the conference was....

Absolutely awesome and I will add some pics later!! I am so glad I went and was so blessed the whole time. You know when you go on a retreat or conference and you come back with such a high only to let that emotion fall weeks afterwards? I do not think this is going to happen because I learned things, actually learned things. I was not just encouraged and motivated but my eyes and heart were opened to things I really did not even know existed.

So I will share my actual trip and then I will share with you what I actually learned. Remember until this month I was a Beth Moore virgin (those are the words my small group gave me) but I now know what I was missing.

First off , my church is awesome. If you are anywhere in Atlanta, I encourage you to check out North Metro. Its a big church but you never really feel like its that big.

So Friday afternoon, I met some ladies at the church and we carpooled to the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn which was right beside the aquarium. Got in line to check in and since it was so long of a line, they gave us coupons for free breakfast in the morning. So we find our room and got unpacked. My roomie was Irene. More about her later she rocks as well. We rest for a bit and decide to find something for dinner as the doors would not open until 6m. We also got a really cool t shirt from our church.

We find some ladies and walk over to a deli and get a sandwich and head over to Phillips arena where the line to get in was enormous. Holy cow, thats a lot of estrogen. We wait just about 15 minutes and the doors open. We walked up stairs and got some aisle seats which was fabulous. SO, Travis and the worship team started and some amazing videos were shown. Each time one of the ladies spoke, the others were gathered around and prayed over her..Just beautiful. Oh, how could I forget, Miss Mandisa ended the evening? Wowsers. What a lady of God. She is beautiful and you could see her smile from the inside. She sang and spoke and gave us the inside scoop of American Idol. We were not expecting to hear her tonight and she rocked it! I will be getting her cd at some time.

Priscilla Shirer spoke first and I will listen to her again. What an awesome lady with words straight from the scripture. She was the only one who spoke Friday night and I am glad we had a chance to her her speak. Walked back to the hotel, had some Coke Zero I brought and some snacks Irene brought. We talked pretty late and watched Jurassic Park 3. Our view from our room was beautiful.

Saturday we woke up and headed for breakfast and packed the cars up before walking over. We got there a bit late but still got some good seats. Once again worship time was awesome and I just enjoyed the prayers as well. Kay Arthur spoke next and what a heavy message she had about our country and what danger we are in. She read straight from scripture and I will tell ya what, she scared me. According to the Bible, we are living in some scary times my friends. But she also gave us some hope. This lady may be 74, but God just spoke through her.

Lunch. we got a coke and hot dog. With almost 20,000 ladies there, we did not dare go outside. SO, Irene and I chatted some more. Next up, the ladies answered some questions together and it was just precious. Oh, the Governors wife attended as well.

If you have read my blog before, I have been very hesitant to read anything by Beth Moore to see her out of fear. I did not want to come across as saying, "this is what Beth Said". That is no longer a fear. No matter where you are in your walk of faith, this lady will get you excited. She spoke last and its obvious that she is a woman of God. All 3 of these ladies are so real. We share some of the same insecurities and that felt good. All 3 even mentioned those who struggle with weight, fertility and man, it was awesome.

Ok here is what I learned

1) If I can read 2-3 Christian novels a week, I have no excuse for not digging into scripture like I desire. Boy, did I think she was looking me straight in the eye

2) If you truly repent, you do not need to hold on to that sin. You are released of that burden

3) No matter what your past or present is, no matter what how yucky your heart and mind seem to be, God can use you to do some pretty wonderful things. You just have to let him. Its hard to give him full control, but once you do, its a pretty awesome feeling.

4) Even 80+ year old people can "raise the roof" and worship like they are the only person in the room. I will never see the lady who sat beside me but her hug meant a lot

Needless to say, I am glad I went and thankful for my friend Irene. Irene and I are in very different seasons of life, but God led us to the same Wed morning small group and for that I am thankful. In fact her daughter now works at the same hospital I do. It was nice to spend time with her again. Here are some pics from weekend. I followed the rules and did not take pics while the speakers were on stage!

YOU know what else I was thinking? I was thinking about the people who work Phillips arena. There were 19,500 women singing some seriously loud, incredible worship music. I wonder, I really do wonder if anyone who did not know Christ, felt something? I got a coke during one of the breaks and talked to the people who worked there who had the TV on were able to watch it but decided to turn the sound off. Bummer!