Category: Strong in the Lord Conf.

Bright Lights Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Lansing, Michigan “Strong in the Lord Conference”

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The Strong in the Lord Conference here in Lansing, MI, ended tonight. There were about 400 mothers and daughters in attendance. We were encouraged by how everything went, and grateful to God for His faithfulness!

The singing was one of my favorite parts. At this conference we had a grand piano, a guitar, 2 violins and a flute. The moms and girls sang loudly, and it sounded great.


In between each session, we break out into small groups (consisting of about 12-24 girls) for discussion, crafts, and personal sharing time.

Laura has been traveling with our team for years. She is happily married now, and her baby Abigail is 9 months old. It’s a treat to have her joining us again for this conference!

We always enjoy our “debriefing” times!

Tonight the host family we are staying with treated us with raspberries, strawberries, peaches and ice cream. It was great.

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Free Day

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We went to a park for a while yesterday on our free day. You’d be surprised at how some “sweet and composed” young ladies will dive to catch a Frisbee… we had some great games. 🙂

We arrived back at the church super hot and sweaty (It was sooo hot outside!) and we had to get about 10 of us girls through the shower before lots of families from the church came over for an evening meal and sharing time….


The ladies from the church made a delicious meal and then we had a sharing time in the auditorium–which was a big highlight. Encouraging testimonies were shared from our leaders, from moms and dads at the church, and from girls who had attended the conference….it was very refreshing for all of us!!
Right now everyone is hustling around getting ready for the Purity Conference which starts in about an hour.

Bright Lights Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Kansas City “Strong in the Lord Conference”

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The church here in Kansas City was filled all day yesterday with lots of special young ladies….


Chrissy’s small group


My small group

Sarah and Abigail (who were sick) were totally well and energetic all day yesterday during the conference! In fact, afterwards Sarah said she felt better than she normally does after Strong in the Lord Conferences! The others who were sick (Mary and my parents) are feeling much better now as well.

The conference went great! In our sharing time afterwards, many leaders shared encouraging reports of girls in their small group who accepted Christ as their Savior, girls who changed from “someone who didn’t want to be there” to “someone who didn’t want to leave”, and girls who opened up and shared meaningful testimonies with their small groups. Many made commitments to begin reading their Bibles every day. Thank you to everyone who was praying–we know that “prayer is not preparation for the work, it IS the work!”

Today is our free day, and the Radiant Purity Conference starts tomorrow evening.

Bright Lights Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Kansas City Bright Lights Conference

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Tonight was the first night of the Strong in the Lord conference here in Kansas City, Kansas. It was a “tough-won victory” because Sarah, my dad, my mom, and two girls from our team are all sick (nausea, fever, etc.) They slept most of the day. We were all praying more intensely as we really saw this conference was going to be a struggle to pull off. I asked Sarah if she would give us an advance warning next time she was going to get sick so we could prepare more….[smile]
Thankfully, the Lord gave them all enough strength to get up tonight and be part of the conference. Sarah was able to do all of her session like normal and she did a very good job. Girls and moms have been enthusiastic and responsive. Personally, I’ve been encouraged to see the Lord answer lots of specific prayers—both big and little. He is faithful!


We were thrilled to have 90 people register at the door! 🙂


We arrived yesterday to a host of enthusiastic volunteers who helped us unload really fast! 🙂 The families here who are hosting the conference have done a terrific job and have taken care of so many little details.

Please keep us in your prayers this week. Like our last Bemidji trip, we have a “double conference” planned. (Strong in the Lord conference for younger girls first, and Radiant Purity conference for older girls second.)

Bright Lights Conferences/Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Bemidji, Minnesota Trip Overview!

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Wow. I have a lot to post about! For now I think I’ll just give you all an overview of our last Bright Lights trip to Bemidji…


Each Bright Lights trip is different and each one has unique memories to go along with it. To split up the journey, the Bjorkmans graciously offered for our whole group to spend the night at their home in Elk River, MN. We walked into their beautiful northern home and were immediately treated to rhubarb cake and homemade ice cream. After that we were introduced to their 3 dogs, cats, hairless rat (seriously, it was kind of cute), and 2 salamanders. We had a fun and entertaining evening with them. [smile]


The next morning, they took us to see their home school resource bookstore Hepner’s Legacy, a friendly little store full of great books and resources. Since we are planning to run something similar with the new building God has provided in our town, we were especially interested. We know the Bjorkmans because we often see them at the state home school conferences where they speak and sell lots of home school books and resources.

We arrived at the church in Bemidji and began setting up Monday afternoon….set up is always a long process.Thankfully, team work makes it go faster!

These girls were brave enough to carry the entire Before You Meet Prince Charming display from one table to another because of a change of plans. I’ll have to say I was impressed.


Registration!


Large Group


Thanks again, Amanda and Kelley, for the great job you did cooking for our staff the entire week!

The Radiant Purity Conference was held Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. We had a break on Thursday and then the Strong in the Lord conference was Friday night and all day Saturday. We really saw the Lord working at both conferences. It was encouraging!


On Thursday, our free day, we went out to a a beautiful lake surrounded by pine trees and enjoyed lots of great food, volleyball, canoing, and sharing from the Word around the campfire with singing and s’mores. As I was out in the middle of the lake dangling my feet out of the canoe into the cool water I was thinking how good the Lord was to give us nice times of rest. [smile]


Not only did Ben grill for us on Thursday, he was in charge of all the food and snacks we served to the attendees for the entire conference! Ben is the husband of Mindy (Berge) Caron, who hosted the conference. We had fun getting to know Ben and Mindy! This is the first time the husband of the host has been in charge of the food for both entire conferences. He did a great job.


I heard many positive comments about the dad’s discussion times. We love having the dads there…it adds such a nice dimension to the conferences! (It also improves the singing [smile])


Clean up Saturday night…here’s Sarah on the riding vacuum cleaner. 🙂


After both conferences were over on Saturday night, we had a pizza/ice cream party and many shared very encouraging reports from conversations they had. It was a memorable and fun time for everyone. We watched a slide show of pictures from the weekend and the Berge family sang for us. I had heard how good they were, but they exceeded my expectations. [smile]

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Thankful to God

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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!

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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. 🙂

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conference in Jacksonville, FL

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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! 🙂

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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. 🙂

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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!

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Clearwater, FL Bright Lights Conference

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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.

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My small group: the “Nightlights” Miss you! 🙂
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Above:
Chelsea and Laura
Chrissy and Lena
Ally and Grace

Below:
Stephen and Grace

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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…

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Conference Beginning Soon!

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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!