February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 3

My final entry for this little series of Special Weekends, I wish I would have done this the other way around because now in April I'm forced to try and remember the beginning of February! :)

Our first Youth Retreat in many years was held at Michindoh where we have our annual summer camp. We love this camp ground and the staff is always really kind and helpful. We went for a quick overnight stay and had so much fun. We enjoyed fantastic food, a fun hayride under the beautiful stars, making spam sculptures, and playing broom ball on the ice!

Along with all the activities we were also enormously blessed by the messages presented to us by Dan Armstrong. We were challenged through God's Word to identify
and overcome the idols in our hearts. Idols that are not necessarily in a physical form, but rather are evident in our sinful heart attitude. What is an idol? Anything that takes the place of God in our lives and anything that we are willing to sin against God to get.

We were each given a notebook and time to talk to God one on one and confess our personal idols and to raise our flag of surrender and ask God to become more beautiful to us than our sin. We studied James 4:1-7 in which we are given the steps to overcoming idols.

James 4:1-7
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

Dan emphasized the need to be truly broken about our sin and not to just feel remorse, but to express genuine Godly sorrow. Until we are truly Broken and Humbled we will not be Changed!

Nothing about the fight to Love God more than anything is easy and that includes the fight to get rid of the idols in our lives. However with God's help, It is possible!


James, Heather, Rebekah,and I were given the opportunity to lead worship at the Retreat and the song, "Give Us Clean Hands" quickly became the theme song for the event.

This song is taken from Psalm 24: 3-6,
"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah"


This is the group of girls that I was able to lead in a short devotional on Friday night. The Lord was really working in my heart during the time that I was preparing for this and showing me where I needed to be changed.

Overall this Retreat was a HUGE blessing in all our lives, we had a wonderful time and I am so thankful!





- Amanda Marie

"Peace, Perfect Peace"
by Edward Bickersteth

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus call us to Heaven’s perfect peace.

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 2

I'm working my way back to the first Retreat in February, but first I'll share a little from a conference in March.

This year our association's annual Ladie's Conference was held at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Mrs. Connie Tucker was the keynote speaker and her 3 sessions were on the thinking woman of God. We were challenged from 2 Timothy 1:7 to Think God's Thoughts After Him! and to be a woman who is actively pursuing the knowledge of God and who studies the Word of God diligently.



On our second day at the conference, we had a time of singing and testimonies which was a real blessing. Women shared stories of God's work in their lives including one in particular of a lady who was saved just recently after seeing the movie "Fireproof." After years of being in the church and believing she was saved, the Lord opened her eyes and she was genuinely converted.



The Sunday of the conference we were also blessed to hear Pastor Tucker speak at our church and speak more on this subject. The following illustration they both referred to has stuck with me...
We as Christians should be constantly taking in scripture and meditating on it just as a cow grazes all day long and later brings the grass back up to chew on it until every last bit of nutrients are out of it. We should not just let the scripture we read or the sermon we hear go in one ear and out the other, we should bring it to mind again later and think about it and think about it until we have all the "nutrients" out of it. Maybe not the most pleasant illistration to think about, but it makes it's point! :)

2 Timothy 1:7 (King James Version)

⁷"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

-Amanda Marie

Prayer request...

This past week I recieved a letter from our association's camp director inviting me to counsel at church camp this summer. We will be having youth camp at Michandoh again this summer for 5 days. I have counseled the senior girls cabin the last two years and have enjoyed it and found it to be challenging but rewarding spiritually. I would ask your prayers while I pray about whether or not God would have me to minister in this area this July.





Sovereign Grace Baptist Association Youth Camp


Summer 2008

-Amanda Marie

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 1

This past weekend our church was invited to attend a Woman's Conference at First Baptist Church with speaker, Carol Trahan. Our own association had invited her to speak for our conferences twice over the past few years and we have enjoyed her and have been very blessed by her ministry. So we were very excited to hear that she would be coming to a church so close to ours.

On Friday night Carol shared her testimony which she calls "The Triumph of His Grace", which truly is a testament to the grace of God in the life of a sinner.

On Saturday morning, we were able to attend two sessions and then we were invited to come to visit with her at the hotel she was staying at. We jumped at the opportunity to pray with this woman of God. Carol is a teacher at Northland Baptist Bible College as well as a Biblical Counselor. Something that has always impressed and convicted the ladies from our church is her knowledge of the scripture. While speaking, Carol references the scripture over and over, quoting God's word from memory. She encourages us all and I felt so blessed by the time that she took to meet with my mom, a sister from our church, and myself after her long weekend of traveling and speaking.

It was so awesome to be able to take turns sharing what God is doing in our lives, the things we are struggling with, the prayer requests that are burdening our hearts and to have time together to pray about them all.

You can read more about Carol Trahan and her ministry on her website...

www.caroltrahanministries.org

Amanda Marie

Just wanted to quickly let you know that Evelyn (the lady mentioned in the previous post) is doing really well. She is getting stronger everyday and is able to do almost everything on her own now. She still needs someone to do all the cooking for her and help her remember her pills and things like that, but for the most part she is doing really well. Her granddaughter and daughter will be coming for the first two weeks of April to stay with her. During that time, they will decide how much help she needs now that she has been out of the hospital for several weeks. We are praying now that she will be able to return to church again soon.

Amanda Marie

God's answer to prayer...

Just wanted to update everyone and let you know that the Lord answered prayer and I am now working. A friend from my church was in the hospital for around four weeks and after she was released her family hired me to live with her and take care of her. She is doing well now and getting stronger everyday. I am thankful for her health and also for this job/ministry that the Lord has given me for this season of my life.

-Amanda Marie