Thursday & Friday (9.28-29.17) was the Conference 1 of the ReCreate Women’s Conference at Church of the Highlands. The Women’s Conference is so popular that they have two of them (one is Thursday / Friday and the other is Friday / Saturday – they are identical, just on two different options to allow room for more attendees). Understandably, the Friday / Saturday fills up the quickest, but I was determined to go, so I registered for Thursday / Friday, and got Friday off of work.
When Thursday (9.28.17) finally came, I was very expectant. Even though I had a very rough afternoon at work, I asked God to remove that from my mind so I could be fully focused on the conference and what He wanted to communicate to me during this time.
Right when I walked in the door, I was handed goodie bag that held a bracelet (which would become everyone’s pass to get into the auditorium), a notebook + pen, and a couple goodies like a nail filer, nail polish and a coupon to a restaurant.
Our first speaker was Charlotte Gambill. If you haven’t heard of her, you need to look her up because she is phenomenal! She is from England so she has a fun accent, but her messages are powerful and full of wisdom.
“God created you for greatness, and the enemy speaks fear to you so that you’ll never discover how much greatness God has placed inside you.” – Charlotte Gambill
I will say, Charlotte fanned a flame that I had let get very, very dim. {back story:: At ReCreate 2016, I was walking back to my seat from a break between the sessions. As I walked, I looked up at the stage and I felt God whisper, “you’re going to be a speaker, and you’ll speak at a women’s conference one day.” Over this past year, the enemy has convinced me to disqualify myself from that calling. There are so many more talented speakers, how can I have anything to offer people or say anything that hasn’t already been said!? It was easy for me to say, “I’m not worth listening to.”} But Charlotte’s message was so good, and I really felt God laying on my heart, “Sarah, you’ve let the devil convince you of something that isn’t even true. I’ve called you to be a speaker! You do have something worth sharing and I want to speak through you! Have confidence and grow in that!” Wow. Okay God! 😀
I walked out with a skip in my step, knowing that if that’s the word I got just with the opening session, how much more could there be to receive!?
The After Party was very creative and fun, but after a long day of work, I was very tired, so I didn’t stay long.
The next morning, I picked up a friend just after 8am and we arrived to the church around 8:40am. We grabbed our seats and anxiously waited for the next round of sessions to begin.
Pastor Chris spoke first, which was incredible as always.
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to an all-knowing God.” -Pastor Chris Hodges
Following him was Lysa Terkeurst. She spoke with such vulnerability that everyone was almost crying (if not actually crying).
“God loves me, and I love God! And that assurance will cast out every fear.” -Lysa Terkeurst
After Lysa’s session, they dismissed us for lunch. It was a morning full of wisdom that I was still trying to process as I sat down with my friends and ate the food they gave us. In attempts to process it all (and start some conversation), I asked the girls I was sitting with which part of the last session really spoke to them. It was cool to hear what God made stand out to each of them (myself included).
By the time the afternoon sessions started, I found myself getting tired and my mind easily started wandering. I tried so hard to focus, but it definitely took more effort for me during the last two sessions to capture what God wanted to speak to me.
“God can’t give you better without you getting rid of the bitter.” – Charlotte Gambill
“We can trust what Jesus says because He knows the depth of our pain.” -Lysa Terkeurst
When the conference was over and my friend was dropped off, I spent a couple minutes that night thinking about the conference. I went into it exhausted and desperately needing to hear from God, and I left refueled and with a fresh perspective and desire to spend time with God in His word and grow in my calling.