Couples Renew Vows at Annual Marriage Retreat

Story by Liz Bailey

Mountain View Conference (MVC) realizes that their initiative, “Let’s Grow Together,” needs to start in the homes. As the Lord told Zechariah in the Old Testament to never despise meager beginnings (Zechariah 4:10), so the MVC started its first annual marriage retreat with merely six couples in attendance.

As the couples arrived Friday evening at Valley Vista Adventist Center, they enjoyed a special meal prepared for them in a romantic setting. Throughout the weekend, Pastor Jeremy Garlock and his wife, Joya, of the Boulevard church in Charleston, W.Va., shared from their own experiences on how to have a better marriage. Couples enjoyed working together to create a special recommitment box, navigating through a scavenger hunt and building a LEGO® project together. They learned that each other is not the enemy in their marriage, but that Satan is out to destroy their union.

Saturday evening, the couples enjoyed bowling together, and on Sunday morning, the ladies came down the aisle to meet their grooms and recommit their marriage to God.

Although the group was small, couples stated that it was just what they needed and that they enjoyed the family setting. Lauri and Joe Nichols, members of the Cumberland (Md.) church, were among the attendees. “When we walked in the doors of the marriage retreat on Friday evening,” states Lauri, “we both had a lot of ‘splinters,’ as Pastor Jeremy calls them, that come with nearly 33 years of marriage. Those splinters had been festering for years, and with Jeremy and Joya’s guidance, we were able to remove them throughout the weekend … and we have been able to give our marriage back to God. Not only was our relationship with each other strengthened, but even more importantly, our relationship with God was strengthened. We know that the work is really just beginning, because it will be easy to fall back into old habits once we’re home and the romantic setting is gone, but we are committed to getting back to the first love that we found with each other.”