Lighthouse Family Retreat

This summer I am working with a ministry called Lighthouse Family Retreat. Lighthouse gives children who have cancer and their families the opportunity to experience a week at a 30-A beach free of charge, with volunteers who look after their every need, and an environment created to give them the week of a lifetime.

For the last couple weeks of May, I worked in the main office in Atlanta, GA, helping the existing staff to get the retreat logistics nailed down. For the last two weeks, I have been down on 30-A (in between Panama City and Destin) helping to run the retreats, working with the volunteers, and capturing the retreats in video form so that we can better share with others the work we are doing here.

So, what are we trying to do for these families? It boils down to 3 things:

(1) Make them laugh. These families have had long, hard battles. We love to give them the chance to just have a fun time. This is their escape--their chance to leave the hospitals and doctor's appointments for a week and to enter an amazingly positive atmosphere.

(2) Help them reconnect as a family. Cancer, as you might guess, is extremely hard to deal with. It comes with a huge emotional and time price tag, and it wears on the relationships in the families. Siblings start to feel left out. We seek to highlight the siblings of those without cancer as well as those with it to help them feel special too. When battling cancer, parents grow distant as they often have hardly any time at all to spend with each other--especially not alone. There is a very high divorce rate among families with a child who has cancer. Lighthouse gives the parents a chance to connect alone during environments that are parent only during the day, and a date night during the week. We take such good care of their kids, they are able (many times for the first time in years) to leave their children.

(3) Help them find hope in God. We don't want to shove a religion down their throat or make them feel uncomfortable. However, we do know that real peace in situations like this only comes from our Father. We want to give these families many things, but if they walk away with a stronger connection with the Creator, then they really have something of eternal value that will aid them invaluably in the fight ahead.

As a staff person-

We work all day, every day, and it is exhausting. Each day we're up before 7:00 and probably not in bed until midnight, with plenty of heavy lifting and children tossing in between. Ironically though, lighthouse is probably the most refreshing experience I have ever had in my life. Constantly serving other people wears on the body, but the smiles and laughter that comes from the families we serve is energizing. The knowledge that what you are doing is effecting people's lives in an amazingly positive way is tremendously motivating. Seeing children that have battled cancer--some for years--race on the beach or wrestle you in the pool makes your troubles seem small and your heart feel full.

What volunteers at Lighthouse soon find to be the case is that though they are physically exhausted at the end of their week with us, they are emotionally restored and spiritually encouraged.

As I'm down here continuing to work, I will continue to update this blog with my experiences with the kids and Lighthouse.

You can also follow Lighthouse on twitter at @LightouseFR or on Facebook.