3ABN Today - Personal Testimony and Restoration International (TDY017111)

[Music] want to spend my people honest man [Music] lord [Music] he loved hard [Music] people hello and welcome to another 3abn today program we are so thankful that you've joined us here as you do each and every day thank you for your support of the ministry of 3abn it's neat because not only are we a family here at 3abn you're part of our family and Jesus Christ of course is our supreme provider but it's because of your prayers and your financial support of this ministry that we can go around the world reaching others for Jesus Christ how's your day going I know here at 3abn it's going well why because Jesus is Lord and we can't go wrong with that as so long as we serve Him and obey his instructions to each one of us today we have some family there are no strangers to us here at 3abn it's been a little while though since they've been here and there's a really special connection that jill has with them so I'm gonna let you introduce who we have here family and guests thank you it's a privilege to introduce our special guest today I think back when I was I would say a young person 25 years ago I was a teenager and we were I lived in Massachusetts and my family had gone up to Maine to a camp meeting and at that time I met this precious couple there at that time I remember growing up as a child thinking that life was about do this and don't do that and that's all Christianity was about and for the very first time I heard a couple who presented the Gospel message practical Christianity that Jesus can come in and heal and restore and mend broken hearts broken families broken marriages and bring them back to wholeness so it's my privilege to introduce Tom and Elaine waters to you at home they're part of restoration international Tom you are the president co-founder and speaker of restoration international and I know Elaine you are co-founder and speaker of restoration international and it's a privilege to have both you here thank you well thank you for that warm introduction it's great to be back at 3abn and we're looking for a good time together and your blessing to us as well as the viewers you know I think it's neat too because really I mean I know we're on it but this is supposed to look like a living room so you may be sitting in your living room at home hopefully just like you're just joining in on a conversation about what God is doing with Restoration International now we mentioned earlier that you're no strangers because you came to 3abn and did a wonderful series tell us a little bit about that a number of years ago and it had to do with family yes it was a joy to be able to be here and and do a special marriage yes together marriage heart-to-heart under your title of marriage in God's hands right that again was a very practical experience for us and really where marriage happens day to day real life the good the bad the ugly and the beautiful where Christ takes our marriages and turns them into something beautiful we know whenever it's rearing because we start getting calls emails into the office and recently we just did a marriage seminar to church in Florida and we got that invitation based on somebody in that church having viewed wants some of those programming's and said well we want to bring this to our church family so it is still going far and wide even many years later oh yeah you know and I remember that series I don't remember if I actually ran camera for that one or not but I do remember that the way you presented it was very practical yes and very real you know and I think that's the key because when people are real I mean when you can tell in somebody's real fake you know I mean so when someone is talking about real experiences that you have been through that means a lot because you're talking about your testimony you know and so I think that touches hearts I believe in a really special way men so let's talk about restoration International for a moment what was the impetus for beginning the ministry did you all have a really solid powerful marriage and you said I want to reach out with other people or whoa tell us a little bit about your question yeah well we appreciate that question because we had a solid marriage from one perspective for sure and that was that we believe marriage was for life we both raised in homes where our parents were very committed to marriage which fortunately that kind of commitment is is more rare nowadays but we had we had some real difficulties in the early part of our marriage that what kind of a shock because we were going to live happily ever after we came to recognize and it's something that we talk about all the time now especially when we do marriage messages and that is the idea of the me focus we come into marriage unfortunately because we don't get a lot of preparation for marriage we don't get a lot of education on marriage and so we come in with two Me's and those two Me's really believe in ourselves we believe that the way we live life is the way it should be and now we're supposed to become one right yes that's just because the pastor says you should become well that's right and the Bible says that Bible does too but which one shall we be or which me shall we be because when conflict happens when difficulties come up with me and this me and this may have a different focus especially when there's a difficult area and it comes close to us and that's where the me focus started showing up for us in marriage and where we started really feeling need for a savior that's right you know that the true personalities are the true characters revealed right mm-hmm in difficult times or you were told in a crisis so that's you know in a marriage certainly hit those points but God began working in our hearts when we discovered we needed something more than what we could just put into having a happy home yeah just check the boxes on a pursuit to get to know Christ better individually for ourselves and to make him very real we were by this time having our first little one and then our second little one shortly thereafter and you know not just our deficiencies in the marriage but our deficiencies as parents begin to be quite evident and so we began this search is this quest for seeking God in a personal way and through that process which was quite a bit over time God led us to leave our medical careers our professions and move our families or move our family to a more rural area and really invest time in them instead of just adding them into our lives making our family and God the focus of our life Wow and that was that was a real change people thought we were crazy this was very radical but I can tell you after 37 years of marriage and our baby is 31 years old now not so all anymore that that decision was not only revolutionary but it was completely God's will for our lives we had no idea that it would take us in the direction that it did when we left our medical careers but we are so thankful because it was there that we started really dealing with the practical of Christianity I mean really what the difference is and you know when we made mistakes in our home in our marriage to our children one of the things that we did is we said I'm sorry we said if it was if I got upset at my wife in front of our children it wasn't just I'm sorry did my wife I had my children when they were a part of that I also came to them and said the way that daddy handled the situation with your mother was not was not appropriate I'm sorry please forgive me and I'll tell you what you know looking back our children I just got a thing from our children for Father's Day okay and I said our littlest you know he's 31 years old and it was beautiful it was a Thomas Kincade book that that has beautiful paintings dedicated to fathers and in between it had pages to write the memories of their childhood I'll tell you what a gift and a treasure because those hours those years that we spent in really focusing on the practical life of marriage and family have paid off dividends that we praise God for so from that moving is to a more rural location came Restoration International than God gave you the idea to start this ministry from people people from our past that said it's going on you come back and share with us because you know obviously they wanted to come out and visit because we're living you know in a beautiful place in Montana at that time and sure but can you come and share with us in our church because you're very different than when you left I mean your children actually obedient and they're happy and they're contented and so it was it kind of started from people asking us to share and then we recognized that we got more and more invitations so at that point yeah and one of the things that I want to bring out it's just a small thing but I think it's a very important point and that is when we left our suburban lifestyle we were looked up to in our church community we were a model family lord help us we weren't a model family but my point is this we we were not hypocrites but we did not understand the real death of self we did not understand what it really means to be real Christians we did what we had to do to be a good family to be upstanding in our community but the heart level of Christianity was not there so we can we want to say to people out there you can look good you can you can have all your t's crossed your dot your i's dotted but how is it in the heart it was the reality it's more about our connection with Christ and a love for him and a passion for him because he's the one who makes the difference it's not the do's and the don'ts it's the relationship and that's what we focused on was the relationship and the best the best source books cuz often people email us you know what can you recommend that we can read about such-and-such we keep sending people back to the scriptures and back to the inspired commentaries on the scriptures because they are so full of powerful principles and inspiration and encouraging stories of real people who have done it wrong who God has redeemed and in the process we can learn from that what an incredible testimony let's see what God did in your life how he took you from here and then how he changed your life changed your family and then God took that as a testimony to the world that you can then share that with other people we're gonna put a pause on that just for a moment we haven't gotten to our music yet we have ET everett standing by and the song she's gonna minister is no-one ever cared for me like Jesus and the reason I love this song in connection with this program is that you might be right now sitting at home and saying my life is a mess my marriage is a mess my relationships are in turmoil but the Lord Jesus knows he cares for you he understands and on the other end of this song they would be sharing practical tips what God has done in the ministry and how you can get involved in the ministry and your life in marriage can be changed as well [Music] you you [Music] Thank You et Everett Wow God has given you a gift and thank you for ministering to us the beautiful song no one else cared for me like Jesus praise the Lord for that Jesus is good cares for us all the time in case you are just joining us I don't want to say shame on you that doesn't sound very we have some exciting guests that are passionate about their ministry and like we mentioned earlier they have been on 3abn before we have Tom and Elaine waters with us and they're talking about their ministry restoration International which is dealing with the family so marriage children and really what God has done in their life is what we're talking about for the first few minutes of this program and I know we want to continue on a little bit with that but we've already been blessed haven't we sure and it's incredible how God takes us on a journey that's true you know and the journey does not end it's not like we're sitting here saying we have arrived or were in some sort of state of perfection but we are in process and you see the things God is doing in your life and continues to do yeah why do you think you know as we think about the family the family is under attack absolutely and so the devil is attacking the family there's a reason why he's attacking why do you think the Satan is out there to destroy the family oh there's a very obvious reason not just because we're involved in this kind of ministry but it's obvious that if if he can destroy the individual in a marriage he can work on destroying that marriage so he works to break down the individual first and he's only he's always working on all of us okay to try to break down our marriage as if he can break down our marriages he knows that he will have access to the family that a children and when he gets access to families he gets access to the church that's right it's good when he gets access to the church he gets access to the light of the community and the light of the world begins to go dim right and so it's just working at the foundations you know that's gospel order it's the individual relationship with God if that's personal and practical it affects this relationship or does and it's that's the foundation it's gospel order and if he can interrupt that gospel order he breaks things down pretty quick well there's there's two sacred institutions that God put at the end of creation the marriage right in the Sabbath and both of those institutions are under attack that's there's the counterfeit anything to undermine those things and as you know Bible believing Christians it is our privilege and our joy to uphold those in the beauty that God intended them to have and that it brings us into a closer relationship with him which brings us into closer relationships and all of our other encounters with people yeah that's a good point sure give us an overview of restoration international I know we talked some about your own journey and how God led you into the ministry but what does restoration International involve okay well what we call our flagship is our family retreats we've been doing as the the longest-running one is in Virginia it's been going on for well more than 20 20 20 years okay every year you do every every year so we do these retreats where we just encourage people if everybody's a part of a family so this doesn't mean you've got to have a bunch of children to come to this okay because we're all part of a family so we get or they even have to be married exactly have singles that car we had a we had a single guy that ran our North East family retreat for years mm-hmm and it grew phenomenally under his leadership because he had a passion for family we finally told him listen you need to be getting married and now he's happily married he's not leading out in that retreat anymore because we told him you need to retire and find a wife just kind of in fun okay but he has the Lord put him together with somebody but there for everybody and it's it's a coming up apart a Wednesday night through a Saturday night okay okay coming together you can't tell people to leave their cell phones behind but some of the retreats where we go in the the locations is not the best self disconnect a little bit sometimes that's exactly what families need just to pull back from the busyness of life we have messages that are designed for the individual walk with God in a very practical way the marriage building the family building that's what it's about so I know that there's already viewers that have been touched by what you've shared already and are saying wow I probably need to attend walk us through maybe sort of fast through what a Wednesday through Sabbath would be is it seminars all day long what what actually takes place and is there a place to stay or does someone need to find hotels and that sort of thing I know there's information on your website which we will get to here in just a few minutes but just kind of walk us through it they're all located we're in a camp setting so there's accommodations at all of them and we just say the earlier people register they have the better accommodations they may have as an option but there's several meetings a day and they're all geared for the family the individual as he said and then any family issues so we all come and hear the same thing so the kids aren't separate their dads are separate and a lot of people have had concerns about that but when we encourage them to come and just try it we find out that the children actually are very good listeners one one meaning I remember this little girl comes and says mommy I learned today that I need to be obedient she's about four years old what was a new thought to her well she picked up from a parenting message where you think we're talking to the parents but the children are listening so we actually have three meetings a day which isn't over done and then we have one breakout every day for the adults to talk about the more personal intimate areas of needs in the marriage and during that time the young people are involved in choir practice because they do all of our special music for the Sabbath very nice so there there's direction for them and then we have family recreation every day on the Thursday and the Friday that families come and play together and it's all organized and the grandmas and grandpas can be out there the little ones is a safe environment that's been a lot of fun so we try to give enough time that the families can connect in with themselves and other families not just to go for meaning to meeting the meeting to meeting yes oh that's great one of the just to give you one of the meetings is geared towards parenting in the day one of them is geared specifically for marriage as years especially for young people youth and young adults as well so that's a little bit of variety of the day yeah and we aren't in this alone we have our associates Paul and Carol and rain family with young people Hanna and Caleb so they have been to 3abn and yes they syriza's yeah so we're a team we work together as a team and God has been it's been a tremendous blessing to be together so do you have breakfast I'm thinking of food I like to eat people can purchase the meals or they can bring their own in some situations it's optional so optional each retreat is set up a little bit different but generally that's the way all the retreats run yeah now you're breaking out cuz you've been doing these these family retreats for years but now you're starting to do some marriage retreats and men's retreats are those new this year will be the first time we're we're now sponsoring a marriage retreat we're really excited about it Elaine and I will be doing that the first marriage retreat and it's going to be in a nice location and we hope we can get some some of your interested in it so this obviously says it's a marriage one then you're not looking for singles yep and actually we can handle 20 couples that's not many no I wanted to we intentionally did that so we have time to personally connect with each couple and maximize the time to meet their needs so that's you know and we have the marriage retreat that's coming we're also adding in a men's retreat that's another area of great need that we've seen women Network women connect women to have no problem staying in communication when they meet somebody at a family retreat and they could be friends and they communicate even though there are two States apart men aren't like that so much and so to build the spiritual connection amongst you know the men that's that's something that we're excited about so that's brand new that's brand new and we're all going to be doing a family activity retreat so Glacier National Park which is Anna which is one of our favorite national parks we used to spend a lot of years in Montana as you know and that's where we raised our family right and so that's going to be very different from our other retreats it's going to be all activity focused we'll do a morning message of encouragement to families it's all designed to bond families okay because everything in our world today is working towards disconnecting families we're not gonna get into all the devices and stuff but many people who are dealing with devices know what we're talking about can all be under the same roof mm-hmm sitting at the same table totally disconnected yeah each other connected to other people in cyberspace this is this family activity retreat is truly designed to bring people together bind their hearts as families and do it through fun activities like canoeing kayaking boating biking hiking mountains all all that stuff lends itself in a beautiful setting to keeping the families connected and you know Jill and I have actually set aside as a particular time each each week to actually not be connected on our devices because you know it's easy to bring you know we're working on some work or different things like that because it's amazing when we're going down the interstate even though we cars that'll pass to us and it seems like everybody I don't not the driver hopefully but everybody in the car is either there watching a little DVD in the backseat a little kid or there's people on their phones doing this number or I don't know maybe they're playing games texting messaging whatever it is amazing how we can be together in such close quarters be it not connected at all isn't that sad yes so I just wanted why don't you give us your website because I know we're gonna go to this address roll a little bit later but I'm just fooling right now that we should actually put up that website because you've mentioned a number of things that I'm sure there's people already that are saying oh just give me contact information right now give me your website so that they can start looking at that and I'll go to some more information than just a little bit what is our website so it's restoration - international dot org oh are you have it on the screen so restoration - national orgy yeah and there's lots of detailed information there about all of these upcoming events good because you know this program will air different times you know throughout the year and so you know depending on when these different retreats is that what you heard everything is there so they can look at the date that's closest to ya what works for them and their schedule so we can talk about retreats and you say all that sounds wonderful and that's great but is it impacting people's lives and is it changing someone's life mending marriages so do you all have any testimony oh yeah I mean now you're gonna really get us fired this is our passion but yes you know when we we we look at the theme song to this to the opening of this interview mending broken hearts broken people yes that's what restoration is all about first the relationship with God and the individual than the marriage the family and yeah I mean we have we could talk for hours and the work that God is doing in lives I mean we we've been working with a couple recently a devastating just devastating affair with this woman's best friend oh and her husband is in an affair I mean how is that for just an affair but not in our common situation though and we're finding it it's happening more and more but it's it's not just another woman it's his wife's best friend yeah yeah how devastating that couple we've had the privilege by the grace of God to do some one-on-one and and in in their testimony in less than three months time they the the lady said who's the basically the the brokenhearted one in this she said this is no less a miracle of Jesus Christ and when he walked on the earth and healed Wow a paralytic okay Lauren and her husband sitting beside her and he is broken with repentance so here you have a couple it just sends chills down my spine you've got a comforter I got it in my arms right yes who are both responding to the to the power of the Holy Spirit he's he's just profusely repentant he's broken how could I do this he's letting in that repentance which is a gift many people don't understand this we can't work up repentance it's not a checklist that's right she on the other hand is simultaneously receiving the forgiveness from God that's also a gift it is in many people this is just a side note but we have found in years of counseling many people have never experienced genuine forgiveness Wow never experienced the true article it is a gift of God it is not something where we fold our arms and say okay buck up buddy forgive no we can't do it it's impossible but that's a simple example but a very profound example that's happened recently in our experience where God has transformed this couple and not only that some people think it takes years to heal this kind of hurt we just spoke to them recently and the wife said I am loving my husband well more than I have ever loved him before that is that beautiful and he and he her so God doesn't he's not just contented to say let's fix this broken heart let's fix this broken marriage he's saying now that you've got my repentance in your heart and my forgiveness in your heart and you're blending your lives like I really intended let's make your marriage like you've never experienced it before and this is happening and this is all happening within a three to four month period well that's a praise yes so you see how we can get fired up to be a vessel that God can pour through you all in your experience to bless others well it is a blessing it is and that's all it is we become a conduit if we're willing to come to it if we don't just you know block it block it off with self you have something else to share because that is encouraging you have another I don't say testimony of some other lives that have been changed well there's as you said there's lots of but which one to pick from yeah which one to pick from but you know sometimes we we feel intimidated as parents to really call our children to our hearts and call them to their responsibilities children first we as parents have to you know have that with God but then and we think of the parents who are afraid of their children today many parents are afraid of their children afraid of their how they're going to react what they're going to say that they're not going to like them anymore and we just encourage parents and we've had numerous ones where when we when we join hands with God and we follow what God's asking us to do to lovingly lead our children and to do to have loving kind boundaries and expectations we see that those children's hearts turn I think of one one family that came to visit us in our home we had met them before and they've also been to family retreats but they needed some you know encouragement along the way and in that process it was evident that the that the son almost 18 a few weeks from his 18th birthday he's attitude when I'm 18 I'm out of here and we have seen that whole situation change as mom and dad's hearts changed towards him and then he in turn you know the scripture talks about turning the hearts of the father first children second and the children back to the father and in that situation we've seen more than this instance where that has turned around and now the relationship is not only healed in the family but all of them have that relationship with God which is what made the relationship heal in the family and they all have a connection with God and are in the work of God because of that and he never left home by the way I just want to leave so you mentioned something about the relationship healing you could say side to side parallel and then it was healed with God or maybe the healing with God first and the healing with each other do you think someone could in a family situation could you individually have a relationship with God and not have a relationship with other people is that possible I mean can I feel like I'm having my devotions and I'm wanting to follow God and my husband is too but yet there's still a disconnect do you see that happen well yeah it's the the key word there's the okay again this is where it becomes very practical yeah I can go through the motions okay and in fact we we don't have a story for everything in our own lives but we have stories for a lot of it yeah we know what it was like to be going through the motions not as hypocrites there's a very important distinction here but as people who are blind to how self really yes is is deluding us okay but we both went through an experience that God opened up to us at nearly the same time where I was looking at my wife and thinking man she sure got it together with God what's my problem and simultaneously she's saying my husband he's so constant he's always there on his knees he's and I'm thinking man I mean I'm in real serious trouble here I need you know we were running from God he were being we were being honest okay but we did not have that connected practical experience that can happen and create a situation where self is still operating but we don't recognize it for what it is okay but to really answer your question no okay we cannot be in a relationship with God that is vibrant alive and faith-filled where we are not having a positive influence on other people yeah okay we know us a couple where the lady went for nearly two years just living Christ to her husband who was hateful mm-hmm angry for a lot of life matter fault but watched over a period of two years and that that woman's love and the power of Christ broke through to him and he's a converted man and he gives glory to God through his wife okay a man what a testimony yeah it's a beautiful testimony so someone I know at home is thinking about these retreats I'm going back to the retreats and they're saying wow I really want to attend but I don't think my spouse would have any interest whatsoever so here they are talking about family I married I mean I'm married I'm talking someone at home married but you're slaying my spouse would never go am i accepted can I go is that even a benefit to that one individual that goes or you've got to drag along this person is kicking and screaming says no I don't want to go this won't help me I don't want to do that what would be your advice to them at home well first of all we would encourage them to come but time and time again we see over and over that many who'd never thought their spouse would come come along maybe begrudging Lee come along because the children asked but generally once they come they want to come back yeah and it's almost always if the greatest motivation in some families who have hesitancy the greatest motivation is coming from the children parents think you know we asked about he said something about not having children's meetings how is this going to work people think that children won't enjoy this they they love it and the children are motivators to get mom and dad back many parents will tell us that well we were just so so busy we didn't think we had the finances this year but our children beg for us to come back and they're very much a part of everything that happens so whatever part of the family can come and then go home and live the difference let let your spouse or your children or whatever you know whoever wasn't able to attend let them see what that has done what God has done for you through this time that keeps on growing and they will be interested what if somewhat struggling in their marriage right now and they're just watching the program and they're saying my marriage is falling apart my marriage maybe my husband just had an affair or maybe it's the wife who had the affair like that story you shared that was so powerful what advice would you give them well that's a it's a big question and giving general devices I didn't mean to put you on this no no that that's fine we're never put on the spot when we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit that's true but that kind of situation is happening all the time if only one of them is interested in breaking past the situation if it's if it's a lady that's watching right now that's experienced what this lady that we referred to her husband's been unfaithful to her if only one of them is willing to give God access like he hasn't had in the past that one person can begin to make a difference if that one person again if we that this lady that might be watching if if that happens and she allows God to make a difference in her which means that she actually prays for God to give her forgiveness she can't generate it herself okay that God will do in that the husband will see which will allow her to pray for her husband in a way that she would never be able to pray for him for his unfaithfulness okay there has to be all were saying here is there has to be one person who's willing to let God make the difference yeah if it's both people like the couple that we shared okay I talked to the husband she talked to the wife the wife said initially I'll never live with this man again he's destroyed me he's destroyed my family well we've heard those words before but we don't give up on I mean God doesn't give up on him amen and both of those individuals husband talk to me you know felt like an idiot was so sorry which was good but God brought them together and when two people are brought together simultaneously it multiplies how quickly it heals we saw we've seen it was both coming together we've seen it with just one willing where somebody just says okay well I'll talk to Elaine so she sets up an appointment or the guy says I'll talk to Tom and it's a starting place and we've seen God take that starting place and move into miracles where both of them come together I know that you have some resources that we want to touch on here briefly but someone at home says okay I will never be able to go to one of the retreats you were talking about you touched on her briefly about a relationship with Jesus that's the most important thing how do I start how do I start you know I can ami I know we can get the resources but what would be your advice to somebody at home that would say I need this I know I need it where do I begin yeah well for me it was starting with recognizing that I was not who I thought I was it's kids becoming real with yourself ah I was becoming honest and honest is honesty is sometimes brutal it's hard oh yeah but it is so satisfying in its results and it's fruit okay I you know was raised in a Seventh day Adventist Christian home very loving parents but I did not understand the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ until I was in my 20s Wow when I came to recognize what my self was doing in my relationship with God and my marriage and other people yeah it was totally eye-opening to me I didn't know what the death of self was when I was growing up it's like everybody has a self but I would never been able to say that to you I can say it now but when I came to recognize that it was there was some arguing some justifying some fighting like the Apostle Paul fighting wrestling but when I let it go and I said God I can't change me hmm but I want you to change me Amen surrender when we are willing to be willing to surrender because sometimes I've been on my knees in my closet I don't mind admitting this to these people because I'm real I've been on my knees in my closet literally in the dark of my closet saying I don't want to do that Lord not now you know but I love you enough and I know what you've done in my life I'm willing to be made willing to change me yes you can do it I can't change myself make me willing cuz I'm willing that kind of surrender is life changing yeah I think one of the keys that you mentioned too is that God is the one that does the changing because many times you know we could you know we can't beat ourselves or walk on our hands or you know and you know all this stuff to try and gain that it's Jesus Christ it has the changing but we have to be willing that's why I said you willing to surrender you have any word it's important that we we see what God his love for us yeah well and to me that's what made the difference it's not just that's true what are what are what we understand to be you know our church rules or faith rules but what is God who is he for me personally and look at his life and look at hit the life of Christ his son and what he went through and the most powerful book I've ever read desire of Ages yes that had helped give V a picture of who Jesus is and who his father is that turned my heart to love in response to what he has done when you see the his journey through the life here in our lives you know we've all had the ups and the downs we've all hit those those points of rejection or whatever but when we see that he went through it and the spirit in which he went through it turns our hearts and gives us that you know so focus on him and then it's the motivation for us to give our heart turns love begets love love response to love and then that happens in the marriage I mean the more he loves me the more I love them back the Lord let's talk about some of those resources that you have I know we have a graphic of some of the books that you have in restoration international and the in the ministry okay yeah we I almost got off on from malfunction miracles speaking of resources you're gonna put up the graphics bit if they go to our website restoration - International org all of our materials are free to listen to you can download and listen online and even if you cannot go to one of the family retreats past or previous years family retreats are all there you can be in the retreat and never having been on you can sight you'd be right there just sitting there in your home water resource yes so those are resources out there and then of course our associates the rain' family they have done the program here at 3abn on the family connected family and they wrote a book that's that's very interactive very powerful for parents we encourage every family to get that who have children because it's something that they can do to journal along acted family I'm one zero okay by paulandcarolyn reign because they give you things and you go back in journal and then you review what you've done to see what can you do different to do that so then we have for better or for West worse out of their best so we've all been on the worst part around so what's that book about so that's our marriage book that we wrote and actually that book was kind of birthed with our last visit 3abn when we did the marriage heart-to-heart series and again this is a very practical book not because we wrote it because it is okay we both write about the same thing hers is in italics so that you can see the woman's perspective right and we just get into the nuts and bolts of daily life in the marriage and how self works and how God wants to work to deal with self so that's yeah so we would encourage all the readers to get that book in the next book is I choose I think his way yeah that was written by Hannah rain Paul and Carolyn's oldest good and she wrote it when she was 14 years old we read it and we were moved by a relationship a young person can have the insight and depths of God in the end person's life very powerful very practical very simple yeah I I was expecting a fortune year-old audition because I knew she had an experience with God but when we read that I was brought to tears I mean this is this is yeah it's a youth book but I tell you what it goes beyond youth young people you're saying in this day and age the youth are being pulled on every side then one more we saw there is homeschool yes tell us a little bit about that resource powerful potentials of home school that that powerful potentials because we believe education is more than the Scholastic aspect education is character development therefore the potential of the education we give our children has eternal benefits and results that's what God wants us to put in our minds as parents and we believe very strongly in Christian education and not every parent or every child you know has the opportunity to attend a formal church set a school setting and so we were in that situation and we had the desire to home-school anyway and so we wanted we wanted to do that God put us on a journey and that journey is in the book very simply written but it covers a few areas that have been very helpful and to recognize again that we want to focus on character development God uses the Scholastic aspects to develop the character then I know your your family's involved with music and so you have some CDs yes also that are available tell us about those quickly you know as we were showing before we show that graphic tell us quickly okay here's the graphic let's look at that so we've got several CDs here favorite hymns it was a fun when our whole family did this with a very dear friend of ours from Australia who's a very beautiful pianist and it's another story but he did all the the piano accompaniment for families that can use it for family worship who maybe don't have a piano in the home and you know no vocal on that you just don't spoke we're soaking our family singing every hymn all the verses because all the verses tell the real story okay that's how we feel anyway but we are we do love music and we did a scripture song as well I thought that one and that was done when our children quite young just I wasn't even reading when we did that one oh and then where's the to scripture song one one is only available now online yeah and most of those we wrote so that's you can download it that way yeah so the favorite scripture songs you know the Rings have their their two little lessons and Hanna and Caleb did to know him and then the one harming him was our family oh that's great yeah so what I was getting into is that I know that you've been on three of them before and your family's been on tell us quickly I know we're running out of time you have some grandchildren just tell us quickly about your family because some people are saying we want to know how their kids are know all thank you I'm I was wondering did we talk about the game children think you know we're at that age in life now we've got five grandchildren all four and under so busy moms oh yes and we're loving that but we're also loving the fact that we're seeing a whole new we call it a crop a whole generation of young people with their young children coming back to family retreat our children are among those and it's a beautiful thing because here's what we've noticed observation over the years is that they have their children they aren't at family retreat are busy with the infants in all this and it gets a couple years into it and they say we need to go to family retreat so you know that's been great and we're enjoying that phase of life do your children live near you or your distance from them well unfortunately they all live away cuz they live closer to us and we were in Montana but our girls and their their husbands and Families are in Washington State ok so that's about 22 hours from us is in Irvine California that's six hours so anyway not as close as we'd like them to be but we're so close as a family how absolutely is good close to the Lord and pray for one another encourage one another that's important yeah you know I think of the prayers I think of my parents that I know how to spent I don't even know all the hours that they spent in prayer for me and I appreciate the prayers and their continued prayers my mom and I know your children do and your grandchildren now and I have to say you all look young because I know that marriage ministry is in the mid to late 20s right how many years of rest we started an 89 that's incredible so a number of years yes and God has blessed you both thank you thank you all so much what we want to do right now we want to put up the contact information for restoration international we've put up the the web address several times but we want to put the entire thing up one encourage you if you want to go to one of these retreats family retreat men's retreat marriage retreat if you need counseling they counsel people you can contact them if you would like to financially support this ministry so that other people experience healing other people can have restoration of their families if you would like any of the resources that we talked about here here is the way that you can contact them for yourself restoration International is committed to the full-time ministry of the practical power of Christ they do that through Church seminars public conventions family retreats personal counseling and books and audio-visual materials to find out more information about their retreats or to invite them to speak visit their website restoration - international org that's restoration - international org you may also call them at nine two eight two seven five two three zero one or write to them at restoration international post-office box one four five Seligman Arizona eight six three three seven that's some excellent information now I do want to say if you were not able to jot down the contact information for restoration international with Tom and Elaine waters and their team you can always call 3abn at the number that's on that little bug we call it with the three avian logo in the bottom of your screen and that number call that and we'll be happy to provide their information to you now in closing you have something that you would like to share appeal with our viewers at home well of course the most important thing I can say to our viewers today is that no matter where you are I mean maybe you've got a great marriage it can be better and maybe you're hurting right now maybe there's quietness in your family that nobody knows about and you haven't been able to tell anybody about it God God sees that he loves you he's reaching out to your hearts Christ can make the difference that nothing else can make and we're prisoners of hope the Apostle Paul says and so I guess where we would leave the viewers today is that no matter what your circumstances are we as a ministry team would be happy to help you in any way that we can amen but we are only tools in the hands of God and he is right there for you God is always there for us we just aren't always accessible to God where we're being accessed today by so many other people I've often said to my wife as we talk about families today they are being so accessed by everybody else but they need to be accessed by God and by those that they live in their own homes with operation a joy to be with you today both here thank you so much Tom and Elaine thank you for your ministry in your heart for other people and we thank you at home for joining us I want to encourage you that God loves you with an everlasting love he gave his son for you accept him today accept him into your heart and home and it will make an eternal difference bye-bye [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 5,537

Rating: 4.7538462 out of 5

Keywords: 3ABN, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, Tom & Alane Waters, Restoration International, Christian Family restoration, Family Camps

Id: ZiGykfNJNiY

Length: 55min 30sec (3330 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2018