Gulf Coast Family Camp

Gulf Coast Family Camp A Christ-centered retreat dedicated to growing the whole family in faith and fellowship.

08/23/2026

Three weeks ago the idea for a homeschool conference popped into my head.

Last night close to 600 people walked into Pace Assembly.

I’m still in shock. 35 vendors lined the lobby. 10 speakers. Both food trucks sold out of things.

And my three children served all night long, and you supported them big time. Thank you for that.

What I keep thinking about is the room. Moms comparing curriculum at the tables like they’d been waiting all year to talk to someone who gets it. Dad’s holding babies in the back.

Graduates on the front row answering the question every homeschool parent carries around: does this actually work.

Pastor Joey and Rita Rogers opened the doors of their church to us and didn’t ask for a dime. They love homeschool families, and they already have a vision for making this bigger next year.

So here’s next year. Two days. August 20–21, 2027. More speakers, more time with vendors, more time to connect. Put it on the calendar now.

Homeschooling is better together. Last night proved it.

If you didn’t register, didn’t get the follow-up email, or want want the full conference video when the church releases it, comment HOMESCHOOL and I’ll send it.

And tell me what you thought. This was our first big event, and I want to hear what you loved and what we can do better.

08/17/2026

🎧 FAMILY CAMP AUDIO RECORDINGS

The audio recordings from the April and August 2026 Gulf Coast Family Camps are now available!

You can get every message from both camps for only $25 through August 31.

This is a great way to go back and listen to your favorite messages, catch any sessions you missed, and share the teaching with your family.

The Bass family is handling the recordings and purchases—I’m just passing along the information. 😊

Purchase here:

08/13/2026

This is Daniels 91 year old step father Luke Luke Forsyth . Anytime we get a chance to glean from his wisdom, stories and passion for Jesus we soak in every word.

It was such a blessing to have him Gulf Coast Family Camp this week.

“Seek God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your being. Seek Him, because one of these days we don’t know what’s going to happen to this country.”

Our kids need more than good behavior and church attendance. They need to actually know God for themselves. That’s the whole reason we do weeks like this.

If your family has never done a family camp together, put it on the calendar. It will mark your kids in the best way.

We sat down with our friends Ben and Nili Stewart at family camp and asked them one question:How do you build a strong f...
08/12/2026

We sat down with our friends Ben and Nili Stewart at family camp and asked them one question:

How do you build a strong family?

We met the Stewarts about five years ago, and one of the first things Daniel and I noticed was their children. If chairs needed moving, something needed cleaning up, or someone needed help, a Stewart child was usually already doing it without being asked.

Ben and Nili have been married 26 years and have nine children. When Nili was only 19, doctors gave her a 4% chance of living and told her she probably wouldn’t be able to have children.

And now they have NINE. ❤️

So we asked them to share some of the practical things they do that have helped build their family:

• A family mission statement they revisit every year
• An annual family vision retreat
• Monthly goal resets
• Saturday morning family meetings
• A family work day every Friday
• One-on-one time with each child

One thing they said really stuck with me. Instead of always giving their children the answer, they started asking:

“What did God tell you?”

Ben also said if your goal is to control your children, eventually they’re going to rebel. Their goal is to raise children who know how to hear from God and obey Him.

This was probably one of the most PRACTICAL conversations we’ve recorded, and Daniel and I walked away with several things we want to start doing in our own family.

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the episode! 🏹

08/03/2026

This is last month inside The Forge, talking about young Washington.

The movie doesn’t open with a general. It opens with a boy whose mother was not soft with him.

Men in that generation didn’t get to sit out a day because they woke up feeling off. They got up and did the work anyway, and then they became the men we read about.

That’s the whole conversation we keep having in there. Not how to make a child comply today, but what kind of adult is being formed while nobody’s watching.

The questions coming in this week sounded like this.

My fourteen-year-old is starting to pull away, do I hold tighter or give more freedom.

My son works hard and spends every dollar, how do I teach him to save.

How do we bring our children into the family business without the business swallowing the family.

And the one we get asked more than any other, how do you handle courtship and dating in a culture that has forgotten what it looks like.

We’ll share what we’ve done with our own children, what worked, what we learned along the way, and then we’ll stay and answer your questions.

One thing I love about The Forge is that people don’t just get a generic answer.

If you’ve been wanting a place where you can ask questions and get practical help from people who have walked the road ahead of you, I’d love to have you join us.

Comment FORGE and I’ll send you the details.

07/17/2026

Why do we keep going to Family Camp?
My inbox is full every day with families asking me about family camp...

07/14/2026

People ask us all the time how we can take a whole week away for family camp 3X a year!

The truth is, it costs us something every single time.

Our photography business still needs our attention. Orders don’t stop. The market keeps going. Business doesn’t hit pause just because we’re gone.

Our calendar could easily fill that week with a hundred good things.

But we’ve learned to say no to even good things so we can say yes to what matters most.

For years I kept thinking, “We’ll do it when life slows down.”

It never did.

I finally realized that if I waited for a slow season, I’d be waiting forever.

But we saw so much good fruit come from it, now we put family camp on the calendar first. Everything else gets planned around it.

You don’t accidentally end up with a close family. You make time for one.

Looking back over the last 15 years, I wouldn’t trade those weeks for anything. We’ve watched our marriage grow, our children build lifelong friendships, our family grow in the Lord, and we’ve made memories we’ll be talking about for the rest of our lives.

If you’ve been thinking about coming, there are still a few spots open for August.

Comment CAMP and I’ll send you the details.

07/03/2026

The last day of our family camp always undoes me a little.

Parents up on the stage children gathered right below. And for a few minutes, we stop everything just to sing over them and pray over them.

One of the moms here with her family for the first time shared this with me:

“This was our first experience with this community, and one of the most powerful moments I’ve ever had. I didn’t grow up with anything like it. As I was praying and singing over our four boys, I felt like it was for me too and the tears were flowing. I felt the Holy Spirit move in a way I’ll never forget.”

That’s the whole heart of Gulf Coast Family Camp.

Three times a year, families come to Panama City Beach and slow down worship nights, teaching for every generation, a family market, beach days and somewhere in the middle of it, God meets the very people who came to pour out.

You come to bless your children. You leave blessed too.

Our next one is August 7–14. If your family needs this, come. → Gulf Coast Family Camp

I didn't grow up with this.Daniel and I didn't sit down before we had children and lay out a master plan for courtship.W...
06/24/2026

I didn't grow up with this.

Daniel and I didn't sit down before we had children and lay out a master plan for courtship.

We really just stumbled into it. We learned from families ahead of us and watched what produced fruit and what produced heartbreak.

What we saw in the world around us scared us enough to change everything.

Only 16% of Gen Z adults, ages 18 to 27, are married right now.

16%.

That number alone should stop every parent cold.

We are raising a generation that is sooo comfortable starting and stopping relationships that they can't make a covenant with anybody... a church, a spouse, a community.

And here's the thing most parents don't want to hear.

We trained them to do that.

Every boyfriend at 13 we thought was cute. Every relationship we let run its course with no intention of marriage. Every time we shrugged and said, "They're just having fun."

We were teaching them how to practice what it means to quit.

Daniel and I made a decision to do something different and not because we had it all figured out. In fact, we were the first generation at this. We learned from people who were ahead of us, producing real fruit, and we asked them hard questions.

What does it look like to raise sons and daughters toward marriage, not away from it?

What does it look like to honor a covenant before it's made?

Episode 12 of the Arrows & Acres podcast dropped TODAY, and this is what Daniel and I dig into.
Courtship, Character & Covenant.

Not as a legalistic method or a label to fight over.

But as a posture toward something sacred.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6, NKJV

The goal was never to raise children who are comfortable staying single at 30 because commitment feels too risky.

The goal was to raise children who understand that love is not a feeling you fall into and climb out of. It is a decision. A covenant. A reflection of the God who does not divorce His people.

Listen to Episode 12 today, Wednesday June 24

Drop PODCAST below and i'll send the link! Also, comment are you intentional about this in your home, or is this an area you're just now thinking through?

🏹 Blessings~ Allison

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20016 Front Beach Road
Panama City Beach, FL
32413

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