Sunday, August 21, 2011

Women of Faith Weekend

I started a post about Women of Faith.

I was sitting in the floor of the concourse of Conseco Fieldhouse, tapping into an electrical outlet (tweeting kills my phone FAST!) on our lunch break on Friday, and I wrote.

And wrote.

And wrote more.

It’s too much. And yet, somehow, it could never possibly be enough.

How do you put into words the emotion that pours out of the women who are brave enough to step onto that stage? To share their pain, their fear, their failures?

How do you share how powerful Elmo’s “Sing A Song” can be when it’s performed by a mother and her child in front of 10,000 women?

DSC01268 Erica Campbell of Mary Mary with her daughter, Grace

How do you explain what it’s like to hear those 10,000 voices come together, in harmony, to sing “It is Well” with Natalie Grant?

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How can you begin to describe listening to Sheila Walsh, as she clings to a small stuffed lamb, and reminds you that the shepherd will leave the 99 to save the one? Or the PIMPL* moment of Lisa Harper running at a “nekkid man” on a mountain?

*Pee In My Pants Laughing

How do you convey the emotions stirred up in your heart when Nicole Johnson talks about the broken pieces, and how they can be something beautiful? Or when Angie Smith weeps openly for the daughter who had weight in this world?

DSC01338_edit DSC01294

You can’t. You can’t really put into words what it’s like to share in the love, the laughter, the loss.

It’s so cliché. I really want to get out that movie announcer voice guy and say “You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You won’t want to miss…. Women Of Faith!”

But that’s just it. You WILL laugh, and you WILL cry. And you will walk away refreshed, and restored, and reaffirmed.

(And if you’re anything like me, you’ll walk away with a pretty new tote bag filled with books and CDs.)

I think that I’m going to have to have some time to break it all back down, and I KNOW that there will be bits and pieces of this weekend that will wash over me time and time again as I write. As I parent. As I live.

And for that, I am grateful.

Momsense Signature

I was provided two (2) tickets to the Indianapolis Women of Faith event courtesy of Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for two blog posts regarding the event. All opinions and images in this post are my own.

15 comments:

  1. Thank you for all of the tweets and your heart felt post. I so hate that I had to miss the event. I had shoulder surgery last week and can't drive to for 4 more weeks. Am hoping to attend WoF kc as a booksneeze blogger. I am so happy to hear you enjoyed yourself and got so much out of it.

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  2. Sounds exciting! I'm going next month and can't wait!

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  3. You could not have recaped the weekend better. Amazing weekend, can't wait for next year!

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  4. I myself was discouraged by the "professional christianity" ambiance of it all. I took away something from each speaker only to be bombarded by marketing ploys when I left my seat. W of F Visa ? really? Scarves, Tshirts, books, sequined Bibles, all of this seems to diminish the true messages of these true women of faith.

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  6. we had the most amazing time Fri. and Sat. we took 23 people and got tickets for next year for fifty, cant wait to find the other woman to go.bless you all for the wonderful time you gave us all.

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  7. I typically reply to comments in private emails, and will do so to brandam as well, but I wanted to publicly share my thoughts on the above comment too.
    I understand exactly where you're coming from. The sales-pitch feeling could be a little overwhelming, and undermining of the true emotions and meaning of why we were there. I get it.
    Here's what I know. W of F presents for us an elaborate event, including lunches, multiple speakers, musical guests, you name it. And they do that for us for an incredibly low price. The reason they can do that is because of the support they receive financially through those merchants.
    In my "real life" I attend any number of conferences and events, and the retailers make them affordable for the attendees. It can be distracting, but as a mom on a budget, I can only appreciate that it's made things affordable for more of us to be able to attend and worship together.
    Just a little different perspective! I appreciate your thoughts, and completely understand!

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  8. I have tears in my eyes reading your post and remembering what an amazing weekend my friend (who I hadn't seen in 20 years and flew in from Wenatchee WA)and I experienced. Even getting my car towed and paying $150.00 to get out couldn't damper our spirits. The worse part about that was being (a little) late Friday night. What an amazing blessing every single woman (and one man) who got on that stage was. I can't even IMAGINE the impact. I now have them all on my "stalking" list, and plan on ordering every one of their books. ;-)
    August 22, 2011 4:26 PM

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  9. Megan,
    I'm so glad I found your page! I too was at Women of Faith with a group of 185 beautiful women! I was over to top inspired by the stories these amazing women shared exemplifying 1 Peter 3:15, sharing the pain and dark patches in their lives and how Jesus showed up BIG without one doubt who He was and how much He loved them! I will definitely be back next year and I plan to have 200 beautiful women with me!!!

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  10. LOVE love LOVE Women of Faith!!! This was my 3rd year attending, in Omaha NE this year and just CAN'T WAIT till next year already. :) The Imagine tour was in Omaha last year, this year was the Over the Top.....such an amazing, refreshing, awesome time of fun and fellowship. :) Appreciate SO much the hard work of all involved to bring us the realness of women we look up to.

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  11. I'm going at the end of October and can't wait. I've never been before so I'm really looking forward to it! :)

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  12. Awesome recap. I have gone to WOF about 8 times, and this year, in a month, I will go again. This time I feel like I need it more than ever - just where I find myself now. Thanks for giving my a sense of anticipation of what God wants to do for me this year.

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  13. Loved your wrap up post on this. I was "dragged" last year with my mom and a group of women from her church. going through all this "stuff" with kendall, they all felt I needed to go, so someone had bought me a ticket. I went out of a major sense of guilt, not expecting or even really wanting to meet God there. every single speaker was talking directly to ME. every single song was sung exactly because I needed to cry those words out to God in worship. I still tear up just thinking about that day. It was the turning point in my "anger at God" journey I had been on (and not even really recognized). I am so glad to hear that it is just as amazing every single time someone attends.
    And just as some background - I grew up a pastor's kid, going to "women's events" and churchy stuff my whole life. I was pretty much done with it all by the time I graduated from Christian college. I hate the smarminess associated with most of these things (similar to what Brandam pointed out). but this conference IS different. I can promise anyone who is unsure about it of that. You WILL be touched, somehow, someway, by a WoF conference.
    Can't wait to go to my next one!

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  14. I attended in Indianapolis and must confess that I will never attend another Women of Faith event. After finishing Beth Moore's study of Daniel, I was so saddened to see how Women of Faith has succumbed to our current culture and the Babylonian temptations we are surrounded by each day. The marketing of books, scarves, dvd's, etc. was so sad. It would have been nice to have a full selection of books written by several authors, including those NOT speaking. Knowing I could get them all for much cheaper on Amazon, I was disappointed to see them try to sell them for more and then market packages of books at a discount price. Additionally, seeing the ploy to get Women of Faith visa applicants by offering a free t-shirt was just plain tacky. I wonder what Dave Ramsey would have to say to that? If this type of consumerism is needed to keep ticket prices down, then I believe Women of Faith has reached a point where they need to do some serious soul searching regarding what they are really accomplishing.

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  15. I didn't want to read about your experience because I wanted to wait until my own... but you have such a beautiful way of putting your thoughts, experience and life into words, I knew I had to read it! So glad you enjoyed it, my friend!

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