Thankful Thursday: ONEsisters & Extraordinary Women

This past weekend the ladies from our church, ONEsisters, headed to Greenville for the Extraordinary Women conference. Last year, Cory and I had just started attending ONE and I missed the sign up so I’ve heard all these crazy stories for over a year and to say I was excited would be an understatement.

Do you have any women in your life and when you look at them you can see the Godliness? One of the things that impressed me the most with the women of ONE was their faithfulness to step out and pray over someone. This may not seem like a big deal to some but I wanted that confidence to be able to walk up to a friend {or a stranger} praying at the alter and be able to place my hand on them and to simply pray for them. Being the southern baptist I grew up as, many times I was too afraid to step out of my seat. Afraid of what?  How I would look or how the person would feel? I’m really not sure what I was afraid of but the more time I’ve spent with these women I realized they weren’t any different than me. They weren’t appointed leaders of the church or have any kind of seminary training, they just stepped up when they thought someone was in need of a little extra prayer. I quickly realized that by surrounding myself with this type of friends, I was gaining the confidence I desire for. 

So you can probably tell why I was so excited to spend the weekend with these wonderful ladies. I had to work Friday so I missed lunch with the ladies but met up with them Friday night at the conference. Chonda Pierce is a Christian comedian and kicked off the night. She is absolutely hilarious and we were laughing until there were tears in our eyes. After she was done they showed a video of Chonda and her son in Colombia working with Compassion International.

This video hit me at my core and Pastor Sandra reminded me that in just a few short months, this will be me. I will get to experience what Chonda felt. The whole idea of getting to serve the children of Rwanda brings tears to my eyes because I’m so excited yet so undeserving.

Next up was a concert by Lonestar. Yes, you heard me Lonestar- the country band that was big in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. And they played country music. *gasp* The band members are all Christians and I think it’s a wonderful way for them to use their talents to serve the Lord. Plus, it was a chance for us to let loose and enjoy a concert.

Except there was one huge distraction.

And it was the guy on the right behind the key board. Now, to understand this completely you have to had seen Cory play on Sunday mornings. He totally rocks out. And sometimes most times he doesn’t realize how much he is getting into the song. Anyway… the guy on the right was really rocking. He was running around the stage and just acting a fool {all in the name of the Lord, of course}. At first I was all “this guy is crazy and kind of creeping me out” and the more I watched the more I realized that he was Cory in 15 years. After I brought it to a couple ladies attention, they all agreed and we couldn’t help but get cracked up the longer we watched. So when we got home on Saturday, Amber and I were telling Cory about this guy and he says “Do I really do that?” Um…that’s a big fat YEAH. So we decided to show Cory how he looks on Sunday morning and this {very blurry} video was born.

Most of the women stayed in Greenville Saturday night at various hotels {next year I’m voting that we all stay in one hotel} but my grandparents live in Greenville so Amber and I stayed with them. In true sleepover fashion, we stayed up too late and had to wake up early Saturday morning to head back to the conference. They had a whole list of speakers lined up for Saturday but Cory and I had a wedding Saturday afternoon so I had to leave at lunch time. I was pretty disappointed because I missed Mrs. Kay from Duck Dynasty but really enjoyed the morning speakers. First was Pam Tebow, Tim Tebows mom. She opened with a devotion which I enjoyed but honestly can’t remember much other than her singing Bible verses.

I guess I wasn’t awake yet. Ahem.

Next up was Kasey Van Norman.

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She. was. amazing. First off, how cute is she? And she had a personality to match. Secondly, this Christian woman is rocking some tattoos and it makes my heart happy. Can we be best friends? Lastly, her story took me by complete surprise.

I feel like the idea of this conference is to draw inspiration from other women and Kasey really inspired me. Her journey has been one struggle after the next but her message was powerful. I tried to take in every word that she said because I truly believe her words were spirit-breathed. I guess I should have mentioned that the theme for the conference was “joyful journey” and after hearing her testimony and listening to her talk about finding this joy has lite a fire in me.

I really feel lead to share more of what I took away from Kasey but it deserves it’s own post and this is already the longest post I’ve written in months.

To wrap it all up, I’m so thankful for my ONEsisters and the time I get to spend with them. They have been such a huge blessing in my life and in my walk with Christ. If you don’t have someone, anyone at all, like this in your life, find some. Like yesterday. I promise, you won’t regret it.

I’m linking up today with Katie, Mia, Carly and Kristal to share how thankful I am for my ONEsister!