Click here to view GigaPan full screen (recommended). If you attended the conference, make sure to zoom in and find yourself!
More people registered at the door than we expected. We had been praying for many to find out about the confernece, even at the last minute, so this was an answer to prayer.
Karissa, Scarlet, Brittney
Usually each time we set up a conference we wonder, “will we have enough leaders?”, but we rememeber how God has provided in the past and trust Him to do it again. And He does. This time we had terrific group that came together from Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Virginia, Indiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Texas to lead the conference! We are very grateful for the effort each of the leaders made to get there.
Thanks to recent hard work from Rachel, Sarah, Nickie and others we now have Radiant Purity Journals to supplement the conference.
During the first session, a tornado warning was issued and the sirons began sounding.
So we evacuated the 370 attendees from the auditorium. Two tornadoes were on the ground nearby and we were directly in the path of one of them. Praise God He kept us all safe.
Some of the rooms sang hymns while they waited for the tornadoes to pass. One girl requested, “I’ll Fly Away.” I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but we sure laughed about it afterward.
After conferences we usually gather in the kitchen late at night because we suddenly seem to get SO hungry… 🙂
Our good friend Augusta (with help from Danielle) made a fantastic Indian meal for all of us one afternoon. Indian food is sooooo good. Thank you again, Augusta!
Packing up the “office” – a room we worked out of throughout the conference to keep everything organized. Organized?! Haha, well, sort of.
This picture was taken about 1:00 AM Saturday night as Stephen and Dad were STILL packing the trailer! Rain was pounding on the roof and it was thundering outside. We have never had rain this hard during and after a conference. Amazingly, this church had an overhead door into their auditorium so that we could back our trailer partly into the building. God sure does a good job of arranging the details. We had many such provisions at this conference. Praise the Lord.
Since we were traveling home on Easter, my dad started a discussion about the resurrection at dinner. Theological discussions when many of us are really tired ends in…well, this time it ended in lots of laughter and some tears (from laughing, that is). I think we made a scene in that restaurant.
Oops.
And to see a nice collection of pictures from Emily’s camera, see her blog here.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
-John H Sammis
Our team of leaders, taking advantage of the beautiful picturesque grounds.
In Ohio we did the same schedule conference as Virginia. Strong in the Lord Conference, free day, Radiant Purity Conference. It was a great week! Everyone had their “tired moments” but the Lord’s grace is always sufficient and we were all excited to see how open and responsive the girls were to the lessons we were teaching.
Attendees
Leaders
My brother Stephen is a very alert person. Always aware of his surroundings, he notices details other people don’t notice. He stays on top of all the “behind the scenes” technical elements of running the conferences. Projectors, lapel mics, speakers, sound mixer, lights, video equipment, computers, printers, scanners, you name it… Stephen seems to instinctively know how everything works and goes the extra mile to pursue excellence.
Daniel and Stephen can fix just about anything, and they had lots of opportunities to put their mechanical skills into practice (i.e. we are good at breaking things). 
Singing with our staff on our free day
We also had a great game of Ultimate Frisbee game on our free day
The Radiant Purity Conference in Bristol, VA. The girls were very responsive and soaked up the lessons like a sponge.
In our “modesty panel,” we share lots of tips on how to put together modest outfits.
Here’s a true “behind the scenes” picture… Since Daniel recently edited the DVDs of the Radiant Purity Conference we did in Omaha last April, Sarah recommended we watch the skits as a “refresher” to help us with our acting. We are excited about our new DVDs… 🙂
We’re so grateful to Lindsay, Sarah and Loren who spent many hours in the church kitchen providing healthy meals for all of us (on top of all their other responsibilities and the hectic conference schedule). You may notice the large stack of Grandma cookies; we bought those for snacks for the conference attendees and…*smile*… we found we had a few too many. So let me just warn you, if you see any of our staff in the next few weeks, don’t offer them a “Grandma cookie”.
One morning while we were in Virginia, we were able to meet up with a lady who has been in contact with us regarding translating 
After both conferences in Virginia were over, we, along with several of the families who helped to host the conferences, sat around eating pizza and listening to testimonies and stories from the week. It was a very special time for everyone with lots of laughter and tears.
After our time of sharing, the guys packed the trailer…
…while the girls cleaned the church. Hannah (left) a former Bright Lights intern, is the one who hosted the conferences in Bristol. Thanks again, Hannah, for your initiative and all your hard work! 🙂 
After all the work was done Saturday night, we gathered around the piano and sang. It takes a while to wind down from the excitement of a conference and singing praises to the Lord was a great way to conclude the week. 
