A winning weekend! That was the feeling of those who attended the 2006 Winter Family Weekend in Louisville, Kentucky, Dec. 22 to 26. And it was not all about sports either. The Winter Family Weekend had so much to offer that you needed clones of yourself to be able to fit it all in. The theme for this year's weekend was "Learn to Discern: The Narrow Path or the Super Highway."

More than 2,000 people traveled from all over to attend this year's event. Jeff Caudle and his family hold the distance record for traveling all the way from New Zealand.

This year's activities began with a Friday night Bible study given by Arnold Hampton, pastor of the Columbia and Cumberland, Maryland, congregations as well as congregations in the Caribbean. This was followed by a dessert reception and fellowship.

Sabbath morning started with free coffee, juice and donuts. Then everyone went off to listen to their favorite seminars. There were 18 seminars offered for teens, young adults and adults to choose from. In many of the seminars it was standing room only. Sabbath school classes were also provided for children from kindergarten through fifth grade.

At Sabbath services there was a very special music presentation given by a choir and smaller groups made up of former ABC and Ambassador College students. The presentation was followed by a sermon given by Clyde Kilough on lessons from the Song of Solomon.

To add to the spiritual food, new this year were the ABC Continuing Education Seminars. Over 300 people took part in all or parts of the ABC seminars, with 73 receiving certificates for completing the entire program. The seminars took place over a three-day period broken up into 18 50-minute classes. Instructors for the ABC seminars were Mr. Kilough, Gary Antion, Dave Johnson and Ralph Levy.

There were also 12 hours of intense hard-of-hearing interpreter training during the weekend. On Sunday, 26 people attended a basic American Sign Language class. The remaining seven sessions covered religious signs, classifiers, spelling, vocabulary, concepts and professional responsibility. The classes were taught by Amy Rose and Dawn Taylor, members in the Flint, Michigan, congregation.

Then there were the sports and activities—basketball, volleyball, speedaway, rock climbing, indoor tennis, indoor swimming, flag football, cardio center and weight room, organized children's games, dances and two musical jam sessions.

If it was a slower pace you wanted, then cards and board games were available. There was also a room set up for those who love the game corn hole (like beanbag toss).

Two dances took place Saturday night. "A Disco Night" was the theme for the teen dance and "Knight out on the Town" was the theme for the young adult dance. Mary Miller took first place for the young adult dance with her 16th-century costume gown, and Caleb Creech and Valerie Beyer had the best costume at the teen dance.

A large family novelty Olympics took place Sunday night. Twenty teams of 12 players each raced through the arduous and hilarious competitions.

The family fun fair on Monday night had games and rides such as fire truck slide, first down, mechanical bull, moon bounce, obstacle course, miniature golf, twin spin, Velcro wall, zing swing, sumo wrestler suits and many more.

Singles in the Middle also hosted their own dance and had a hospitality room each day.

The pool area at the hotel provided a wonderful place for two activities, the AC/AU/ABC reunion and the pizza party.

Tuesday night ended with the family dance. All who attended the weekend were indeed winners and, speaking of winners, the weekend would not have gone so well without the outstanding work of Mark and Colleen Winner and all their volunteers.

"I would very much like to thank the hundreds of volunteers who made the event the success it was—truly our greatest WFW ever," said Mr. Winner. UN