A month from now, our family will pack our bags and go to the Every Nation World Conference in Orlando, Florida. The kids are getting pretty excited, talking about the conference kids’ programs, Space Mountain, and living the hotel life.
As I listen to them jabber on and on, I keep getting all nostalgic, thinking of conferences we have attended in the past.
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| vintage conference snapshot early 2000s |
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| the kiddos at Disneyworld during the 2011 NA conference |
I remember being eighteen years old, walking into a conference just like the one we are going to this year. The room was full of Christians who believed Jesus could change the campus and thereby change the world.
At the time, I couldn’t have named all of the disciples, or the books or the Bible, or quoted very many scriptures, but I knew I wanted Jesus to make me His very own, and use my life for His own glory.
I listened back then as leaders I still respect and admire today spoke about things like spiritual family, the victorious gospel, and changing the world by following Christ.
I believed all of that then, and I believe all of it now.
Year after year I returned to those conferences. I was changed forever by so much of what I heard and saw there. God’s love for every nation of the world lifted me above my small life to see His grand glory on display.
When I was still single, my friends and I scouted the conference crowd for new cute guys, then stayed up too late talking about our dreams for our futures.
When we were married without children, Mr. Fantastic and I sowed everything in our small savings account to help support world missions, and then in the months that followed learned what it means to reap a harvest of joy.
Two years ago at the EN North American conference, as our family rode up the elevator after some night meetings, the kids couldn’t stop talking about reaching the nations and God’s voice speaking to them.
I could not have anticipated the way the whole world would open up in their hearts that year, or what that would mean to me. I wonder what our trip this year will hold for us.
God is on the move in the world, and He is on the move in our hearts. And for a few days in July, I will immerse myself in all He can do and is doing. I can’t wait to go….
