Wellspring Women’s Ministry Blog and Online Community

Hey everybody!
I was bored today. And then a package came from UPS. My heart skipped a beat. I knew exactly what was in that big brown box. We had been waiting on it for 10 days, tracking it’s every move.
Joseph and I are overseeing the design/decor of the stage and room for this year’s Wellspring Conference. We are so excited to be doing this because we have a passion for great design, and how color and decor can affect people. So we’ve been having fun dreaming of different ways to express the feeling and theme of this conference through the “look” of the room. Granted, Wellspring is a ministry that already values creativity. I mean, there are people drawing and painting throughout the worship and the rest of the conference. So the room always has lots of color and activity going on. We’re just adding our own bit to it!
Back to the package. Inside of it lies part of our idea for stage design for this year’s conference. And I was so excited to get it that I decided we needed to make a video of it showing the breathtaking moment we opened it up. Can you guess what it is and how it’s going to be used? Go ahead and post your guesses in the comments. Write what it is and how you think it will be used. It’s our rainy day game today (unless it’s not raining where you are)!

View the video here.

I (Gloria )got the message that follows from one of our Wellspring intercessors. I think she is hearing from God about some ways that God wants to prepare our hearts for this year’s conference so I decided to post it here to reach more people. The message is really true for life in general as well as for the conference so, whether you plan to attend Wellspring 2009 or not, I encourage you to read this and take it to heart. I would also love to hear your comments.

The other day, the Lord spoke this to me: “Breakthrough prayer is personal! Let’s get personal and see a breakthrough!” I recalled 2 Kings 4 when Elisha had developed a relationship with the Shunammite woman and her family, staying in their home, sharing meals, seeing a child brought to her, etc. When the child became ill, Elisha says, “she is troubled in her soul, and the Lord has hidden it from me.” He knows the Lord could have told him, but instead the woman was required to seek him out, in faith and friendship. When Elisha’s servant goes ahead of him, healing doesn’t come. The breakthrough comes when the long-time, trusted friend, Elisha, arrives and, in a very personal way — mouth to mouth, eye to eye, body stretched out on the boy — raises up the boy.

Regarding finances, I suspect many women have looked at their budget and resigned themselves to staying home. They have not made their desire to go to the conference known to their husbands. If their hubby knew, he would rearrange things and have heavenly wisdom to get his wife to the retreat. It would be great if husbands knew it was happening and insisted their wives go!!

One of the strengths of Wellspring has always been the relationships that are formed among the women. It’s always as though God spreads a special covering of safety over the conference so that women are eager to help one another and open to receive help from one another. By the time we are grown up, almost everyone has experienced betrayal of one kind or another so that we do not find it easy to trust again. But as I begin to open my heart to God, I find that He graces me to open my heart to His people as well, especially to my sisters. So I encourage all of us not have guarded hearts toward one another and especially not toward the Lord. We serve a Lord Who loves us better than we can ever love ourselves. And everything He has for us is good!

On the word about finances: The women who have been serving behind our information tables at Manna on Sunday morning tell me that an unusual number of men have been stopping by to get information on the conference because they want their wives to go! Interesting . . .

Last Sunday Michael and I ministered in a church in Virginia that is undergoing drastic change. It had been founded over 200 years ago as a denominational church, but had gone without a pastor for several years and dwindled down to about 20 members, all of them over 70. Those 20 faithful had prayed about their options: should they take the risk of trying to find a new pastor (and put up the money to pay him!) or should they just give up and shut down the church? They decided to find a new pastor.

What they found was a guy who is an old and dear friend of ours, a man with deep mercy wells inside, sensitive and caring and gentle but also not given to compromise. Our friend is a musician as well as a pastor so he became not only the new pastor but also the worship leader for the small congregation. It has been over 2 years since he moved in with his family and most of the 20 he started his ministry with are still there. Last Sunday the sanctuary, which seats about 75 comfortably, was jam-packed with young people, mostly in their late teens and early 20’s. The music was lively and contemporary and there was dancing in the aisles. The pulpit, altar rail and choir loft were all removed and electric guitars had taken the place of the organ. A digital projector and screen have replaced hymn books and the rest of the altar furniture is scheduled to be removed in order to create more space in the sanctuary because they are growing!

Families with young children have begun to come on Sundays so a children’s church has been started, and one of the men has built a deck on the back of the building to accommodate covered dish dinners. Things are changing! And things are changing QUICKLY! I couldn’t help but wonder how the “old guard” felt about the change — did they still think they had made the right decision?

After church on Sunday there was a covered dish dinner and I got to visit with one of the “old guard.” I asked him how he liked all the changes. He said God had taught him something important. God had reminded him of when his father had died, of how sad he was because he missed his dad, but how happy he was because his father was no longer in pain and was in the presence of the Lord. He was happy and sad at the same time, and that is how he was feeling about his church right now. “I love the old hymns,” he said. “And I miss the old altar rail and the old pulpit and it makes me sad sometimes. But I don’t think I have ever been so excited about what the Lord is doing! I don’t want the old things back; I am so looking forward to seeing what God is going to do with us!”

I fell in love with that old gentleman right then. What love for Jesus and His Church was revealed in his life through his words! As Michael and I drove home, praying for Church on the Rise, I was reminded of Psalm 133:
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes,
It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing — life forever.

Lord, command blessing on this church and cause her to prosper and grow and bring glory and honor to Your name!

Have we mentioned lately that the Wellspring Conference is coming up? I can’t remember if we have said anything about it yet. HA! Don’t worry, we’ll try not to clog the blog up with much more conference details, since we know there might be some of you reading this who are unable to attend and are therefore bored silly with post after post about this conference! In the meantime, have fun reading about one exciting new thing for this year’s conference! Here’s Marion to tell you about it…

We are so excited to introduce a new aspect of the Wellspring Women’s Conference.  We are going to have a social room that we have dubbed “The Nest” that will allow us to have a central gathering place during our free time.  This will allow for different groups to mingle and will give us “night owls” a spot to converse without waking the “early birds”!  We will use the room that we have used for our meetings in the past (we have a new room for that now), so we have lots of space!  We will have tables set up around the room for various activities.  Some ideas we currently have are:


1.  A craft table.  Bring your scrap booking, card making, extra crafty stuff and enjoy setting up and having time to work on your projects that have been sitting on the back burner.

2.  A Card Table.  We will do as many of these as needed depending on what games we have going.

3.  A Board Game Table.

4.  A Manicure Table.

5.  A Color Consultation Table run by Sherry Cox



So…here is what we need from you!!!!


1.  We need other really fun and cool ideas

2.  If you have a service you are good at (massage, pedicures, manicures, etc) then it would be great if you want to share that talent with others (don’t worry we won’t sign you up for the whole time).

3.  CARDS AND BOARD GAMES

4.  Any craft or scrap booking stuff you would like to bring

5.  Cool music

6.  Cameras to capture the fun


Please email Heather Cotten (hmcottenatgmaildotcom) with any ideas or offers of services, games, etc.  

We are really looking forward to this aspect of the retreat.  It will be a great place to further develop relationships with the ladies you come with and the ladies you don’t see often.

A word about food in ‘The Nest’: The rules at Ridgecrest do not allow us to provide group snacks unless we purchase them from their catering department. To keep the costs of the conference down our leadership has decided not to order group snacks this year. However individuals can bring their own snacks and/or purchase them from vending machines and shops on site.”


Looking forward to seeing all of you in October!
Marion
 

Hi all! This years’ Wellspring Women’s Conference is fast approaching! We’re excited and praying . Here are a few prayer requests:

-That all those who would benefit from this conference would hear about it and register.
-That each woman who wants to go would have the finances, faith for finances, childcare arrangements, & a ride there.
-No sicknesses would keep women away.
-That the workshop leaders would have the focus and ability to fine tune their workshops and minister to their families in the process! Please cover them with prayers for health, clarity, inspiration/sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
-That all volunteer spots for the conference would be filled.
-Protection and health for the guys who are planning to pray for us during the conference.
-That all administrative details would go smoothly.

We welcome all fasters! Some will be fasting every Thursday before the conference. Please join us or choose your own time period for fasting if so led. We want to receive everything the Lord has for us Oct 2-4!