Well… She Speaks 2009 is over. Each year we hear amazing God stories in the weeks and months after the conference. And, while I know that I know that I know that God will show up and knock our socks off, each year I am blown away… almost surprised by what He accomplishes! Go figure!
I love hearing how God speaks to each woman, personally, during this life-changing weekend. But as the conference director, I am so busy keeping up with conference details that I worry that I’ll miss what He has to say to me. You would think that I would learn but I’m clearly slow in this area. God is bigger than any details and He certainly isn’t going to let a “to-do list” get in the way of whispering to his precious daughters! He meets us right where we are and He is loud and clear. This year, He met me in the prayer room… twice! (Maybe twice and a half?)
My husband, Ron, died 12 years ago. I don’t know if I could even count the number of people who have asked me if I'm lonely and why I never remarried. With 600 women attending our She Speaks conference, I got this question a lot over the course of three days! My answer is always the same… I am never lonely because I am married to Jesus. He is my hope, my companion, my helper, my teacher, my everything! But the questions wear me down a little and sometimes I question my own answer. Am I lonely? Do I need something more?
Every year my sweet friend, Luann, prays over the names of every She Speaks attendee, staff, and volunteer and then places their names on a name of God in the prayer room. Feeling a bit overwhelmed (and a lot hormonal), I walked quietly into the prayer room on Friday evening to search for my name. My eyes filled with tears as I saw my name laying on “Jehovah-Shammah” (The Lord is There – The Lord My Companion). In that moment, I was alone with my Companion, my Jesus, my hope. And He was everything I needed and more.
Isn’t it awesome the way He touches our hearts in such a personal way?
Saturday was a very full day. At one point I was stopped by my new (but now lifelong) friend, Carmen. She wanted to know if I could spend just 10 minutes with her later that evening. I knew the evening would be long as Samantha and I had to turn around the main room to set up for Sunday morning. I thought we might be done around 10:00pm (I seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to turn the room around!) So, at 10:00pm, Carmen sent me a text message asking if I could meet her in the prayer room. I replied that it would be a while but that she could join me in the main room and we could talk while I was setting up. She said she would wait if that was OK. I didn’t expect to be free until after midnight.
Another friend, Ian, was helping with the set up. (He did all the heavy lifting :) ) Around 11:00pm, all that was left was decorative stuff so Ian headed out. I had shared my prayer room story with him earlier in the day so he wanted to see where his name was. Even though I still had another hour of set up to do, I wanted to see where Ian’s name was so I went with him. Seriously… my story was so great that I didn’t want to miss what God had in store for Ian! After finding his name (another God story but not mine to tell), we saw Carmen praying. We went over to her and she said that she had been praying that God would bring me to her as she had been waiting quite a while. It is only because Ian wanted to see where his name was in the prayer room that I came when I did so Ian received another blessing… God used him to get me to show up!
Carmen asked me to sit down and then she sat before me and said that she wanted to wash my feet! I was completely shocked. I have taken part in foot washings in the past but I always choose to be the one washing the other person’s feet. The look in Carmen’s eyes told me that there was no way that I could say “no” so I sat as she gently washed and massaged my tired feet. I didn’t feel worthy of being served in that way but… I truly saw that she was blessed by serving me. Carmen has the heart of a servant and this act of kindness blessed her even more than it blessed me. (Although… it felt REALLY GOOD!)
My friends… I encountered sweet Jesus in the prayer room this past weekend.
Once when He reminded me that He is my Companion… Always.
Once when I saw that He spoke to Ian in a very personal way.
And once when I saw Him in the eyes of His precious servant, Carmen.
I pray that you have a personal encounter with our amazing Lord, and that He speaks to you in a way that only He can.
God’s Peace and Sweet, Sweet Blessings,
LeAnn
