Grace Notes

Miscellaneous

Dr. John Whitcomb in Cedar Rapids!

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We were so honored to have Dr. Whitcomb speak to us in Cedar Rapids last weekend. We want the body of Christ in our town to be well grounded in Creation Science, and we were excited to see over 12 churches represented! We were also very grateful to the Jurgensmeiers and New Life Community Church for letting us use their building! You can watch his sessions from the weekend here or on our church website here.

Dr. Whitcomb is 86 years old now but still going strong traveling and teaching the Bible! What an example! Dr. Whitcomb is an expert on Noah’s Flood and is widely known because of his work on The Genesis Flood, which he coauthored with Henry Morris in 1961. This book has been credited as one of the major catalysts for the modern Biblical creationism movement. It also had a dramtic influence in my dad’s life when he read it back in 1973.

We loved Dr. Whitcomb’s gentle, knowledgable, relevent, Christ-honoring messages. And we loved being able to get acquainted with him a little behind the scenes as well…

Many are unaware of some of Dr. Whitcomb’s secret talents…such as his special whistling abilities. 🙂

Though the weekend turned out wonderfully, we definitely had some unexpected “trauma” along the way! Saturday morning, Dr. Whitcomb told us he was feeling a little dizzy. After he spoke, my dad took him to the doctor, who sent him to the hospital in an ambulance because of shortness of breath and suspicious signs. You can imagine our concern as we passed the prayer request along our church’s prayer chain! Dr. Whitcomb never lost his calm spirit, though, and my mom told me about some of the jokes he was making in the hospital. Dr. Whitcomb was praying that he would still be able to speak that night, but we were sure it wouldn’t be a possibility and arranged a replacement. But after a few hours, Dr. Whitcomb was feeling much better, the tests returned with good results, and the hospital released him. We called his wife who responded, “If he wants to speak, by all means, let him speak!” It turned out to be a wonderful evening session. Praise God who answers prayer!

As we were dropping Dr. Whitcomb off, he told us, “Someone must have been praying for this weekend!”
We told him, “A LOT of people were praying for this weekend!”
He told us, “Maybe in Heaven we will learn all the things God did because people were praying.”
We agreed.
Then He added, “And we hope He doesn’t tell us all the things He didn’t do because we didn’t pray!”
Wow. What a good reminder to be on our knees!

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16

Bright Lights Local Group

Bright Lights Campfire

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After our last Bright Lights meeting here in town, we all went outside for a campfire/sharing time. It was very encouraging to hear girls sharing about how the Lord has been working in their lives.

One girl shared that at the recent Bright Lights conferences, the Lord had convicted her of a number of things she needed to confess to her parents—it was a whole list of things, actually. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was NOT an easy thing for her to do. But God gave her courage, and after confessing everything to her parents, she said she had a much better relationship with the Lord, her parents, AND her siblings. Also, she emphasized how God gave her a new understanding of the cross and the seriousness of her sin, and a new delight in His Word and prayer.

Several other girls also shared about some good, yet difficult, decisions the Lord had convicted them to make as well. Praise the Lord!

Bright Lights Conferences/Radiant Purity Conferences

Final Conference Post!

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Below are a few more pictures from our last conference in Duluth 3 weeks ago!

This church began to feel like our home after being there for a week straight!! Since it was right on Lake Superior, the view was beautiful and the air was so fresh. That meant lots of walks around the parking lot… 🙂

Sarah explaining the important principle of the two kinds of purity.

The best part of each conference is seeing the Lord work in girls’ lives. Here is an encouraging e-mail Bekah received from one of the young ladies in her discussion group. (We have permisison to share it.)

“… I went home and told my Mom about an errand I have to run. About 5 years ago, I stole 2 rings from a store and I need to get that right with God, which means admitting to that and compensating for them. I remember how much they were and I’ve calculated tax and added that on, so that’s where I’ll be today…The sermon [at church yesterday] was on idols, well, I don’t have any of those, right? I went home and I’ve started memorizing a list of verses that I found on the heart, a pure heart, a godly heart, a godly woman, a godly wife, and a godly marriage. Now I’m set! Well, I did want to share something with my Mom, something I’d hoarded away-love letters-from guys in the past. I realized those were my idols and I’m de-guying my life!!! We burned them all, and now she knows why my heart was always troubled. Well, we both do. I got rid of an idol that was forcing Jesus out of my heart, and with that gone….There’s only room for Him!!!! I’ve had SO much joy, Bekah, and no one understands, but they will. I’m going to be the brightest light for Him that I can…And a pure one!
P.S. I’m deleting my guy contacts and friends on Facebook. I will not be a “fisher of men”, just the one God intends- and until then, I’m waiting on Him and using my single years for His Glory!”

Special relationships made…

We made a list of some of the little details in which we saw God answering prayer. Here are a few of them:

• When Nickie was printing the name tags for our final Radiant Purity conference in Duluth, she noticed that the supply of pink paper was very low. With only about 2 hours before the conference began we were worried that we might not have enough. But God answered prayer and we had the EXACT number of sheets to print the nametags.

• There were 2 missing items that we really needed to find. After praying about it, we found them both in about 2 minutes!

• We heard many testimonies from small group leaders who had girls with specific needs assigned to their team and they were able to effectively encourage because of common family situations, personal struggles, etc. It was humbling to know that the Lord was guiding and blessing us even in the “regular” tasks of assigning girls to small group teams.

• One leader wanted to talk with a certain girl in her group alone. She prayed about it during the main session, and immediately after the session was over, this girl came and found HER, wanting to talk about questions she had regarding the gospel!

• My dad and Sarah had especially been praying that the Lord would bring 400 people to each Strong in the Lord conference. Including late registration we reached (and exceeded!) that number each time.

These are just a few examples of answered prayer. I wish I could record them all. It is humbling and very exciting to serve a powerful God who works in so many ways–many of which we often don’t even see or recognize!

The last morning my dad took us to watch the sunrise over the lake. What a special conclusion to the week.

As we were watching the sun rise, someone brought up the analogy of waiting for Jesus to return–our true Sunrise. The anticipation and excitement beforehand…the warmth and beauty after…what a clear picture we see, every morning, of that one day coming soon.

“Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring (NASB: Sunrise) from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

Bright Lights Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conference, Duluth, MN

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Moms and daughters arriving and picking up their nametags!

We are definitely aware that prayer is the one main necessary component for a conference to be successful, and we rejoiced at many answers to prayer throughout the two weeks of conferences. One answer to prayer was the attendance the Lord brought. We prayed for a specific number for each conference and those numbers were exceeded each time. Thank you to all of you were joined us in praying for these conferences!

The sisters who could not get along…

After the first evening, we had some complaints about crying babies so around 11pm Stephen drove to Wisconsin (okay, actually it was only a 30 mintute drive), bought a speaker system, and set it up in the lobby. Things were SO much better the next day. Yea!

The “Good Conscience Sisters”

The “Guilty Conscience Sisters”

We had some problems with mics making loud and unusual noises the first night. They have never done this before, so we included this issue as a prayer e-mail we sent out. The next day we had little to no problems with the mics. Praise the Lord for how He answers prayer and helps us fix problems in all the dimensions of the conference.

An answer to prayer–Hannah, who joined our team for the first time at this conference, knew sign language and was able to fill a need perfectly by helping with the interpreting at the conference.

Enjoying small group times!

Moms and daughters, ready for the next session to begin…

The horse race is beginning in 5 minutes!!

“Let it shine till Jesus Comes. I’m gonna let it shine….”

More pictures coming soon! In the meantime, if you’d like to see a report from the conferences on Emily Schuurman’s blog, click here.

Or to see a fun collection of photos from Chelsy Bontrager’s camera, see her blog here.

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life…” Philippians 2:14-15

Bright Lights Conferences/Radiant Purity Conferences

Radiant Purity Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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The Radiant Purity Conference in Cedar Rapids (August 13-14th) was definitely an exciting weekend. We were very encouraged by the attendance, the response, and the conclusion of the whole event.

The discussion groups at the Radiant Purity Conference always keep things fresh and interesting. Here was Lilly and Laura’s group.

Here are a few other responses from young ladies:

“I’m going to ask my father again to guard my heart and hold me accountable” -14 yr old

“I am going to memorize Romans 6-8 to replace wrong thoughts” -14 yr old

“I’m going to talk to my parents about crushes and stuff” -14 yr old

“I made a commitment not to kiss before marriage” -17 yr old

One thing that excites us most is to see the older girls and moms become interested in starting their own Bright Lights groups when they go home.

Chelsy and Tia’s Group

Here was our “cool down” and sharing time — where we enjoyed good food, relaxing, and hearing encouraging reports about how the Lord was working in all the other small groups. Lots of joy and laughter. But the relaxing didn’t last too long because soon it was time for…

Clean up!! After a week of conferences in the same church, there was lots of cleaning, organizing and packing to do as we prepared to leave the next morning for Duluth….! (Big thanks to the Bieglers and Martinezes for all your help!) Here Tia and Lilly are packing up the booktable.

Rachel and Abby. (In case you haven’t noticed, we are always completely serious after conferences are over…)

…especially Stephen. 🙂

Check back soon for more reports from the Duluth, MN Conferences!

Bright Lights Conferences

In Duluth Minnesota!

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We just concluded the first evening of the Strong in the Lord Conference here in Duluth, MN. Tomorrow will be a full day! We sense an eagerness to learn among the attendees here and we’d appreciate prayer that the Lord would be working in a powerful way in these girls’ lives tomorrow!

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

Bright Lights Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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Here’s Bryant putting together packages of the Bright Lights Songbook and CD for our booktable at the conferences. We had to resort to our old system of shrink wrapping using an iron since our shrink wrapper broke!

Tuesday moring, our team of leaders gathered for “teacher’s training”, sharing in the Word, and prayer. These are always encouraging times! It’s always refreshing to hear the special verses that have encouraged the other leaders as they have spent time with the Lord preparing for the conference.

Here is the “Folly / Wisdom Skit” in the first main session. This skit tells the story of Wisdom, a girl making good decisions based on an eternal perspective, compared to Folly who just does what feels good.

We gathered as a group of leaders for “cool down” after the first evening to share encouraging stories and prayer requests.

Bekah and Karissa were very dramatic in acting the skit of the two sisters who could not get along…they did a great job.

Enjoying “the pyramid activity!” in small group time as we talked about brothers and sisters learning to be teammates and work together.

The “Dead Conscience Sisters,” reviewing their skit lines backstage. We enjoyed having Laura (Nickie’s sister) on our team again this time! Since she has two kids now she can’t travel with us anymore but she was able to help since the conference was local.

We all love the relationships we are able to make with the girls in our small group teams.

One of the most encouraging things for us is to hear testimonies of lives the Lord touched through the conference. I thought I’d share a few comments we recieved:

“I am going to try to read the Bible for 15 min or a chapter every day. I am also going to try to honor my parents and be kinder to my sister.” -13-year-old girl

“My oldest daughter already has her Bible reading plan commitment in place! My 8 year-old told me last night that she is SO happy and that she feels like a new person inside, 🙂 , and maybe this is what it feels like to really BE a Christian. What joy! ” -Mom

“We were at the Bright Lights conference this past Tuesday and Wednesday. We so enjoyed ourselves… I was especially blessed when my 10 year old daughter approached me yesterday morning to tell me of some things that were weighing on her conscience.” -Mom

We are so grateful for those who have upheld this conference in prayer. The Radiant Purity Conference which followed also went wonderfully, and I will report about that soon. We are now in MN preparing for the next Strong in the Lord Conference which begins tomorrow evening. Please pray that hearts would be changed at these next two conferences.

Bright Lights Office/Recent Productions

Guess what arrived??!

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On Friday a semi pulled up to our office and we unloaded 5,000 songbooks!

After piles of drafts, it felt wonderful to hold a finished copy.

The songbook process began when Sarah Roberts came last year, helped with the CD recording, and then spent 2+ weeks full time writing arrangments and entering them into the Finale Software. When Sarah Roberts initially e-mailed asking if there was anything she could do to help Bright Lights for a few weeks in the summer, Sarah (Mally) mentioned that we had just scheduled to record a CD and would love to have a songbook to go along with it. The Lord had already given Sarah Roberts this idea independently (though she didn’t know about the recording) and she was excited to come and help. We were thrilled.

After Sarah left, numerous other friends and BL leaders spent time editing, arranging, and entering in new songs. We saw God’s hand of provision in many special ways through many special friends…but of those, Nickie definitely put in the most time of all as she designed and laid out the entire songbook in InDesign. (Not a simple project!)

As we neared the finish line, Sarah and I realized we needed a little more organized system as we went through each song numerous times editing and catching mistakes, so this is the little chart we developed and used for a couple days during the editing process….

Hey, whatever works, right?!

Editing and more editing…late into the night… Deadlines are VERY helpful when it comes to getting things done. (We wanted the songbooks done by our Bright Lights conferences this summer.)

Even Stephen joined the team…

Finally! Finished product! It’s exciting to see the Lord give a desire and then complete it. Our desire and prayer is that this songbook would be a useful tool for Bright Lights groups around the country and that it would direct the attention of multitudes to Jesus Christ.

For more information or to order a songbook, click here.

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night” Psalm 92:1-2

Bright Lights Office

Busy Days at the Bright Lights Office…

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There’s lots of work to do with preparation for the four upcoming Bright Lights conferences. We were grateful for all the help from Lindsay (from NE) and Abby (from MN) who came to visit for the weekend to help. Thanks again Abby and Lindsay!

We are also very excited to announce that Rachel and Bekah May are joining us as staff here at the Bright Lights office!! The Mays live in the area and have been involved in Bright Lights for the past 12 years, so they have been able to jump right in and take on all kinds of responsibilities here at the office. We can’t say enough about how happy and relieved we are to have their help. (Plus, their energetic personalities are a lot of fun to have around. :))

Praise the Lord who is able to provide so perfectly!!! (I’m sure you’ll be seeing more pictures of them on here in the coming year…)

Bekah and Nickie

Rachel entering registrations for the upcoming conferences.

Sarah

Lindsay putting sleeves in the front of CDs.
Stephen

Abby making phone calls

And we can’t forget to include a picture of Dad back there typing away at e-mails. We are all very fond of our heroic leader who is just about always ready to either share a new spiritual lesson or a new great idea. 🙂

And we didn’t work the entire time Abby and Lindsay were visiting…instead we sat out in the backyard with the mosquitos. Yes, it was my idea. (Bekah came into the office this morning and announced, “Grace! I have 25 bugbites!” 🙂 )

Family News

Rocky Mountain National Park

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Last week our family attended a wedding in Colorado and spent a few days camping while we were there. It was a very refreshing time.

Early morning devotional time in the mountains…Life doesn’t get much better than this does it, Dad?! (Notice Dad still found a way to make his morning toast slightly burnt just the way he likes it…)

A definite highlight was the individual time we had with the Lord and our Bibles in the crisp, quiet mountain air! We also enjoyed the chance to spend time in some books we had been wanting to read…
Dad: The Ultimate Proof of Creation (Jason Lisle)
Sarah: After the Flood Historian Bill Cooper shares fascinating information about how earliest Europeans recorded their descent from Noah through Japheth and knew all about the Flood!
Stephen: Going For the Gold (Joe Wall) About the Judgment Seat of Christ and living our lives in light of it.
Myself: A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

Because of a misunderstanding, we had to move our tent to a different spot for night #2. Some members in the family decided we should just carry the tent so we didn’t have to take it down. It made a pretty unusual sight in the campground…

By the time we moved campsites, ate lunch, cleaned up, etc. it was already late in the afternoon when we began our hike.

It took about 15 minutes to drive to where the trail began. Upon arriving, Mom asked, “Did anyone zip up the tent windows?” No one had. Mom, who doesn’t even like camping, began to imagine what it would be like to sleep in wet sleeping bags. So we all piled back into the van and drove back to our campsite.

On the way there, it began to rain and hail but thankfully we got the tent zipped up before anything got too wet.

Finally we began our hike!

It was so beautiful and we were all really enjoying ourselves….

…Until, right at the top, it became very windy, rainy, and cold. We were wondering if it would continue to be rainy and cold for the 3.5 miles back to the van…

…But laughing at Mom and Dad in their funny rain gear made us forget how cold we were.

When we finally arrived back at our campsite, wet and tired, we found that our tent had turned completely on its side in the rain. (Hmm…maybe camping would be easier without a tent at all?!)

All in all, we had a wonderful time camping. The good family times around the fire were another highlight. We feel so blessed. Even my mom, who doesn’t like camping, said she would do it again! Wow!

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:2