In five-day’s time we gather together on the banks of the American River.

Back in late March we put out the invitation for our first-ever family outing. With God’s permission, we’ll be breaking ground on so many levels with this trip.

We’ve never had kids on a trip before. We’ve never gone rafting. We’ve never worked this closely with another adventure company. We trialed an email group to disseminate information instead of using our usual blogging format. At over 40 participants, we’ve never had a group this large.

I want to believe that we’re all going to have an amazing time. I want to believe that we will all return home safely with new stories and new friends and a lifetime of warm recollections.

I want to believe that we have started along on a path of growth that all of us collectively will enrich. And I believe that all of this will become a reality with God’s permission and a good intention.

This is not a trip reserved for athletes or seasoned adventurers. This is not a trip for adrenaline junkies. This is not a trip designed to keep you and your children endlessly entertained.

Rather, this is an intentional community effort to work as a team when things get rough, and to float like family when things are smooth.

Mothers, fathers, men, women, and children. All together for a shared and novel experience. That’s some powerful alchemy there. And all of us linked through a shared faith, an elegant and unflinching monotheism that clarifies our vision and sharpens our focus.

We bring that focus to a lancing point with our intention. I encourage each of you to bring an intention to mind, to move it from your head and into your heart and to encourage your children to do the same. We’ll talk about these intentions when we’re together, so take some time now to mull it over.

As I pull my own, personal intention together, I offer this collective one:

We wish to gather together, in the Name of our Creator, our Provider, and our Sustainer, in gratitude to Him, in reverence for Him, and in pursuit of Him. We wish to acquire all knowledge that will make firm our gratitude, reverence, and patient seeking. We wish to deepen our relationship with all of creation, God’s plants, animals, and heavenly ornaments, that we may be drawn into a realized understanding of His Might and His Mercy. We wish to be transformed by this experience, entirely for the better. We further ask that God Most High expand us, that we might graciously accept all that He desires for us.

Amin

See you Sunday, insha Allah.