The keynote speakers were Kevin and Lisa Robbins, 
evangelist and women’s leader in Toronto, Canada. Through out the weekend they did an amazing job of mixing PowerPoint, videos, humor and personal testimony as they taught from the book “Love & Respect” by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. The theme verse was Eph 5:33, “Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
The retreat, like the book, was broken into three sessions: the Crazy Cycle, the Energizing Cycle and the Reward Cycle. The Crazy Cycle is when a husband “reacts without love” towards his wife, and the wife in response “reacts without respect” towards her husband, which causes the husband to again “react without love”, which causes the wife...You get the picture! It’s a Crazy cycle. Since you can’t change what you aren’t aware of, the challenge at the end of the first lesson was to discuss with your spouse which Crazy cycle your marriage was in: (post-honeymoon, indulgent, independent, childish, lazy, etc). It was inspiring to see couples walking throughout the hotel discussing how crazy we all are (Thank God, I’m not alone!).
Afterwards, we all came back excited to hear how we 
could all get into an Energizing Cycle. The Energizing Cycle is when “his love motivates her respect”, which in turn “her respect motivates his love”. Kevin and Lisa shared openly from their own lives how loving and respecting one another has energized their marriage. Kevin shared how important it is for men to love their wives through continual dating, gifts/cards, “eye to eye” activities and spiritual leadership. Lisa then shared how important it is for sisters to respect their husbands need for sex, to be asked for advice and for “shoulder to shoulder” activities. Everyone left from the final lesson of the day excited to put what we learned into practice. Since it was Valentines Day Weekend, it was the perfect time for couples to get away and spend a romantic evening applying what we learned that day. Later that evening, most couples came back for a fun and romantic dance lead by DJ-Sparky.
Sunday morning Carl Alleyne led an explosive worship service that left everyone buzzing. Next, a couple from the Metro West region poured out their hearts during communion, and left everyone inspired by how transparent they were about their lives. Finally, Kevin delivered a convicting message on the Reward Cycle. The Reward Cycle is Christ’s call for husbands to “love her regardless” and for wives to “love him regardless”. Kevin shared how the only way to break the crazy cycle is for one of us to choose to love/respect our spouse regardless of their response. And who should be the one to break the cycle? Whoever is more mature! Kevin then reminded everyone of the vows we made before God to love and respect one another “For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health until death due us part.” In closing, we all had a nice long slow dance with our spouses.
And just like that it was over! It was a whirlwind of inspiring preaching, singing, dancing, romance and great fellowship. As we all headed home with great practicals to apply to our marriages, we also left with the assurance that we are not alone. We all left knowing that there are now young marrieds throughout the entire church striving to love and respect their spouse.
For the first time the 
