This large multi-state conference is the type of event that I have grown to love to do. In this case, 500 women came together from probably a dozen states around the Midwest and elsewhere. We had a wonderful time together on Friday night, all-day Saturday and Sunday morning before parting and going back home.
I was the main speaker for this conference and Kim Bolton was the worship leader and it was just a delightful group of ladies. This is one event that I can say with absolute certainty was covered in prayer from start to finish, and in fact, had been covered in prayer for over a year.
The Illowa Christian Women’s Groups takes prayer very seriously which is wonderful to see. Every few weeks in the month leading up to the event, I would get a little note, or a card, or an email, or a phone-call from one of the organizers saying that they were looking forward to the conference and that they were on their knees praying for me. That is a very, very priceless viewing. In fact, the theme of the conference was “Peace… Priceless!” It was really a neat opportunity for me to expand beyond not only what is going on in the inner lives of the men around us and how to have peace in our relationships, but also to really be able to dig into how we put that in context of having peace with God first. I often don’t get a chance to cover that subject when I’m doing a short visit and it was wonderful to be able to do that here.
I showed a video of the Hoyt family where the father, Dick Hoyt, runs triathlon and bikes with his paralyzed son, Rick Hoyt, in a special bicycle seat and pulls his son in a special runner. There’s a video done by this company called Igniter Video that shows Dick running because his son can’t and what an incredible picture it is of how God runs in our place and takes our place when we in our feebleness can’t deal in life without Him. I was very touched and a number of people decided that they didn’t want to do their life without Him.