You just can’t hold us down! … we’ve got some goodies for you tomorrow if you choose to partake with us.
Tomorrow the doors will be open at 8:30am with tea, coffee, and muffins & such. Please come and say hello and enjoy some fellowship before we get started. We officially start at 9 but y’all, I can’t wait that extra half hour!
I’m so thankful for all my friends & family working so hard to make this happen! Decorating and setup is a big job and they jump in with smiles to get it all done and the speakers work so hard to prepare for their sessions…. we are ready for you!
First session begins at 9:30am and the rest of the day is full of focusing on Scripture, bowls of chocolate, shopping, and a special treat for you at our last break.
Also, a reminder that this is your last day to get in on the prize draw for only $20. Tomorrow you can still enter but it will be at a cost of $30, so it’s worth it to get in early. The prizes are fabulous!
We can’t wait to encourage you! Please pray for us as we prepare and pray for you.
Holly will be sharing at the VWEC in just 2 more days!!! We cannot wait to see her again! She is always such an encouragement! Here’s a snippet on what she’ll be sharing.
We are always trying to escape. Escape pain, embarassment, boredom, hunger…many sorts of trials. The idea of being comfortable all the times seems to be the human dream. “As long as you are happy” is the code phrase we use to give ourselves and others permission to be self centered and, ultimately, our own god. If our own happiness means discomfort or stress free lives, then good luck everybody else, because sacrificial love is no longer an option. Sacrificial love requires…well…sacrifice…which, by definition, requires loss, pain, stress or at the very least some discomfort. Sacrificing that which costs me nothing, is not truly sacrifice, as King David said.
Whenever our flesh experiences pain or stress, we feel that prickly thorn in our side and grimace. We do all we can to remove that thorn, so we can skip merrily on our way to the next pleasurable thing…I’m including myself in this…in fact, I could be the chief of sinners in this subconscious way. When that thorn is painful enough to really interfere with life, and out of our control…becomes clinical…we ask God to take it from us. Often He does. But sometimes He doesn’t.
Why on Earth would God not relieve us?! He’s a good Father, isn’t He?! Because, in Heaven, things are not always as they seem on Earth. The Apostle Paul was in this exact scenario, and asked God three times to remove some anonymous thorn from his flesh. God’s response was “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness”. In other words…no. You’ll get more than you need from me and you’ll see my power way more than if you were strong and pain free. Paul accepted that and kept on living with his thorn. The thorn had purpose. All thorns have sharp points.
The scriptures are clear that the point of his thorn was to keep him humble for some reason. It was used by Satan to bother, even torment him, but he needed it, otherwise, Paul’s flesh would have given into some proud temptation and pride always leads to destruction. The prick in your side keeps you from being destroyed.
Roses have thorns…well technically, prickles…however, their purpose is protection from predators, like pride. Roses are most glorious and delectable to some wild life, but not when a thorn accompanies each bite. Also, the thorns help a rose bush climb and grow, like those little sharp thingys that mountain climbers use to scale a cliff. Our trials and pains are for our maturity and strengthening…unless you’d rather enjoy couch potato Christianity, we need to learn how to live with the thorns…no…not just live with, but thrive, have victory and be joyful over them!!
“My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” 💪 2 Corinthians 12:9
5×5…”Living With the Thorns”
More on this beautiful idea, this Saturday, at the Valley Women’s Encouragement Conference ❤
These are our theme verses for the conference… Charmin will be filling you in on why we chose these verses and why we love them in her session, Your Works Already Approved. Be prepared to be greatly encouraged by what we find in Scripture!
Interested in joining us this year? Find the info you need HERE .
It is much easier to take a bullet than to offer yourself to a slow and agonizing death for another person. Offering your life to a difficult situation? One that could take years… maybe even decades for someone who doesn’t give a rip??? Surely God doesn’t expect that?!
I’ve said it before when faced with panic and fear all around you, ‘It’s easy. Be willing to die at a moment’s notice’. The answer to living in quiet confidence in dire circumstances is to understand the sovereignty of God and have firm assurance that you are His. Then it literally doesn’t matter what happens to you. You’re good. You’re just one second away from GLORY. No problem.
But what about that life that Jesus calls us to all day every day with the pile of people we encounter. Those people who will come and go and not really care about your sacrifice & all of your ‘counting the cost’ and all that… You are in the spiritual school of laying your life down in a slow and agonizing death the way that Christ did, and modeled for us to do. Can we rest in God’s sovereignty in those circumstances, too? Of course we can. We NEED to. Can joy be found in this way of living??? Of course it can. True JOY is only found in humble obedience. (Not talking about choosing to stay in an abusive situation! If someone is in physical danger, a loving response will look very different than if some is just in an ‘unhappy’ situation!)
It is so much harder to invite the difficult offering of yourself for those who won’t acknowledge it for the beautiful following of the spiritual model of Christ that it is. So much harder to live out the raw sacrificial Christian faith as opposed to dressing up to talk and sing about it on Sunday mornings.
I’ve had so many people say over the years, ‘You mean, I’m supposed to be a doormat?!’… Ummm, you’re only a doormat if you don’t offer yourself. You’re a welcome mat until you allow others to choose your actions. But if the Spirit is in control it remains a welcome mat that just looks like a doormat from the world’s vantage point. Whether it’s your spouse, friend, enemy, child, coworker, or just a random guy on the street… it can be so hard to be willing to be Jesus to these people over and over again until we die. But remember, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Remember to be like Christ. Remember to die slowly for others no matter how long it takes, not just be willing to take a bullet for them.
You get to choose. This life in Christ allows you to choose of your own free will whether you will lay down your life like Christ did for another person or whether you will demand your rights and pull your welcome mat inside and shut the light out so everyone knows you’re not accepting visitors anymore.
Think about Jesus who endured from sinners so much hostility against himself, and don’t grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle in saying no to you and yes to others, you have not yet resisted to the point of having to suffer enough to pay for the sin of the world. You aren’t that bad off yet… you are called to keep going until you reach the limit of what Jesus suffered for your sin. Hebrews 12:3,4 TSPB – The Shannon Paraphrased Bible 😉
Looks like we’re in this whole ‘welcome mat’ thing for quite some time, eh? Until we meet Christ face to face we are called to just keep plugging away shaking out our welcome mats and making sure the front door is ready and waiting for more company. Even the same old company that keeps making messes on our doorsteps, over, and over, and over…
We’re all dying. But every day we are in the Lord’s training to learn how to die well. We are learning how to die a slow death for Christ’s sake.
Jesus always keeps His welcome mat out. Always. And I am SO THANKFUL for those in my life that have been Jesus to me over the years, keeping the door open, full of grace. May the Church rise up as an offering for each other and live like their Forerunner! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Take a look at some (not all!!!) of our prizes we are excited to give away this year. When you register for the prize draws ($20) you will receive 10 opportunities to win. Enter for a chance to win 10 different prizes or put all 10 of your tickets in one draw to increase your chances of winning that prize.
First, check out this amazing prize as introduced by Charmin, then keep scrolling to see a few other fantastic prizes. More to be announced so stay tuned!
One-Year MasterClass Subscription:
Last spring, my 14-year-old son was showing an increasing interest in cooking, and was enjoying learning a few things from me and from my dad (the best). I don’t remember how I ended up at MasterClass, but I do remember that the timing was perfect: we were all home all the time and it was tax return time. So we purchased an All-Access Pass, which is exactly what it sounds like: access to all classes for one year. We started watching Thomas Keller’s cooking classes and were immediately impressed. These are quality videos, and each class has a downloadable workbook to print and keep. My son has thoroughly enjoyed two of Chef Keller’s classes as well as Aaron Franklin’s Texas-Style BBQ – actually, several of us have enjoyed watching them with him – and we will be reaping the tasty benefits for the rest of our lives.
From the website’s Frequently Asked Questions: “MasterClass is an immersive online experience that offers access to genius by allowing anyone to take online classes with the world’s best. Our instructors include Christina Aguilera, Serena Williams, James Patterson, and more. These video courses are 100% exclusive – MasterClass produces the courses directly with the instructors to capture exactly what the masters want to teach.”
Now that fall is here and we are home most of the time again and thinking school thoughts, I am eyeing the MasterClass library for what to watch next, what to watch for myself (so many cooking classes! Bobbi Brown Makeup and Beauty?), what might be a good fit for my other kids (creative writing, violin with Itzhak Perlman!). There are more than 80 classes listed today and they are regularly adding new content.
A quick scan of the library of classes available today shows a pretty good range of topics and skills to explore: ukelele, interior design, dog training, photography, space exploration, basketball, chess, acting, dance… See for yourself.
When we purchased our All-Access Pass, there was a 2-for-1 promotion running and I have a one-year MasterClass subscription to share. The winner’s membership will begin on the day they activate it, granting them unlimited access to all classes on the website for an entire year. This will be very exciting news for one prize draw conference attendee. Have you registered yet? See you on the 26th!
~ Charmin
Other prizes you may be interested in this year at the VWEC:
If you’d like to let us know you are coming and also register for the prize draw just follow the link below.
VWEC 2020 is approaching fast! There isn’t much time this year to get your name on the ballot list! Want to know how we roll with our prize giveaways? Here’s some info.
First I’ll show you our table full of prizes we gave away last year. Isn’t it fantastic?!?! So much fun to give it all away!
In one of our morning sessions Charmin will be talking about our favourite things we found this year and explaining the things on our prize table. You’ll know more about the prizes you’d like to win after this session!
After lunch we draw for the winner of each prize. You can put your 10 ballots in 10 different draw bags or you can put them all in one to increase your chances on winning your favourite.
We LOVE showering as many of you as possible with encouragement and beautiful things!
The conference is free for anyone who wishes to attend. But if you’d like to take part in the prize draw fun there’s a prize draw registration fee of $20. If you register for the prizes at the door it’s $30. So definitely worth it to send it in early!
To get the info on conference this year just click HERE.
To let us know you’re coming and also register for the prize draw, click HERE. There’s a free registration form at the top AND a prize registration form underneath.
Looking through our 2019 pictures it makes me even more excited to see you again soon!! Take a look at the slideshow and get a feel for what our time together is like.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Would you like to get the details on this year’s conference? Check it out HERE.
Would you like to register for the 2020 Valley Women’s Encouragement Conference? You can do that HERE.
I’m working on the specific schedule details to post so stay tuned and you’ll get the full run-down asap! I’m really really really pumped about the sessions this year!
In one of our morning sessions Charmin will be talking about our favourite things we found this year and explaining the things on our prize table. You’ll know more about the prizes you’d like to win after this session!
To get the info on conference this year just click