Something very special happened last weekend… Our first-ever Radiant Purity Conference was held in Alexandria, Minnesota! It was for girls 12 and up, and included topics such as modesty, dangers with the dating system, how to handle crushes, learning to delight in the Lord as our Prince, being open with our parents, waiting on the Lord, and having a life purpose bigger than marriage. The conference also included 2 chalk-talks, skits, wedding video clips, singing, discussion groups, and mother’s sessions.
This conference was a dream-come-true for us and many others. It was so exciting to see it all happen and see God’s hand working! Personally, I was challenged, refreshed, and exhausted when it was over.
We brought about a dozen older girls who are leaders in our Bright Lights group in Cedar Rapids. They led the discussion groups, ran registration, worked at the book table, acted in skits, shared testimonies, led the singing, and helped with set up and tear down. We’ve all learned a lot about how to work together as a team, how to run conferences as smoothly as possible, and how to rely on God’s power.
Hearing practical testimonies and teaching from real girl’s lives was encouraging to everyone.
I think it’s exciting to share ways we saw the Lord’s hand at work. Here are a few examples:
– Dan Macy, who hosted the conference, found a large facility in his area that he thought would be perfect for holding a conference. As he began to work with this church, he ran into complications and things just didn’t work out. He expressed to us how it seemed like a death of a vision. Mr. Macy realized that the only way this conference could happen is if someone who attended this church would be willing to host it. He began to pray. One day as he was explaining his idea of a Bright Lights conference to another homeschool father, this father replied, “Well, I go to that church and I’d be willing to help host it and work all the details out for you!” The church facility was beautiful and worked wonderfully.
– The Lord’s timing was perfect. Since Sarah had just written Before You Meet Prince Charming last year, it was much easier to plan the material and content for this new conference, drawing from the book.
– Sarah had been secretly praying for 400 attendees. We had 127 register at the door, bring attendance number to 405.
– Stephen came up with a new nifty computer system for registration at this conference. He got it all set up and trained our registrars. About a half hour before the conference as everyone started coming, the computer system crashed. Let’s just say that is not what we wanted to happen, especially with lots of people registering at the door. But the Lord came through, the computers started working, and registration went smoothly.
– Video clips, sound, lighting, special effects and PowerPoint all worked even though they got us worried at times!
– My mom and a good friend Kay Baskerville were teaching the mother’s sessions. As they talked about what to speak on, they found that the Lord had placed the exact same thing on both of their hearts to share with the mothers.
Laura Sisson, Grace Mally, and Elyssa Ertz in our “Old Fashioned Skit”
Elyssa Ertz, Laura Sisson and Nickie Biegler in a skit Friday night
