Wonder Voyage Family Reunion Recap

I’ve never been a big fan of family reunions. Weird aunts squeezing your cheeks. Distant cousins that you aren’t quite sure how you relate to. And people asking questions about your personal life they have no business asking. But there is one family reunion that I look forward to every single year: the Wonder Voyage Guide Retreat.

Just like traditional family reunions, we meet new members, reconnect with old friends, swap stories, and feast. As a non-traveler, I snagged an invite through my leadership of Legacy, and I was honored to be a part of the celebration.

All of our newest family members joined including Cesar from Peru, Colby from Georgia, Kate from Maryland, and Tom from Texas. Their personal stories added to the group dynamic, and they were welcomed into the fold effortlessly.

As the new folks were introduced, we also celebrated the retirement of one of our beloved Coordinators, Brittany Golden. After this summer, she will be moving on to new adventures. She’ll stay a part of the family, she just won’t be working in the office. It was nice to honor her years of dedication to the Wonder Voyage team.

One of the highlights of the weekend was reflecting on our tagline: wonder changes everything. Though the phrase was only intended to last a year, it has stuck because it reflects the heart of this family so well.

Each year we gather to reconnect ourselves with the heart of wonder. We share stories of wonder. And we prepare ourselves to be the doorkeepers of wonder for every person who travels with us.

That doesn’t mean this group of Guides has some magic bullet to inspire awe in every pilgrim. Rather, we set aside one weekend a year to make sure we have all the tactical aspects of the trip secured, and the entire pilgrimage is so prayerfully planned that when the team arrives, the Guides can get out of the way and let the Spirit of God move.

After all, these pilgrimages aren’t about us.

Every year I walk away from the Retreat thankful that I blocked the weekend for such an impacting event. It’s not about the location, it’s about the people. It’s about reconnecting with wonder ourselves so we can be prepared for the year ahead.

And though I’ve never had a stranger squeeze my cheeks and tell me that I look just like my mother, I’ve had plenty of hugs from people I consider brothers and sisters.

2022 Wonder Voyage Staff