Extraordinary Women

I attended this conference over the weekend and had a fabulous time. My BF Ellen and I left the kids with our husbands and took a road trip to Tulsa. It was an adventure. We were a bit late getting to the auditorium because of of typo on the ticket address, but we made it in time for the last of the praise and worship time and for all of the speaker. We took Ellen's GPS since ours had to be mailed in for service, and she had entered the address from the back of the ticket. She had pre-entered the destinations before our trip so we didn't have to worry. I had printed out maps from Yahoo, but since she had the GPS I didn't even look at them. The ticket had a misprint. Instead of 7777 South Lewis Ave. it directed us to 777 South Lewis Ave. The correct venue was the Mabee Center at Oral Roberts Univ. and we ended up at a liquor store in a very seedy neighborhood. It gave us quite a trip to turn around and get back, but we made it. It was such an invigorating conference.

The theme this year for Extraordinary Women is "Discovering God's Dream" the theme verse from Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I have only recently become aware of this verse. I have claimed it for this year. And as is usually the case, when God wants me to learn something, He puts it in my path repeatedly.

We had such a good weekend and it was refreshing. What an experience to worship God with 3000 other women. It was reminiscent of Calvin (RP International Conference), but shorter and with only women in attendance it was a little different dynamic.

We also got to hear from some incredible musicians over the weekend. The praise and worship team was very talented and very energetic. The highlight for me was the two concerts. Friday night, Richie McDonald performed. He was the lead singer for Lonestar, a country group, until last year when he felt that God was calling him to switch gears to a solo career so he could be a more full time family man. He and his wife have three young children, and he noticed how fast his oldest son was reaching toward manhood. He wanted to be more of a day to day presence.

Saturday, we had the privilege of hearing Mark Schultz. He mentioned that he graduated from K-State and grew up in Kansas. I knew Shan would enjoy his music, so I bought him a CD. I had a chance to meet him, and Ellen asked where in Kansas he was from. Turns out, he is from Colby, and was in school at the Community College there at the same time Shan and his sister attended. His sister even sang with him in the college music group. Now I wish I had known that before I met him. Shan really likes the CD I bought for him so that is good.