Created For Freedom

The Christian women's conference this weekend was amazing! Possibly even slightly better than last year, so I'm definitely going again next year if at all possible.

I'm still on a total high from the weekend, and am almost going through withdrawals! ;)

Ever since last year, Nina and I had no doubt at all that we wanted to go again, so we got our tickets about 4 months back. A couple of days later, Rebekka told me that she'd bought tickets as well! Apparently Nina and I had been raving so much about it that she wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Unfortunately Mixi had other plans Friday, but she ended up coming along for Saturday as well! And I managed to lure my cousin-in-law along as well :) Lars and I had dinner together with her, my cousin and my cousin's parents last week, and I told Camilla that she should come along too! Thankfully she took my word for it, and even though she was only able to be there Friday, it was terrific to have her there. She seemed to enjoy herself too :)

The main speakers this year were Christine Caine (USA) and Rita Elmounayer (Lebanon). Turns out that Rita Elmounayer is a colleague of my uncle and aunt! (the ones in Cyprus). They work for Sat7 - a Christian satellite station that broadcasts all over the Arab world. I'm always completely blown away when I hear of their experiences. We really have it easy here! We're free to have church out in the open, we're free to convert to Christianity without being persecuted, we don't risk being fired or losing our house... Wow.

During her seminar, Rita showed a music video called "Let me live", sung in (I think) Arabic by various (I assume) well known people. Sort of like some of the charity videos done here. The music, the lyrics and the video gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes. Unfortunately I can't find it anywhere online, but I'm going to ask my uncle and aunt if they know if it's available. The chorus was (from memory) "You who try to kill me, don't you know we're both human. Don't make me leave my house, my family, my country. Don't terrify me. We only have a limited time on this earth - why do we spend it fighting?" We saw it twice, and I can still hear parts of it for my inner ear - it was amazing!

Christine Caine was by far the best speaker of the conference though - possibly the best speaker I've ever heard. She was inspired and inspirational, and so passionate for God. The theme of the conference was "Created for freedom" and she put a lot of emphasis on the difference between "being free" and "being delivered". As Christians, we've all been delivered, but if we're still walking through the wilderness, then we're not truly free. The Israelites weren't delivered from Egypt to the wilderness, they were delivered from Egypt to be FREE in the Promised Land (interesting aside, did you know that the journey from Egypt to Canaan should only have taken 11 days, but because of the Israelites' disobedience to God, they wandered the desert for 40 years! Of course I've always known the latter, but I didn't know that it was supposed to have taken as little as 11 days. Really puts things in perspective!). We need to be free of all the things that are making us wander around our personal Mount Sinai for 40 years - whether that's fear, harboured unforgiveness, unfulfilled dreams, a past of being abused etc.

Rebekka had brought Rosa along, and thankfully she was a doll most of the time, so Rebekka got to listen in on almost all the seminars. There was only one where she'd had enough and Rebekka had to leave, but considering that she spent a total of 19 hours there, Rebekka felt she got off easy by only missing out on half of one 45-minute seminar :D Besides, Rosa ended up winning a free admission to next year's conference! Gift certificates were given to the oldest and youngest woman there, and at 11 weeks, Rosa was a clear winner ;) And of course, it being a woman's conference, everybody went "Awwwww!!!" when Rebekka walked up to the stage with Rosa to claim her prize ;)

A fantastic, blessed, God-filled weekend. I already can't wait for next year!