Category: Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conf.

A Little Crowded!

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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!

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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! 🙂

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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! 🙂 )

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

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Recent News

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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. 🙂 )

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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!

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Stephen mailing out orders and Allison putting BL Leaders Kits together

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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…

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Bright Lights in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong…

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I wanted to post one last group picture of the girls we spent most of our time with while we were in Singapore and Malaysia last month. They are all wonderful, sweet girls who love the Lord and have a heart for discipleship. Please pray for them as they are “pioneer” homeschoolers in Southeast Asia. Many younger girls are looking up to them and following their example. (I miss you all 🙂 )

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Summary of our Malaysia Trip!

Thank you to everyone who was praying for us! We saw the Lord answer many prayers, and work out countless details. So many things that could have gone wrong didn’t. Many things that we were hoping for happened. Sarah and I, plus the 4 American girls who came along with us saw the Lord work in mighty ways as we “labored together” with the Asian young ladies throughout the 3 conferences. There was a real spirit of “one accord”, which is a rare and powerful thing. Many bright lights shining in one accord is a lot brighter then just one bright light shining alone!

During the 18 days we were in Singapore and Malaysia we ran 3 Bright Lights conferences.
The first conference was running simultaneously with the 3 day family homeschool conference in Meleka, Malaysia. We had about 90 girls attending and 20 older girls helping us by leading the small groups.

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Rachel and Chrissy
I felt so privledged to be able to spend time with all of these girls. They were so much fun to be with and welcomed us so warmly into their country!

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We took all of our girls up on stage the last day to do a special presentation for the parents of the songs and verses we had learned together.

Conference Number 2: Leader’s Training

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Our wonderful group of leaders!

This conference was much different. It was focused on teaching these older girls about discipleship, ministry, and staring Bright Lights groups in their areas. As I wrote in an earlier post, we stayed together in the Chalet, ate all our meals together and had lots of nice times together.

Conference Number 3: In conclusion to the Leader’s Training, we all led the Strong in the Lord conference together at a church in Singapore. This conference went very well, although it was not pulled off without struggle. I had the stomach flu that day, and others were sick as well. One of the rooms in the church became the “sick room” where those that weren’t feeling well could lay down throughout the day. The Lord was faithful to provide the needed strength at the needed times and the conference was a big sucess.

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The day before we left we went to the beach for a retreat with a Bright Lights group that has been meeting in Singapore for about 6 months. After some fun activities in the morning and lunch, we arranged some time for individual Bible study, group sharing, and one on one sharing time. It was a very nice last day.

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conference in Singapore!

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Here we are singing yesterday at the Bright Lights “Strong in the Lord Conference” in Singapore! The girls who had been attending the Bright Lights Leader’s Training served as the leaders of the small groups. They were an excellent team.
The conference went great, and once again we were encouraged to see the Lord work.
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Nickie Biegler, Jolynn and Eunice about ready to go on stage for a skit

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Our tradition in the States is to have pizza after Bright Lights conferences, so it was fun to have a change and go out for “Hong Kong Dim Sum” instead. 🙂

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Singapore Bright Lights Leaders Training

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This Tuesday-Friday Sarah has been teaching a Bright Lights Leaders Training in this “holiday chalet” by the beach in Singapore. We are grateful to the Lord for this peaceful, quiet location to come away and focus on God and ministry preparation.

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I am sitting here in a large warm room with a breeze blowing through the open windows… listening to Sarah teach these girls how to begin their own Bright Lights groups in their areas. We are very excited about more Bright Lights groups beginning on this side of the world! Ongoing groups led by local girls are effective because they provide continual discipleship, follow-up, fellowship and positive peer pressure…and young girls gain so much from having a godly role model in their life.

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The other night as we were walking across the Changi boardwalk to some resturants we were able to watch this beautiful sunset.

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Yesterday several mothers prepared a special tea party for our group.

We have about 13 girls from Singapore, 4 from Malaysia, 1 from Indonesia, and 2 from Hong Kong. And yes, they all speak English. 🙂 We’ve had a lot of fun learning about each other’s cultures, foods, imitating each other’s accents, singing numerous national anthems, etc. But most of all, it’s exciting to spend time with sisters in Christ on the other side of the world who love the Lord and are similar to us in so many ways.

I haven’t been able to get online very easily where I’m staying right now, but I have many more pictures I’ll post later. Thank you to all of you who are praying for us.

This Saturday we are doing a Bright Lights “Strong in the Lord” conference here in Singapore. I believe we have about 200 mothers/daughters registered. The following Tuesday we fly home.

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Full day!

Wow, there is so much to say… I’m not sure what to write about! Things have been going very well! I’m so grateful to the Lord for all the ways He has been answering prayers, arranging circumstances and details, softening girl’s hearts, etc. Here are a few pictures from today.

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In the afternoon all the girls went to a park in the jungle where we did lots of fun outside activities. We had a great time. The girls got excited about the monkeys who were trying to bother us and steal our food. Whenever they saw another monkey climbing around near us they would scream, “monkey! monkey!” They are so cute. (The girls, I mean. Not the monkeys. 🙂 )

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Here is a skit we did this morning that we call our “Taking Thoughts Captive Skit”.

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Here I am with new friends and old friends from last year. The best part of being on this side of the world is the people. 🙂

Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

3 Bright Lights Conferences in Ohio and Michigan

Wow – I didn’t mean to go for almost a whole month without posting! I’ll try not to let that happen again!
This past month our family has been pretty consumed with conferences… the preparation and packing the week before, the 11 day trip itself, and the week of “catch up” after we got home.

We took our team of “Bright Lights Staff” and did 3 conferences in Ohio and Michigan. It was a very exciting trip for everyone. We also all got very worn out! Most of all we were very grateful to see the Lord’s hand at work. At every conference I am reminded how God is the One who does the work. I love the way Paul states this in 1 Corinthians 4:7. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…” For all of you who have been praying for us, thank you very much!

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Wendy, Kim, Ann Marie, and Chrissy are ready for the first attendees to arrive at our registration table

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We did our “Strong in the Lord Conference” Friday night and Saturday, and then our “Radiant Purity Conference” Monday night and Tuesday at the same church in Ohio. It worked out wonderfully, and it was great not to have to tear down and set up again at a different church. Our group of girls stayed in one of the church’s large downstairs rooms for 8 consecutive nights! Yes, the room did get a little messy…
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…but we all had a good time and we were very grateful for the church’s hospitality.
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Here is a picture of our “Counselor Skit” that we do at the Radiant Purity conference. Although each of the distressed patients appear very different, the counselor explains to them that they all actually have the same problem. But I better not give away any other details. 🙂

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After hearing the same jokes over and over again at the conferneces, they don’t seem very funny to us anymore. We’ve decided it’s a lot more enjoyable to watch the audience. 🙂

Strong in the Lord Conf.

On the road….

Our family and about 20 other college-age girls have been on the road for the last 8 days doing Bright Lights conferences. We just finished 2 conferences in Ohio, and tomorrow morning we leave for Michigan for our last conference. Everything has been going very well!

More updates and pictures coming soon!

Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Radiant Purity Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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We were blessed by the positive responses we received from these sweet girls who desire God’s best. Thank you to all of you who were praying. Here are a few responses I thought were especially encouraging:

“I plan to improve and prune some things in my life that I don’t feel are edifying to my walk with Christ.” -14 year old attendee
“I am planning to take what I have learned and apply it visibly, especially at school, and not conform to the world’s standards.” -16 year old attendee
“I like the small groups and being around other people who wanted to be pure!” -14 year old attendee
“I want to keep my commitments and communicate with my parents about my struggles and emotions” -14 year old attendee
“I committed to dress modestly and to wait for the Lord’s best” -13 year old attendee
“I liked the testimonies given by young women who knew what we were going through and to whom we could relate. I’ve really just been encouraged to wait on the Lord and not be anxious about anything but to trust Him for my future. I benefited the most from the session on living by faith, not fear. I submitted my will and desires to the Lord…” -16 year old attendee
“I really enjoyed the conference while it lasted, but I wish it would be longer. I loved the skits and the modesty part…you made it clear that God matters the most, and that it matters what’s in the heart and not on the outside.” -12 year old attendee

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The discussion groups were a place for the girls to “vent” their thoughts and questions about the topics presented in large group.

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I don’t know what a Bright Lights conference would be without skits…we have a lot of fun with them. And we definitely keep Stephen busy! He’s kind of like the all-around tech support man that makes the conference happen.

Stephen can figure out how to work anything (I decided it was okay to brag about an older brother 🙂 ) so it makes us feel “secure” having him around (i.e. usually technical difficulties don’t last very long 🙂 ). God knew we really needed someone like that!

Before this conference, Stephen wired together his own phone system using 6 wireless landline phones with headsets for the video crew to use (Before they always used walki-talkis). It’s pretty cool, and we were a little surprised it actually worked. I think Stephen was a little surprised, too.

We have 3 more Radiant Purity Conferences coming up soon in OH and FL. Click here for details.