In less than 2 weeks, I will be in Chicago with 6 of my friends (Nicole, Antoinette, Delta, Monica, Kim, and Aftan)for the True Woman 08conference. I am so excited and can hardly wait! The conference features Nancy Leigh Demoss from Revive our Hearts, Pastor John Piper (my friend, Antoinette's cyber pastor...LOL), Karen Lorritts, Joni Earkson Tada, and many others. 6000 women will attend from the USA and other countries. Now doesn't that sound exciting? Also, Keith and Kristin Getty are the worship leaders. They have written many hymns recently, one titled, The Power of the Cross. They are wonderful.
At the beginning of the year, I heard about the conference and shortly after found out I was pregnant. One of the first questions I asked my OB was whether or not I could go (I will be 7 months preggo when it rolls around!). He said it was too soon to say. Well, by the time he did say it was ok, all the tickets were sold out. I still didn't lose faith. I got on a msg board and posted "Pregnant momma needs a ticket". I was a little discouraged when I saw that there were several other ladies who were looking for tickets and had been looking for one much longer than I had. However, it was in God's plan for me to go! About 2 days after posting, someone contacted me! How great is that. I'm going to insert one of the e-mails that she sent so that you can see God's hand at work. Here it is:
Shaunta',
The mail came today but my stuff did not come yet unfortunately. In the meantime I just really wanted to share how this all came about with you because I feel it really shows God's hand at work.
My girlfriend and I have not seen each other in 3 years, since my wedding. And before that day, it had been a couple years as well. (We are old roommates.) Anyway, we both have moved away and have kids now, and so we haven't been able to keep in touch like we would like to. In fact, we really hadn't talked in several months, but she just had a baby a few months ago and that rekindled our emailing recently. In our emailing she shared with me about this great conference she heard about on the radio and that she really felt like she was called to go to this conference, but she couldn't find anyone to go with her. She had asked everyone she knew in her area, and was then so desperate she even asked her husband if he would go with her. ha! In looking into it, I thought it looked pretty great, so I offered to go with her. At that time I thought my little girl would have weaned herself from nursing by the time the conference came around, and I had saved some money in my personal acct in our budget, so it all seemed like a perfect plan and I would get to reunite with my friend after several years.
Anyway, because we are on a tight budget, I made sure I was going to get the early bird price! I signed up and waited to hear if my friend got hers, but LONG story short, she totally forgot due to some family drama and was not able to get one. She said to still plan on going, because she would just keep trying to get a ticket somehow. In fact she thought she had one because a lady contacted her about selling hers, but then never returned any of my friends calls or emails. With all this going on, I realized there was no way my girl was going to wean and it made me nervous to just up and leave her for 3 days, and my friend said she was trying to figure out what she would do with her newborn as well. Together we made the decision to just cancel it and I would sell my ticket, and we would try to get together some other time.
I then got on the internet to figure out how in the world to sell my ticket and came across the message board on the True Woman website and saw the hundreds of postings of women wanting tickets. My heart sunk as I wondered how in the world could I possibly pick out one person when all of the stories seemed so compelling!!! I just signed off and thought about it for a few days and concluded that I would answer an ad for someone that was only looking for one ticket, because I had more of a chance of working in that one woman's life, than just giving a bible study group one more ticket, when they still need like 5 more. But still, I was so lost for how God was going to make the woman stick out that He wanted to give it to. And then as you know, out of nowhere my girlfriend emailed me with your posting. I honestly think she picked it out because you said you would pay the full price and not just the early bird price, LOL. But regardless of what you said, I took that as God singling you out for me to contact. And I prayed, ok Lord, if this is who you want to go to the conference, you will work out all the details. And you know the rest of the story. ;)
So my girlfriend just actually emailed me today sharing a bunch of stuff that has come crashing down on her family in the past few days and is just feeling overwhelmed by all of it. And in emailing her back, I was telling her not to worry about the conference or feeling bad about how it all turned out, etc. And in doing so, it hit me! She felt so compelled to go, but couldn't find anyone to sign up with her. We rekindled our communications, I say I will go, I sign up, she forgets, now I have a ticket and she doesn't. One could ask, why if she felt so called to go to the conference did it work out this way? - but I fully believe it was for YOU to go. I have NO idea if I would have picked your posting out of the hundreds, but I certainly wasn't looking forward to having to choose someone. And God knew that! So he had her send me your information. Now I truly believe that God used the two of us to get YOU the ticket you need so you can be there. I am totally jealous, because it is going to be so great, but I don't doubt for a moment that you are supposed to be there. Not with how this all played out! So I really want to encourage you to see God's hand in this and to really open your heart to why he wants you there so badly. He obviously has a plan for you and is reaching his heart out to you and it's so beautiful to see all of this happening! I am honored to be used in your life when you are a complete stranger to both of us! But God cannot be limited, right? His ways are not our ways, and his plans are perfect! Since you won't be getting out to any conferences for a while after your babies are born, I know that you need this. And I will have plenty of time to get out to something else in the future.
So sorry for sending you this huge email, when you don't even know me. But when emailing her this morning, I just really felt that it was important for you to see God working in your life so intimately. I hope this touches your heart in some way. And I will be in touch about when my stuff comes in the mail.
Take care,
Were you encouraged? God is in control of all things. He is so good! I recieved the ticket in the mail this week. Thanks Jenna!
Some of you probably think I'm crazy to be flying when I'm 7 months pregant...with TWINS! Let your heart be at rest...I feel wonderful and I am trusting God to keep all of us safe. One friend that's going has 5 kids, so she could deliver my 2 with ease! This will sound even crazier...Eddie is flying to India (yes...the country) next Thursday for a missions trip with our church! He will be gone for 10 days. The plan is for Halley and I to go to Atlanta to spend the week with my family and then I will fly out the following Thursday. He'll be back that Saturday and I'll be back that Sunday. My parents are overjoyed that Halley will get to spend much of October with them. Actually, I haven't told my dad yet. I'm going to surprise him.
So, please pray for us. I will list specific prayer requests in a separate post.
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