Strong in the Lord Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Here are a few pictures from the “Strong in the Lord Conference” that was held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The clear conscience sisters encouraging Bekah to confess her sin to her mom and ask for her forgiveness.

The guilty conscience sisters encouraging Bekah to cover her sin.

Singing “I’ve Been Changed”

Our small group leaders’ time of sharing from the Word with each other before the conference started. In these sharing times, often we find that the Lord has been giving us similar thoughts in preparation for the conference. A theme that came through was focusing on the character of God. Our desire is not to present to the girls a “formula” of how to be “good Christian girls” but to encourage them to pursue Jesus Christ and know Him! It’s all about a Person. A formula will always eventually fail, but a relationship with Christ is what will enable us to persevere to the end.

We’ve had an increasing emphasis on witnessing at Bright Lights conferences, and this time we had a whole session on it. The small group leaders often tell us that witnessing is one of the topics their girls ask about the most. It’s evident the Lord is raising up little bright lights unto the harvest! [smile] On Wednesday as the conference was ending, we had each of the girls take 3 “animal cards” home with them to pass out to gas station employees, etc. on the way home. It was fun to see the girls’ enthusiasm in picking up their cards. It’s also exciting to see girls and families eagerly buy boxes of them.

Karen’s team

The Lord has brought together a wonderful team of small group leaders who love Him. (About forty of them!)

Yesterday we saw the Lord do some very neat things as we went out witnessing.

The Radiant Purity conference starts tonight and the girls just finished “teacher’s training.” Please pray for perseverance and emotional energy for the small group leaders as many are tired. Please also pray that the Lord works in the hearts of all who come to this conference. We are all just instruments, and apart from Him working, nothing good happens.

We also just had another special time sharing from the Word this morning. Those times are always a highlight! As we all shared with each other what we’ve been gleaning from the Word, there were again many common threads… especially on joy, perseverance, and keeping Jesus the focus of our hearts (which is good, since that’s the main message of the “Radiant Purity Conference.” [smile])