Laugh Your Way story

Here is a story that came out of our conference in Coeur d'Alene, Id the first weekend in May. Monique and I have been privileged to present 8 of these conferences over the last 10 months. If you would like to consider hosting a video conference, please email us at woodward@lywpresenter.com You can view video clips at www.laughyourway.com

I had the opportunity to attend our church's Laugh Your Way conference this weekend.

I went knowing that because we have been married 30 years, this might be helpful and give us some new things to work on.

We totally enjoyed and laughed our way through the day, I, gleening info that I could use to grow, and Carl really enjoying the humor.

The sharing and total disclosure and testimony of our leaders , Vic and Monique, helped me realize that because I felt our marriage had gotten to the unhealthy point, that we might be gaining the tools to pull through. I prayed and prayed and felt so good after we left, as I had just had the worst week of my life and I know God had me right where He wanted me and was speaking DIRECTLY to me.

When I got home I was very troubled with myself for the way I had been hiding lots of feelings inside and after hearing Monique's testimony and handling of a similar situation in her life, i began to feel the need to share. (not sure if you want this next part with your name mo in or out so feel free to edit)

I had been very attracted for about the past 2 months to a co-worker that had been helping me with my problems and had become quite dependent on him for his understanding because my husband didn't seem to see the importance of so many of my feelings. After talking to Monique and feeling very able to share with her, I totally unpacked my feelings and she realized that i was feeling so much shame. As she lovingly listened and encouraged me as I felt no judgement from her. She listened and we prayed. I left feeling like i had more work to do than ever.

24 hours later, i felt an urging to revisit my feelings with him on this and he was NOT ready to listen. In the old days, before LYW conference I would have been mad and dropped it again. But KNOWING that the mail brain has that direct canal in and out the other ear, I approached it again.

I talked, I cried, HE LISTENED and realize how important my feelings were and that we DID need to keep talking:) I felt strong afterwards and ready to continue in our marriage and have more patience for him as i have all the tools and knowledge from the conference that can help:)

This conference not only fired me up to help fire us up for another 30, but it gave me an avenue to let go of some things I wasn't hiding from God, as I had been praying non-stop and couldn't get over the feeling of shame, but it gave me a release and a direction! I can't recommend the workshop and presenters highly enough:)

Here, there and everywhere

Wow! What a spring it has been for us. We have traveled all over the place these last four months. Some of the travel we've done together as a family, some times just one or two of us have hit the road, so to speak. Monique got the ball rolling in February attending a TrueFaced Intensive in Scottsdale, AZ. Then in March, Ellie and I visited Erin in Mexico at Rancho Sordo Mudo.

We were home for a few weeks and then took Spring break and headed to Little Rock, AR to see Damon and Lindsey. When we got back from that wonderful visit, I went with neighbor Jeff Fitts and his sister to the TrueFaced Intensive, Scottsdale, AZ, in late April. I think we were home just a couple of weeks, enough to reacquaint ourselves with the animals, and then we were off to Concrete, WA to see our friends there for the weekend.

We are now preparing for our mission to the Dominican Republic with Children of the Nations, www.cotni.org You can catch up with us on Facebook as we have a "Like" page, "Woodward's Dominican Republic Mission 2010 or tune into a blog we have especially made for us to journal throughout the six weeks we will be gone. Find our blog at: http://www.woodwardgroup.blogspot.com

In our next family page post I will put up some pictures that tell the story of our Spring and connections with friends and family. God is so good! He has protected us on the many roads and airways we've traveled and given us the open doors to share of His love for people. Stay tuned.