It’s been over a week and I am still not sure that we are over the workshop. As our first event, we had a lot of dreams but we also had some hesitations. Would there be enough food? Would anyone show up? Would someone get sick and this would be messed up? What if someone got up there and froze as they were supposed to speak? We had our hesitations but we also said “God this is Yours. Do what you want. We are expectant.” God showed up and showed out with over seventy women in attendance, enough food and women growing closer to Him.
First of all: A big thank you to Lucia’s of Athens! We got our food catered from there and received a discount. It was super yummy!
Thank you to our vendors as well! They showed up and were amazing:
A+Z Designs
Jennifer Gray Hooper Art
Athens Nutrition Tea Bombs
Young Living Essential Oils - Restoration Hill
We also had so much fun with our giveaways. Thank you to Rebecca Chandler for donating a painted She Reads Truth Bible for us to giveaway!
Worship was absolutely phenomenal. It was a gift to sit in the back and watch women of different ages and church backgrounds lift their hands in worship. We declared that we are having Christ as our “Firm Foundation” then that He is “Worthy of It All” and lastly that God will “Send Revival” to the year of 2024. What a joy it is to worship together. You can access the links to the song at the bottom of the page.
2024 Word of Encouragement
Opening up the night in a teaching was an absolute honor that I don’t take lightly. Reading through Matthew 25:14-20 where we get our theme verse really hit me heavy. It caused me to ask two questions:
Have I been faithful with the small gifts and responsibilities for Christ?
Am I ready for the big ones that God is going to give me?
We have to take what God has given us and be good and faithful in it. We have to take the steps and walk in the calling before us as we pursue our purpose on earth. We can’t make excuses. We can’t take the blame. We have to take the step. How do we become good and faithful servants?
We do everything for God. (Colossians 3:23-24
We focus on the eternal. (Colossians 3:2-4; Psalm 77:11-12)
We trust God in what He will do with it and remain faithful. (Galatians 6:4-9)
I pray that we will continue being faithful with the small things so He can give us the big things because our hearts cry to be His good and faithful servant as we don’t grow tired of what He calls us to do. Goodness is coming!
Word of the Year
Molly Lauderback started out our sessions on the importance of our words and the tongue as we chose our 2024 word of the year. Our words are very powerful and have the ability to speak life or bring death to situations. (Proverbs 12:18-19; 21) Our words align with the truth of our heart so our hearts must be in the right place. (Matthew 12:34) So as you ask God to reveal your word of the year, what is He placing on your heart? God calls us to a life of abundance (John 10:10) and we can have that even when this world makes things bumpy and messy. Ask God to reveal the word to you then scripture to back it up. So what is God calling you to in 2024?
Vision Boards
Rachel Emens brought an amazing word to why displaying our vision is a Biblical truth. (Habakkuk 2:2) We can’t know where we are going if we don’t have vision. We can dream but we also have to remember that God will redirect our steps. We can bring vision to the table but we have to say that ultimately we just want God. We want our vision of life to align with Him and His goodness. As you create your vision board for 2024 (digitally or physically), add things that are Biblical truths. Add your prayers and desires in it! Have your vision rooted in Christ.
Prayers / Petitions
In our last session, Montana Wallace (Relations Board Seat of TTS) led us in a teaching of “prayers and petitions.”
Prayer- General term for addressing God
Petition- A part of prayer (specific request)
I am going to be honest that I haven’t always known what this meant. I didn’t know we could actually bring requests to God. But Philippians 4:6-7 shows how it is Biblical to bring our requests to God. He is our Father and He knows all things but He desires a relationship where we bring our requests to Him. BUT, we can’t leave it there. Our requests also have to line up with God’s parameters as Philippians 4:8 tells us and we must know that if God doesn’t answer our prayers how we desire, we need to be okay with that. We must align our hearts to want God’s will to move throughout our life.
A big shoutout to my board and all they do for me. They heard my vision and ran with it. They prayed through it, prepared and were ready to serve. They each served and spoke in their own way. I could not do it without these women! Also, thank you to Brandon for running all of the back porch and helping with media. Thank you to Nehemiah Groder for serving (on his birthday)! Thank you also to Thomas Holcomb for running security.
The whole vision/mission of TTS is that women will find God within their season, see that He is good and share with others. We want to be a ministry to help all women walk through their season of life. Whether it is a mountaintop or valley season, TTS wants to partner with each woman to see God through each step of her season. The 2024 Vision Workshop was exactly that. When we decided to move forward with the event, we felt the number “20” laid on our hearts. We thought it meant that there would be 20 women in attendance so that’s what we prayed for. When the number of women registered went above that, we asked God to show why the number 20 mattered. As we were preparing for the workshop the week of we looked through the registration forms and saw that over 70 women were registered with 20 churches represented. God is good. God supersedes expectations. God is moving!
Love,
Emily
Comments