Are you on the road to Wisdom or Folly? Sometimes it’s hard to tell, sometimes we don’t even want to know, sometimes we think we’re on one road when we’re actually on the other road, and at times we’re in complete denial of where we are.
Beth Moore delved into all this and a whole lot more as only she can this weekend in Mobile, AL. My sister, Carol, and I traveled down to join in. Carol has been to many of these types of ministries, but this was my first. I had however, participated in a Beth Moore Bible Study group in the past and knew just how much I liked her. So there’s nothing like experiencing Beth with 9,000 of your closest friends!
Really, it was an unusual experience to see 9,000 Christian women descend on the same footprint of a city. You just can’t get away from them! They’re everywhere! 😀 And you know they’re all Beth Moore girls because they come in groups, vans, have arm bands, laugh, are overly happy, etc. But in the same breath, they were 9,000 of the nicest women, too. They came in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all colors and from all over the South. There were even some ladies there from LA that had been flooded out and had lost everything! But they came to the conference praying that God was going to empower them with the Wisdom and the courage to power on through the ordeal that they had to face when they returned home. That’s a huge testament to their faith!
Right now, Samaritan’s Purse is on the ground in LA helping our flooded out neighbors get their lives back. If you’d like to donate to help them do that, you can do that here for a limited time and all the money collected will go to LA.
9,000 of the nicest people
In all the huge crowds and loooong lines (and there were a LOT) I never heard one grumble, curse word, vulgar action, push or shove. And there were so many instances of people being so overly nice …. letting us out/into traffic, lines, and just being helpful. And this goes for the people of Mobile as well, so they are to be commended …. because 9,000 women thrown at you at one time could be a pain. Just sayin’! Doesn’t matter how nice they are!!
And if you have not experienced Beth Moore, you should. You can Google her or find her at LifeWay. She comes in all formats. She is hilarious, down to Earth, is steeped in the Word of God and wears the cutest clothes! Travis Cottrell does an awesome job providing Music Ministry alongside Beth. I purchased 3 of his CDs to give to my granddaughter who loves to sing. She often sings solos/duets at her church and fancies herself a singer, so these CDs are perfect to add to her collection of music.
So if you want to dig deep into the Word of God, look up Beth. Words are her thing.
And you can find her newest Bible Study, Entrusted, here.
And if you’ve never experienced worshiping God in a crowd this size I honestly recommend you do it at least once. It was an awesome thing to stand among that many Christians and feel the Power of our Lord and Savior.
The conference was held at the Mitchell Center on the University of South Alabama campus. We found a hotel close by on Airport Blvd. along with approximately 8,998 other Beth Moore girls! As we were going back and forth we noticed a couple of gems on that street we needed to check out that we’d not had the privilege to experience before … like having lunch at Panera.
Just walking into Panera was a treat. I wanted to skip lunch and just eat muffins and pastry. Mmmm!!!! Instead I had chicken and ham on flatbread, but quickly realized after checking out all those other BM girls around me (who obviously weren’t new to Panera’s) that soup in a bread bowl was the way to go. It looked soooo good!! Who knew that soup would even be an option in August in the Deep South?!?
And because we’re of an ummmm … age, Carol and I wanted to go check out Whole Foods. Yes, I said we wanted to check out a grocery store. I’d heard a lot about Whole Foods and how awesome it was and we don’t have them in our area, so we had to go there. And it was worth the trip to just see all the things they have to offer. And again, walking right in I was in love with all the cakes and cupcakes! But I held back … I told myself I couldn’t possibly get crumbs in Carol’s new Mercedes. 😉 So I ended up only buying a bottle of Sweet Sabi mustard. Can’t wait to try that. Maybe in some potato salad.
After Whole Foods, we were tired and ready to head back home to our husbands. We enjoyed having our Christian batteries recharged and spending time together as sisters, but it was time to head back to our normal.
So I’ll leave you with this …
If you need Jesus in your life, find your nearest church and I’m sure they’ll help you find Him.
You won’t be sorry.
PS – I never meant to do a blog post on this and I definitely was not in blog mode on this trip. It never once crossed my mind to do anything that would be blog worthy … such as take a picture. Gah! Guess I’m crap at blogging! So sorry about that. I’ll do better next time. 😉
Update: Compassion International
Not only was there a representative there from Samaritan’s Purse … and as a representative I mean an actual person that was aided … there was also a representative from Compassion International. The lady was from Uganda and at the age of 6, she became a child sponsored through Compassion International. Today, she is a counselor in GA! You can read Olive’s story here.
As a teacher, you already have a heart for children, and as she spoke I knew that I wanted to become a Compassion sponsor again (we sponsored a little girl when Brittney was small). That didn’t happen until after I got back home from the conference. I’m now the sponsor for another little girl in Uganda named Rhita.
As you go onto the Compassion site, there are over 3,000 children needing help. I started my search for a little girl the same age as Dakota. I was going to even look for a little girl who looked similar, but as I looked through the thousands of photos, I changed my mind (or more likely God changed it for me). I started searching for a little girl who really needed assistance and that’s how I found Rhita. And I know she’s the right one, because surprise, not only is she Dakota’s age, but she has the same birthday as Gunner! (didn’t realize that until I got her paperwork)
So if you have a heart for children and have the financial ability to help, please check out their website. There’s a child there waiting for your help and you in turn will be mightly blessed. Compassion International
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