He speaks, "She Speaks"

So, what exactly is the "She Speaks" conference?

"She Speaks" is a conference dedicated to women and young women alike, who are seeking to reach the women in their churches, communities or world for Jesus Christ. All who attend find encouragement and motivation to continue in their pursuit of fulfilling God's plans and purposes for their lives, whether it be through public speaking, the written word or connecting to women through women's ministry. It is not only an opportunity to receive the tools and know-how needed to persevere and increase your level of impact in the area of ministry you are currently in, but is also a conference that will give you practical ways to take the first steps towards that which God has called you to.

Why is this of interest to me?

When I went to South Africa as a missionary, I went with very different plans and intentions than what God had in store for me. Once I was well-acquainted with the missions organization with whom I would be serving, God made it very clear to me that I would not be starting an orphanage for children with HIV or AIDS, but would instead be the sole writer for the leadership development program. Initially, I was stunned, unsure of how I managed to totally misunderstand God's calling on my life. After all, writing was not something I had previously enjoyed or even excelled at in school. After a brief wrestling match with God, I surrendered my entire being to Him and began pursuing that which He had called me to do. As it turns out, God had given me a gift I had never used to its fullest capacity, and once I opened that gift I wanted to use it whenever, wherever and however I could!
When I left the mission field, God did not make me leave my gift of writing there. He told me, "Pack your bags of memories and life lessons and don't forget the gift I gave you to write." Upon my return, life was a whirlwind, and before I knew it the gift was pushed aside until I was ready to write again. God has been tugging on my heart reminding me of the gift He gave me for months now, and I have responded on a couple of occasions, but when I couldn't seem to get very far, I dismissed the tugs as "it must not really be time yet".
Well, in recent weeks, that tug has become painfully stronger. I have spent a lot of time thinking and praying about fulfilling the new purpose for my writing and once again surrendering myself and my gift of writing to God. In my Quiet Time this morning, I heard God FINALLY speak so clearly in response to my prayer! He told me very plan and simple, "Go to Proverbs 31 Ministries website." And there I found an advertisement for the "She Speaks" conference. The conference description crossed the Ts and dotted the Is of my prayer for direction. That is why I would like to be apart of the 2010 "She Speaks" conference. It is truly amazing what God can do with a yielded vessel. He will unleash a potential never dreamed of, and I can't wait to see what He has in store!
Even though I exhausted my resources as a full-time missionary in South Africa and currently work at a very small private Christian school, I am trusting God to provide the means for me to attend this conference. But, as a winner of the Cecil Murphy scholarship, I would no doubt be able the take the next step in answering His call!

Checkout the following link if you too are interested in a scholarship to attend this conference:

http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/2010/03/she-speaks-scholarship-contest.html

This is the link to the "She Speaks" conference website:

http://www.shespeaksconference.com/

Don't Stop At "I Can't"

I thought it only a tease to write a whole article about my aha moment in the shower on Sunday and not tell you what my "epiphany" actually entailed. So here it is..."Admitting that you are weak is merely a sign of GREATER strength". Simple. To the point. Yet, so HARD to live out!
Our culture is so against weakness! We are taught growing up to be tough...dry up oour tears, brush off our skinned knees, put a band-aid on our wounds and keep on walking. Why? The Bible speaks contrary to this mentality. Psalms 147:10 tells us that God "takes no pleasure in the strength of the horse or human might". He wants us to rely on Him and His strength. We fight against God when we think that it is up to us to muster the strength necessary to tackle all the challenges life presents us. We try, try, and try again, only to find ourselves facing extra unnecessary battles of discouragement, fatigue, frustration, etc. The truth is when we are weak He is strong. When we throw our arms up in surrender to God and say, "I Can't!" we should not be ashamed, or think there is something wrong with us because we are admitting we are weak. These moments are only signs of greater strength...it takes a lot more courage in our culture to admit that we are weak than it does to make ourselves appear to be resilient and able to weather any storm in our own strength. Let's stop thinking that we can do everything in our own strength and satrt following our thoughts of "I can't" with "but God can"!

Sunday's Aha Moment

Sunday morning was not really noticeably different from my typical weekend mornings. I wake up long before my roommates a whole 3, 4 or somtimes 5 hours to be exact. I apparently do know what sleeping in on the weekends really means...6:30 AM...only 45 minutes later than my normal wake-up time...can that really be considered "sleeping in"? I am a morning person, so I waste no time in the mornings. And Sunday was no exception. As soon as my eyelids open and my eyes are greeted with the dim morning light as the sun slowly removes the mask of the horizon off its face, I am up out of bed. Houseshoes and robe on, I make my way to the living room, Gourmet magazine in hand. I place it on the coffee table as I proceed to the kitchen to make some good ol' imported Starbucks coffee. Once the pot has finished percolating, a final burst of steam billows from the top-my cue that it is time to fill my cup. I make myself comfortable on the couch cup of joe in one hand my magazine draped across my knees. Nothing more relaxing than enjoying several of the things that I enjoy all at once-drinking hot coffee, reading about cooking, baking, and foodies' dining experiences around the world, while analyzing recipes and thinking up how I can create my own rendition, sitting in utter silence, and gazing out the window to watch the herds of blesbok, springbok and zebra bolt across the still damp grass for no apparent reason and witness the lifting of the fog on the horizon. Do you sense the serenity? This seemingly ordinary Sunday suddenly presented me with an epiphany, if you will. Actually, a better description might be that I finally learned the lesson that God had been trying to teach me for quite some time now. You may now be wondering what makes that experience so out of the ordinary...God is teaching us stuff all the time and we should be learning all the time. And your right. But it was not the fact that I finally grasped hold of what He had been trying to teach me it was when (or where) I was that was so unusual...I had just hopped in the shower after an hour-long workout. Is that not the strangest place to have a classroom...well I thought it so strange and unusual that I felt it was blog worthy.