FMC Discernment Weekend by Carson

Hello! This post is going to be a little longer than usual, since (you may have noticed) we haven't posted for a few weeks. Today I'm going to tell you a little about the Family Missions Company Discernment Retreat we went on recently. This was a retreat put on by FMC to help discern whether you are called or not to be a missionary, and whether or not you're called to be a missionary with them if you are. I was very blessed by this retreat myself, and I'm excited to share what we did during it.

As some of you may know, we did a Come and See with FMC way back in 2019, with mixed results because of different divorce issues and such afterwards. A couple months back my mom saw that FMC was putting this retreat on again. So, she scheduled for us to go since we would be near Louisiana anyway, because we already had a trip planned to visit Tyler down in Florida. After visiting with Tyler for a few weeks, Mom, Cameron, Gianna and I headed up to Louisiana (Autumn was home at college).

We got there around 4:00 pm on a Thursday from my recollection (probably wrong) and found that we were staying in one of two retreat centers that FMC owns. After we got ourselves settled, we toured the grounds a little and found out we had a chapel built into the retreat center, just down the hall from us! This was an amazing blessing to me, to be able to visit Jesus in the tabernacle whenever I wanted to. The rest of that night consisted of Frito pies, fellowshipping with and meeting other missionaries, and night prayer. There was abundant laughter because our toilet made the most realistic farting sound you could ever imagine after you flushed it. It grieves me to say that I do not have a video.

The next day was Friday, and we began our day with a little breakfast consisting of basically everything that our host Madelyn was so kind to set out for us. After that, the directors of FMC, the discernment coordinator, and all the discerners (us and two single girls) prayed morning prayer and sang a couple of praise and worship songs. Gianna went to Kids Ministry (basically playing games with some of the older missionaries), while the rest of us listed to some talks from various people. The first talk was more of a spiritually moving talk from one of the missionaries about the heart of missions. We were sent off to pray for a bit, and then came back for the second talk, a more practical talk about the schedule we'd be living on if we discerned to be missionaries with them. Following that talk was a short Q&A and lunch.

The afternoon of Friday we had a Desert Day, some prayerful rest time which Cameron and I spent in our hammocks. I took a Holy nap. After that, we left for Big Woods (the main gathering/community house) for some Praise and Worship. Praise and Worship was great, I really loved how everyone sang loud enough that the voices were the main instrument, which was very beautiful. We were then sent off to have dinner with another missionary family, which happened to be our friends, the Glafckes, which we met at our last retreat in 2019. Dinner was great, as us kids quickly got along like the times o' old. We then went back to the retreat center and went to bed. It was great to be able to go to the chapel every night to say goodnight to Jesus, too!

Onto Saturday, our day started the same way with breakfast and prayer, and we continued on with our talk about what life would be like if we joined FMC. After that us kids (Cameron, Gianna, and I) were sent off to meet with the MK (Missionary Kids) Facilitator and a bunch of missionary kids while our Mom was having some other talks. Here some kids shared about mission life as a kid, and many of the challenges and joys that come with it. We got to share a little about our time in missions, as well as ask them any questions we had. It was very life giving and joyful, and all us kids played soccer until lunch. 

Saturday afternoon us kids had completely free, while our Mom had a three hour interview with one of the FMC directors! Us kids had fun with Madelyn and some of the other missionaries and discerners playing The Catholic Card Game, spoons, soccer, and hide and seek. Saturday night we headed over to Big Woods to celebrate The Lord's Day Meal, which was a ceremony celebrating the coming of Sunday. We then had a big fat potluck, with delicious Jambalaya! Afterwards, while my Mom was talking to people for hours, us kids played games outside, mind games inside, and a few games of spoons to end the night.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast as usual, then loaded most of the car up before Mass. Mass was only a few minutes away at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church. After a beautiful Mass, many of the missionaries and missionary families came back with us to the retreat center for brunch. We had some delicious casseroles, and spent a ridiculous amount of time playing some fun mind games I'd picked up from various places. That was the end of the retreat, so we said our goodbyes and started the ride home.

I liked this weekend, because instead of just observing and helping the missionaries, like we did with the Come and See in 2019, this retreat was structured to be actively discerning your call from God. It also helps that I had been there before, and that I'm older too. They were able to relieve many of the worries we had coming into it, and they gave us many options for our family. This discernment weekend was by far the best part of the whole Florida trip for me, and it was so much more smooth and peaceful than any of the other mission discernments we've taken in the past.

Stay tuned! We're actively discerning (and they're discerning us as well) whether FMC is what God is calling us to right now, so please pray for us and the two other people who were discerning with us. Thanks for your prayers so far and we'll keep you updated!

- Carson!

P.S.- We took almost no pictures so we could be fully present at the retreat, but here are the few we do have!

 Here I'm playing a mind game with a group of kids... and adults.

Here all us kids are playing together, we're playing spoons in the background.