, nine WWII veterans that had all been on Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. joined us for dinner at the Sheraton West Des Moines, and they took the stage to a standing ovation to each share their experiences in WWII, their own love for their families and their pride in these current "second greatest generation."

Dinner was great, Operation Overwatch (a prayer team from Pella) covered us in prayer, hotel rooms were provided at the Sheraton and the Spring Hills Suites and the evening was full of encouragement. Retired Brig. General Martin Graber spoke into the hearts of the couples, and Chaplain Skip Manus shared of the opportunity he has been given to coach and encourage veterans during the next year as a Chaplain retained to continue the care he gave in Afghanistan. Barb and I highlighted how God has used America's Family Coaches since 2005 to reach out to military marriages through conferences, Sunday afternoon gatherings for military families, Walks for Military Marriages, over 17,000 resources being distributed and more. A great night for a great group of couples.

On Saturday Barb and I coached the families with four sessions on how to take care of their own marriages and reintegrate into their families following a deployment. Joe Johnson and Laura Erickson (with Joe's daughter Tessa and son Bradford accompanying) sang the Lady Antebellum song "I Run to You" (funny thing this was our song when we were dating... it really hit us hard) during the rose ceremony inviting the husbands to present their wives with a rose indicating their commitment to taking their military marriages to the next step of experiencing a great marriage. Scott and Kathy Beckwith, from Fareway (our presenting sponsor) thanked the couples for their service and prayed for the rib eye steak sandwiches grilled by the Waukee Fareway team. Major Sean Quinn and General Graber stood with Barb and me at the end of the Conference as we played the music video "That's What I Am Fighting For" by our friend Stephen Curtis Chapman. The couples connected several times during the Conference unpacking up close and personal the material they were learning. 

At the end of the evening, although spent, our team rejoiced in a "job well done" serving these heroic families. For Barb and me there is some emotion about this entire weekend as we looked into the faces of so many military wives that we had coached during this deployment of the 2nd Brigade. We saw them through this deployment and along with our staff and great volunteers coached them, watched Drake University athletes and friends hang with their kids, the YMCA serve them well and great meals enjoyed by all of us. As we saw the relieved spouses and grateful kids with the soldiers, our hearts were greatly encouraged.

Thank you all for praying for us, for helping us deliver on our promise to "see these families through" and for providing the donations to cover our expenses. Enjoy the photos and a message to all our military families...we have two more Sunday afternoons scheduled. In November we will have our own Thanksgiving gathering to give thanks for you and to continue to coach you during your reintegration. And then our final Sunday afternoon gathering will be in December as we celebrate with a Christmas party honoring you...our heroes...the second greatest generation!!

Guard your heart,

                                                                      Gary & Barb Rosberg