Category: Miscellaneous

Last weekend Sarah flew to Washington state to speak for a girls’ weekend camp. I wasn’t there, but thanks to Melodie Kirk (on Sarah’s right), I still have pictures to post to share about the special weekend.

Since I wasn’t there to kill the spiders in her cabin like she usually has me do, she had to kill all 5 of them herself. But she said they stood still and let her kill them, so she was grateful for their compliance.

We’re grateful for Kimbrlee, the 18-year-old Bright Lights leader who hosted the camp. Sarah said she did a wonderful job, and it sounds like the Lord really blessed … even more than anyone expected!

The theme was “Speaking the Truth In Your Heart.” Here were the topics Sarah covered over the weekend:

Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You Richly
Learn to discern lies of the world that are not consistent with Scripture, to delight in God’s Word, and to build every area of your life upon it!

Speaking Truth about God
Choose to reject the lies which girls often believe about God and to trust in Him fully. Grow deeper in your personal walk with Jesus Christ by getting to know His character.

Speaking Truth about Self
Take your eyes off yourself and put them on Jesus! Understanding who we are in Christ is the key to security and joy.

Speaking Truth about Emotions
Learn the dangers we as girls face in the area of emotions, and how to use your emotions to glorify the Lord.

Speaking Truth about Sin
Understand that the answers to dealing with guilt, regrets, and temptations are found in God’s Word. Only in Jesus will we find forgiveness, and gain power over sin and strength to walk in victory!

Speaking Truth about Purity
Choose to honor the Lord in your relationships with young men, to wait for God’s best in marriage, to walk by faith, and to use your single years for Christ.

Speaking Truth about Witnessing
Overcome common excuses and fears, and gain practical ideas about how to be a bold witness for Christ!

There were four small group discussion that met four times.

There was also some free time for hiking, Frisbee, games, mother/daughter time, etc.

Today Sarah received an e-mail from a camp attendee with these words: “… We had a wonderful seven hour discussion on the drive home. 🙂 [My sister] and I were just talking today and saying how what Jesus did there is indescribable in a way… partly because we’re still processing everything, but it was just so good. We were trying to figure out how to describe it to people who asked us about it. We decided that one way we could say it was getting plunged into Truth, and soaking all weekend. :)”

Of course, that wasn’t Sarah–that was the WORD OF GOD bringing comfort and encouragement to their lives. Praise God for the Truth that sets us free!

If you are interested in hosting a “Speaking Truth in Your Heart” camp or weekend in your area, contact us for more information.

Nickie put together a 31-page booklet that includes an outline of Sarah’s sessions.

It includes the content of her Power Points (common lies girls believe, and Scriptures which refute them) as well as extra little Biblical studies.

Lies have consequences! Often when we get to the root of our struggle, we see that we are telling ourselves something that is not true about God’s character. That’s what this little activity Nickie created is about. (She actually created it and some others like it for Sarah’s latest book-in-process on this subject. This is just a little preview. 🙂 )

Over the turn of the New Year, I was blessed to be surrounded by about 70+ youth, praying in a hotel hallway, asking God to bless missions around the world in 2016. We split into several groups and divided the world into sections so we could “cover it all.” I think many would report that an hour was only long enough to “get started” … but at least it was a start!

Why pray together with our brothers and sisters in Christ?

– It’s the pattern modeled for us by the apostles / early church
– We get to know each other’s hearts
– We grow in love for each other as we “wrestle together” asking the Lord to work
– We’re strengthened by each other’s faith
– We learn from each other
– We are reminded of more things to pray for than we’d think of on our own

The reason we were in a hotel was because we were all attending a conference together called the “Believers Bible Conference.” There were about 500 in attendance. About a third of those in attendance were young adults.

Nate Bramsen and Brady Collier led sessions with the young people at 9pm after the normal conference sessions were over. These times were fantastic.

I snapped this picture during the Q and A time the final evening. Questions answered were mostly on courtship/dating, pornography, evangelism, and decision-making. Nate and Brady both have a way of powerfully articulating what it means to be a sold-out follower of Jesus… not asking “where is the line?” or “is this okay?” but rather running as far from “the line of sin” as possible, for the glory of God. Victory is found when we daily experience the “explosive power of a new affection” which transforms every area of our lives.

If you look closely, you can see that little clay oil lamps are now part of my “Will Our Generation Speak?” table display. I was blessed as I explained to people over and over a few analogies between us and oil lamps. The lamps are a continual reminder that if we want to burn brightly, we need to make our relationship with Christ first priority–going to Him daily to be refueled. 🙂

Heidi and Haley rode with Sarah and me to and from the conference. Our fellowship in the car was enriching and basically non-stop. 🙂 Thank you, Haley and Heidi, for your vibrant walk with the Lord and the refreshment you are to us!

Last weekend we hosted a girls’ “Colossians retreat” and were SO BLESSED by soaking in that book together and hearing each others’ insights! I was amazed by how much I began seeing in the book that I had never seen before: themes running through, the flow of argument presented through the entire letter, the core message of it that kept arising in different ways, etc.

If you want to do a weekend like this with your friends, I highly recommend it! Just put it on the calendar, and you’ll be pushed to dive into God’s Word!

Here are a few tips:

• It’s vitally important to study the book individually in advance. Read through the book several times, outline it, circle theme words, and write out questions you have.
• PRAY for the Lord to open your eyes.
• Keep the weekend simple so you can spend basically all your “preparation time” studying Scripture. We had friends sign up to bring a dish to share for some meals, and then did Chick-fil-a for one meal.
• Divide the book up in advance so that you have different girls lead the discussion for different sections. For example, here was our schedule:

Friday Evening:
Colossians 1:1-8 Sarah
Colossians 1:9-20 Shelby
Colossians 1:21-29 Anila

Saturday Morning /Afternoon:
Colossians 2:1-12 Abby
Colossians 2:13-23 Grace
Colossians 3:1-11 Jolynn

Afternoon Break (We took a walk, went shopping, and had dinner at Chick-fil-a. Last time we did an event like this, our 1 Peter Retreat, we went ice skating.)

Saturday Evening:
Colossians 3:12-25 Sarah
Colossians 4: Nickie

Dinner at Chick-fil-a

Since we had been studying Colossians on our own before hand and CAME with questions and insights, discussion on Colossians came quite easily, haha. 🙂

I think most of us are familiar with the pressure of preparing for deadlines. Whether it’s a test, an event, or buying Christmas gifts, as that deadline gets closer you make it a priority to finish preparing. The great thing about planning a “Bible study weekend” is that the way to prepare is merely to spend time in Scripture! How refreshing. 🙂