Grace Notes

Jacksonville, Florida, Bright Lights Conference, Nov 9-10, 2007
Although every conference is a struggle to pull off, we were so grateful for all the ways our Heavenly Father worked and provided so that this conference was a success!

One of our themes on this trip was evangelism and witnessing. We got into a lot of great conversations!! Here is a picture I snapped of a conversation with a friend we met on the beach. The man in the red shirt (above) asked if he could join in our soccar game, but instead some people from our group talked with him for over 30 minutes about who Jesus Christ was, how to get to heaven, etc. Our little friend Merrit (7 yrs old, sister of one of the Bright Lights leaders) also contributed some good comments to the conversation! He responded very well to Merrit. 🙂

This was our last conference. We sensed a lot of enemy attack beforehand, but it went great!

Chrissy Baskerville and the “Brownie Skit”. You did such a good job, Chrissy! 🙂

We always eat whatever food is leftover from what we serve at conference. Usually it becomes sort of a joke because everyone gets tired of it after a while.This week we had lots of bananas, skittles, and applesauce. 🙂

Moving 15 girls and all their luggage around for 2 weeks in Florida isn’t an easy task! Thank you Mom, Dad, Stephen, Mr. and Mrs. Baskerville and Andrew for all the times you moved us (and all of our luggage) to the different homes where we were staying!

Thank you everyone for your prayers! Everything has been going great! The Lord has taken good care of our team through many very kind and hospitable people. Here are some pictures from our first conference in Clearwater on November 2-3rd.

My small group: the “Nightlights” Miss you! 🙂

Above:
Chelsea and Laura
Chrissy and Lena
Ally and Grace

Below:
Stephen and Grace

The case of the mysterious death of Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell B. Vanderbon was solved on stage by Detective 332 and Sarah Mally after observing the events at Miss Charity Always’ Office…

Things went very well this evening. We were encouraged.

Bright Lights conference in Clearwater, Florida, November 2-3, 2007

In about 2 hours our first conference is beginning here in Clearwater, Florida. Everyone is running around taking care of last minute details and preparation…we are experiencing the “count down” before the conference starts and there is a lot to do!

We’d really appreciate prayer that the Lord would be at work mightily during this conference and that He would accomplish His purposes. We were reminded from the story of Elijah during our group devotions this morning how Elijah was remembered (in James) as being a man of prayer. Prayer is so crucial! Prayer moves the hand of God. Please pray for us!

We all squeezed into one van for a 3 minute shuttle ride from one place to another.

Last night after about 9 hours of driving, we spent the night in Cincinnati, OH. The Wickert family were very hospitable and opened their home to our whole group to stay!

The day on the road today was peaceful, relaxing and beautiful. Walking around the tropical garden trails of the Gaylord hotel for a little while this afternoon was a nice break.

Around 8:30 pm we pulled into the Adam’s home in Georgia. Although we’ve barely met them before, they have been running a Bright Lights group and they graciously opened their home to us as we were traveling through! It was such a blessing to pull in tired and hungry and receive a gourmet dinner and good fellowship. They had set up and decorated tables in their garage to seat us all for dinner. It was very nice. We felt so special and grateful to God for how well He takes care of us. Thank you, Adams! 🙂

Top: Sarah–piano, Emily Lenz–violin, Caitlyn Adams–harp, Brittney Adams–violin, myself–flute.
Middle: Singing!
Bottom: We had an encouraging time of sharing tonight which everyone seemed to enjoy…it included bible verses, testimonies, and some of my dad’s “latest greatest ideas”.. (He has lots of time to think and come up with stuff while he’s driving! 🙂 )

Here is one of the two 15-passanger vans we are traveling with.

I borrowed a few of Stephen’s recent shots.

For a bit of news: In about 12 hours we are leaving with 2 big vans and about 15 girls for some Bright Lights conferences in Florida! So goodbye to colorful trees and hello to palm trees…. 🙂
It’s always slightly crazy around here the night before we leave. No matter how hard we try to get ready in advance we still end up having so many things to do at the last minute. Right now my dad is packing the trailer, my mom is cleaning the trailer, Sarah is preparing her pictures (for the chalk talks she does during conferences) and Stephen is running around doing errands and packing orders. My mom was impressive with her packing this time…she had all her clothes packed and hanging in the trailer a week ago plus she actually made all our sack lunches and froze them so she wouldn’t have to do it the night before the trip. (The rest of us aren’t quite as prepared. 🙂 )

We have some girls from out of town staying with us tonight. With joy we put them to work… 🙂 thank you Emiy, Abigail and Allison. I don’t know what we would have done without you!

Stephen mailing out orders and Allison putting BL Leaders Kits together

My dad is outside in the cold packing the trailor…it takes a long time to pack everything. And then, of course, we keep giving him more things to fit in…