Equipping Families to be Strong in the Lord
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
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.
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
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!” 🙂 )
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!
Wow, what a loaded and interesting time I had down there in New Orleans! I learned so much as I tagged alongside the very bold and passionate people who ran the Answers in Genesis booth!
You can imagine how much our banner stood out in the middle of such a secular setting!
We gave away boxes and boxes of free Creation Science DVDs and books.
And lots of interesting conversations erupted…
Many opportunities to share the gospel…
When you have a group of people who love to share the gospel, you end up witnessing to people everywhere you go….
Waiter (burgundy): “So are you all going to do some sightseeing while you are here in New Orleans?”
James (white): “Well, we’re hoping to share the good news with lots of people!”
Waiter: “Oh really? What’s the good news?”
Mr. Gendron (tan stripes): “That our sins can be forgiven and we have a Savior who paid the price for us to go to Heaven.”
Waiter: “Oh so are you part of a religious section of the NEA conference?”
James and Mr. Gendron: “Oh no, we don’t believe in religion. Religion is where man ‘works his way to God’. The Bible says that God reached down to us.”
Waiter: “Well it is very interesting to hear your perspectives on this. But maybe I should get your order first and then come back and talk some more.”
We all laughed and agreed.
Later our waiter came by and told us that his brother recently became a born again Christian and had been e-mailing him about it. We talked some more with him and gave him some DVDs. He thanked us sincerely.
Some people loved what we are doing, some were intrigued…
And some were angry…like the man in the white shirt and tie (a science teacher) who was looking for a way to cause trouble for our booth and stated in no subtle language that he was not happy about the materials we were giving out. The 20 minute debate that followed was fascinating as it was obvious that he had no evidence to stand on to back up his beliefs when confronted with the truth and logic of Genesis.
My roommates! Grace and Faith are wonderful young evangelists themselves and I really enjoyed spending time with their family!
Here is a portion of our team. Some are on staff with Answers in Genesis, and the others are evangelists / apologists from around the country. Dr. Jobe Martin and his wife and two daughters were there (right), and it was so much fun to get to know them. Taryn and Mirren also run conferneces for young ladies and they have a neat family ministry.
Hi, everyone. This is Sarah, writing a quick post to fill in for Grace. Grace is working at the Answers in Genesis Booth at the NEA (National Education Association) convention in New Orleans this week. Answers in Genesis has a booth there each year reaching thousands of public school teachers with the truth about creation and God’s Word.
You can read some updates – Click Here
Also, you can watch a witnessing conversation that Grace had with a young lady she met at the booth – Click Here
An incredible story was recently compiled by an aquaintance of Stephen who is a Christian and a visual journalist for USA today. It is definitely worth the 10 minutes to watch this video clip!
Click here to watch video from the journalist’s blog.
Click here to see the story that was published in USA today for Father’s Day.
Happy Father’s Day!
“He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” Malachi 4:6
I haven’t posted for a while but that hasn’t been because of lack of action around here. 🙂 Good friends from China visited us for 12 days and left last week. We had a great time with them and made so many special memories.
We decided to take advantage of having so many energetic helpers around! Here Mary, Charity, and Loice are punching butterflies and flowers in preparation for crafts at the upcoming Bright Lights Conferences. Sarah and Nickie also kept them busy writing and recording testimonies for Bright Lights (in which they did a fantastic job), shrink-wrapping materials for our booktable and online store, sorting and labeling shipments of books, sharpening boxes of colored pencils, entering registrations for the upcoming conferences, etc.
Priscilla and Melody
Lunchtime! (After being around a family of 12, having a family of 5 seems very small…!)
Is Stephen really that funny, Priscilla?!
Listening to my dad tell stories around the fire…
One very special part of their visit was when Mary came with me to the hospital. (I take my little harp and play room to room for patients on the oncology / neurology floor every other week or so.) I usually take calligraphy Bible verse cards for the patients I talk with, many of whom don’t have very much longer to live. Mary had spent several hours coloring the cards for me, so I began to think about how great it would be if she could come along to help deliver them. I called the hospital to see if Mary could come. To my surprise and delight, the hospital gave special permission for Mary to accompany me – even though she wasn’t an official “volunteer”. This was an answer to prayer, and I realized that God must have a special reason for Mary to come.
The patients just loved Mary, and having her along helped to open more doors to talk with people. I wish I could report all the stories, but here’s one of them: The lady pictured above and her daughter and granddaughter were very open to talking about spiritual things so we were able to sit down, open our Bibles, and explain way of salvation to them. When we explained that eternal life was a free gift—not something you have to earn—the mom and her daughter looked at each other like it finally “clicked”. Her daughter told me, “I’ve been wanting to join a Bible study. In fact, just yesterday I was telling my mom about how I was looking for some sort of Bible study to join.” We are planning to meet up again to study the Bible together soon. Isn’t it exciting to see God arrange these things?
Last weekend our family went to Dubuque, IA to Emmaus Bible College for a conference called “Iron Sharpens Iron.” This year’s topic was “Quest for Holiness.” The speakers were great, and it was a really profitable time. I was encouraged and challenged!
The fellowship time in the dining hall was one of the highlights. Seeing old friends again and meeting new…here Sarah is talking with some new friends from the Dominican Republic.
We enjoyed meeting Alex Strauch and appreciated his great messages on Rom 6-8. We carry many of his books in our bookstore, including Biblical Eldership, a well-known book on church leadership which we feel is important. We are so grateful for the many ways he has strengthened the body of Christ.
Here are some tidbits from a session by Mark Stevenson on the sin of idolatry:
-The human heart is an idol-making factory, and anything we love more than God is an idol.
-Even good things, such as a clean house, can be an idol if we are placing it above the Lord in our affections.
-Your affections can be determined by what you do in your solitude — where your mind goes in your spare thoughts, what you delight to think about as you fall asleep.
-Just as in Romans 1 they “exchanged the truth of God for a lie,” so sin is exchanging the glory of God for lesser things.
-False gods lose their hold on our hearts only when we are captivated with Christ.
-It’s by beholding Jesus that we are changed. (2 Cor 3:18) We become like what we worship.
-When we fall at Jesus’ feet in surrender and worship, we gradually begin to understand what Paul meant when he spoke of how much he valued Christ: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…” (1 Cor 3:7-8)
-May we see how much we have been forgiven and how desperate we are for His mercy. And may we relish in Christ’s love, which is greater, stronger, deeper, and infinitely more satisfying than any earthly pursuit. May we give Him the worship He deserves!