Monday, October 20, 2008

Babysitting Provided

Several months ago Collin asked me "Mommy, who babysitted us when you and Daddy got married?". I gave the standard reply of "you were still playing with the angels". The picture that popped in my head looked something like this Family Circus cartoon that my Mom cut out for me.














This past weekend our church hosted it's first Marriage Summit, we hope to make this an annual event. There were about sixty couples that attended. Since babysitting was provided Harold and I were able to enjoy every session without worrying about getting back home to relieve a worn out babysitter. Dr. Avery, Bro. Miles, and Bro. Heath were the main speakers with our pastors filling in some. In case you haven't noticed our marriages and families seem to be under attack these days. Our busy lifestyles and all the new technology that surrounds us makes us extremely vulnerable. Now before anyone jumps to conclusions let me say that my marriage is very much intact, but there is always room for improvement because we never know what is around the corner for us to deal with. We shared a lot of laughter and tears as we came together in our mutual burden to see our families make it to heaven. In a church as large as ours it can be easy to focus on yourself or the people that you are around the most and forget that everyone else is fighting the same fight and we all need to pull together and build each other up. It brings it closer to home when I realize that my son might be bringing the daughter of the person that I forget to pray for to a Marriage Summit one day.
So while we may not look this dreamy eyed anymore, we are so thankful that we had a child free weekend to recommit ourselves to each other and to our kids. Wasn't God's plan of kids after marriage a wonderful thing. I bet we wouldn't have trains or veils if our kids had to walk up the aisle with us.




















PS I need to give public thanks to God that I had a husband to attend the Marriage Summit with. On Thurs. morning take off Harold came the closest to a crash that he has ever come. MFI always takes off before the control tower opens at 7AM. The planes are on the same radio frequency and announce what they are doing. Harold and Dick announced their intentions with no reply, so they proceeded down the runway. They were almost to lift off speed when someone yelled into the radio "DC-3 abort take off". Harold looked out his window to see a plane on an intersecting runway taking off. He told Dick "don't rotate until I tell you". They stayed on the ground until the other plane was out of the way and then lifted off. They passed within about 200 hundred feet of each other avoiding a midair collision. The other plane was using the wrong frequency, but thankfully someone was in the control tower, saw what was happening, and was able to alert them. They had 21 passengers on board plus the crew. We are so thankful that God kept his hand on them.

7 comments:

J Luck said...

oh Kayla! how scary. Thank God for his protection.

My Joey goes to a program at church called Rangers, it is similar to boyscouts, but Christian. He has to do all sorts of things to earn badges. The badge he's working on now required him to learn about two missionaries. I brought him to your blog and showed him the pictures you've been posting recently and one of the missionaries he learned was "Harold and Kayla Martin".
I was super proud to tell him that I knew you guys when you were still alive. (After learning about "through gates of splendour" and John and Betty Stam, he thinks all missionaries are dead)

lauralavon said...

I'm thanking the Lord (with you) that your all ended well... that Harold is safe.

Mary Ellen said...

I was nodding my head in agreement for all of the part up to the PS then cringed when I hit the part about Harold's near miss, whew, I'm glad he is OK and God kept His hand on them all.

I was trying to read as fast as I could for all of the parts Mr. Miles had to skip over, I'm hoping we get to hear the rest of his material about parenting - the whole weekend was EXCELLENT! As well as a bit amusing. "-)

We are hoping we get to hear "part II" of the morning Sermon in the very near future since it didn't happen on Sunday night, that was the most I've ever heard Rick say "AMEN" in one sermon, and they were said heartily. I was tempted to throw in a few hearty ones myself since I couldn't have agreed more but you don't usually hear women doing that so I decided to just say "amen" on the inside. "-)

We are so very grateful for a pastor who realizes how much we need to hear those types of messages.

Kimberly said...

So glad the danger was realized and all are safe!

CharleneOwensMomof2 said...

"but thankfully someone was in the control tower" - When I read that part I immediately thought that Someone was in the control tower and thankfully He is always there, but thank goodness some person was in the physical control tower that day as well. What a scary incident.

I agree with everything you said to do with the marriage summit and Sunday morning service and I look forward to part II of that sermon too, even though I loved the Sunday night service and how the Spirit was moving. I was saying Amen to all P.D.'s points, although quietly but surely!!
We are so blessed that God sent P.D. our way! Great blog!

Anonymous said...

So happy with you that Harold is safe! And I'm glad you enjoyed my bosses. :) They are truly great men, and I'm blessed to work with them!

My friend, Dixie, watched Pastor Wolfe's sermon while she was in the office Sunday morning. She was so impressed. I'll have to check the archives - even though I'm not really raising children! Hobe Sound is blessed to have a pastor that truly cares.

Making Memories 1999 said...

Glad you all got enjoy the Marriage Conference, and THANK THE LORD for His protection!!!

BTW, I LOVE that picture of you and Harold. So very romantic!!