Like many of you, our family has grown up at Family Fest in Gatlinburg.  It has been a family tradition for our kids to hang out with the other artists’ kids backstage, in the concerts, or around the hotel pools. We have driven through the hills and state park in the afternoon.  A great fraternity of friends looked forward to walking to the ice cream shops on warm afternoons or meeting at the skylift to ride to the top of the mountain over the blossoms of mountain laurel dotting the forests below.  The speakers we have been privileged to hear in person and the singers that have filled the convention center with music would make a historic  Who’s Who of Christian leaders, authors, and recording artists.

This would have been the 30th Anniversary of Family Fest.  Memorial Day week-end will just not be the same without it.  But this year we have had to forgo this mountain musical experience for the safety of our families and friends because of the pandemic that has swept our country.  We hope you all will pray for each other during these days.  We also hope that you will plan to be with us on Labor Day week-end if we have the all-clear to meet again.  Meanwhile, take out the photos of the great memories we have made there as I have and share them by social media and actual letters.  Keep in touch as we remain through thick ’n thin the Body of Christ.

Gloria