Women of Faith 2009- Atlanta

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Yesterday I drove to Atlanta to attend the 2009 Women of Faith Conference at Philips Arena.  It was SUPER! 

I got to the Arena around 11AM and made it into the conference area about an hour later.  I got to hear Steve Arterburn (Creator of Women of Faith), Sandy Patti speak and sing, and Marilyn Meberg speak.  That was all part of the Friday Feature (programming that goes on during Friday morning and afternoon before the actual conference begins that evening).  I really wish I could  have heard Steve speak more.

Friday evening we got to hear Mandisa sing as well as Steven Curtis Chapman perform and speak.  I was so excited to see/hear both of them.  I have a very soft spot in my heart for Steven Curtis Chapman (as I was sharing with my friend Ginger that joined me in ATL for the conference) because his Great Adventure CD was the first CD I ever owned!   I've loved him since that time and Andrew and I have been praying nightly for Steven Curtis, Mary Beth and their family since the loss of their youngest daughter, Maria Sue back in May 2008.  I was so excited to hear SCC speak and he performed a song that will be on his next album.  It's called Face of Heaven (or something along those lines).  The song is basically how right now, his perspective of what Heaven is going to be like is based on memories from his daughter Maria Sue since she's now there waiting for them to join her one day.  The song is so special in so many ways.  As always, SCC has managed to verbalize his thoughts in such an amazing way.  Needless to say, this crybaby was holding back SOBS as she listened to SCC sing.

Mandisa is also a top favorite of mine because I've been following her on TWITTER since I joined a few months ago.  I've seen all her tweets about the Women of Faith Conference as well as her personal journey to become a healthier person.  Since I'm struggling with becoming more healthy too, her personality and perspective has helped me want to do better in my journey.  Plus, I love her music! :-)

Both Mandisa and Steven Curtis Chapman were wonderful and probably the highlights of the conference for me.  God has done great things thru both of them dispite each of them having to deal with tremendous heartache. 

We also got to experience Anita Renfroe and her humor.  If you don't know her, she's sort of like the female, Christian version of Weird Al.  She takes popular songs and makes spoofs of them about being a woman, mom, etc.  She's also "featured comedian" on ABC's Good Morning America and you can probably find some great clips of her on YouTube.  Several years ago she did a song called "Mom Sense" to the tune of the William Tell Overture and it's very entertaining.  She's from Atlanta so she was performing for the home crowd.

Once Ginger and I made it to the hotel Friday night, we were exhausted.  I must say that Ginger and I worked at summer camp together back in the early/mid 1990s and haven't really seen each other since that time.  We have reconnected thru that great social networking website Facebook and so we picked right back up where we left off all those years ago.  I LOVE friendships like that and appreciate Ginger so very much. 

Anyway, once we finally got to sleep (around midnight or a little after) we were both sound asleep when all the sudden around 1:15AM these AWFUL sounds started and it sounded like someone was busting down the door or throwing furniture somewhere around us.  It lasted for about 20 minutes and then stopped just as suddenly as it started.  It was an interesting night and after that horrible interruption to our sleep, I turned the alarm off and didn't get up to go to the gym like I had initially planned.

Saturday we got to hear Shelia Walsh as well as Lisa Whelchel (yes, Blair from Facts of Life) and they both were amazing.  They had great life stories to share and wonderful messages for us.  Shelia talked about being able to "Let Go" when we have been wronged or are having to clean up someone else's messes, etc.  And Blair talked about how we need to trust God to help protect us and for us to trust him.

Mandisa sang again and spoke about her time with American Idol (including the incident where she told Simon Cowell that she forgave him for calling her fat and explained she was forgiving him because Jesus Christ had forgiven her and the least she could do was extend that same forgiveness to Simon- and it was shown on the show as it happened) as well as her battles with being molested and raped and how food was a way to protect herself from further attacks. 

We also got to hear Patsy Clairmont, Marilyn Meberg and Luci Swindoll speak through the conference and they are all great speakers with great stories (some funny and some serious) to help teach lessons about God and his love for us.   I feel so very blessed to have been able to spend time this weekend with all these men and women of God.  All of them had at least one little bit of information to share that I needed to hear.

The one big drawback to being at a conference like that is that it was almost impossible to make healthy food choices.  I ate way more junk and drank more regular coke this weekend than I've ingested in probably a year or more.  So much so that I feel sick now!  Ick!

I'm so very thankful that I had the opportunity to attend Women of Faith so that I could learn some new things and spend some awesome time in praise and worship of our Heavenly Father who loves us all more than we could ever imagine.  It's so very humbling to know that God loves us inspite of who and what we are.