Wellspring Women’s Ministry Blog and Online Community

Change, change, change. Don’t you just love it when a good plan comes together? I am so excited about the new things that are coming together for Wellspring 2010!

After the 2009 Wellspring Women’s Conference, I realized that God had given us a wonderful gift. We had tried out a number of new things at the conference and they were all successful. Suddenly we had MOMENTUM! Women left the 2009 conference talking about the 2010 conference. On the evaluations, women wrote all over the margins with enthusiastic and creative suggestions for the next year. I got emails and Facebook messages with response after response expressing eager anticipation about next year. We have even had donations for scholarships for the 2010 conference already! Now that’s MOMENTUM!!

Funny thing about momentum: when you realize you have it, it becomes very important what you are going to do with it! As we sought the Lord about what HE had planned for 2010, He made it clear that He had not quite finished CHANGING things yet. Gradually, His plan has come into focus. THIS YEAR WE ARE GOING TO TAKE WELLSPRING TO THE WOMEN instead of asking the women to travel to Wellspring. Instead of inviting women to travel to the mountains, we are going to hold 3 regional Wellspring events in 3 different locations across North Carolina. Here are the dates and venues for these Wellspring Regional Events:

May 21-22 at Kernersville Community Church, Kernersville, NC

August 6-7 at Valley Community Church, Weldon, NC

October 8-9 at Rockfish Church, Raeford, NC

We are doing everything we can to make each regional event affordable while still keeping the Wellspring flavor. The emphasis on worship and teaching will remain constant. Our trained Ministry Team will be present at each event for prayer ministry. Chrissy Davidson will lead worship again and I will be teaching in each session. Heather Cotten will again organize and oversee The Nest on Saturday afternoon with additional attractions added to the activities. The character and personality of Wellspring will be much like you have come to expect, but the location and some of the scheduling will change.

Each event will start on Friday at 7 pm and end on Saturday by 8:30 pm. This time frame will cut down on our expenses and will also allow attendees to be back in their home churches for Sunday services. Holding 3 events instead of 1 and making those 3 events accessible regionally will enable more women to participate. We actually anticipate tripling the number of women we are able to involve this year!

So mark your calendar for the event you plan to attend — or mark your calendar for all three! We are going to have a blast at the WELLSRPING REGIONAL EVENTS in 2010!!

Oh, and the theme for this year’s events is: PRESENCE! Stay tuned for more updates soon.

This banner also greeted the women when they entered the Arc lobby

This banner and the next one greeted the women as they entered the Arc lobby

Oh my what a conference we had! I know I always feel this way after our conferences, but this really was the best one ever! The new meeting room was fantastic — so much space for the dancers and flaggers and the artwork. The lighting and sound quality was so much better than we have ever had as to be in a different league altogether! And wasn’t the decor awesome?!! It’s a good thing I got there early because I was in tears the minute I walked into the arc — tears of awe and blessing!

Before this conference my faith was challenged to believe God to show up in power and with miracles. But He really did what He said He would do. From the very beginning His presence was so real! The board met in the meeting room at 2 PM on Friday “to invite the Holy Spirit to fill the room with His presence” only to find that He was already there to welcome US! By the time Saturday evening arrived, we were all saturated, so there had to be an overflow! Some were laughing, some were weeping, some were jumping up and down while others were pinned to the floor, some were dramatically delivered while others were quietly relieved of life-long oppression, but all of us worshiped the King of Kings with all our might and experienced the joy of His presence and the intimacy of His touch on our lives.

I am hoping some of those who were there will share their testimonies here so we can all be blessed. Many shared with the group on Sunday morning and it blessed us all to hear what God had done in others. As soon as we can get it done we will post the audio files from the conference here on the website so that you can listen or download them, so stay tuned for further developments on this site!

These banners flanked the doors inside the meeting room.

Ladies begin to arrive on Friday for the first session as a member of the male intercessors' team looks on

Attendees Camryn Smith, Connie Regan, Laryssa Toomer and Jennifer Simpson enjoy before-meeting fellowship.

The Arc, our meeting room for general sessions.

Mama Emily takes a minute to enjoy watching seeing her daughters be blessed as Cheryl and Mary confer

Kathy draws during worship

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!

Last week I had an email from an old friend whose name is Mary Buchanan. It was actually God who introduced us. He gave Mary a burden to pray for Michael and me before I had ever met her. More recently we have reconnected via Facebook and it turns out Mary is still praying for me! I can’t tell you how much that blesses me! She will be coming to the Wellspring Conference this year (I can hardly wait to hug her!) and has been praying for everyone connected with it. Do you notice a theme here? Yes, Mary is an intercessor! If you tell Mary about ANYTHING, the first thing she will say is, “Let’s pray about it.” And when Mary prays, she expects to also hear from God. For her, prayer is a two-way street! So God has spoken to her the following instruction for us and I post it here to give you a chance to respond.

I was reading in Judges 6 when an angel came to Gideon at the time the Lord spoke to him to rise up as a man of valor. The angel called Gideon to go into battle. What stood out to me, is that Gideon set up a memorial to the Lord before he ever went into the battle. He set up an altar because he was so blessed that God would send His angel to someone as lowly as himself and call him to do great exploits. God revealed Himself to Gideon as “God is peace” so that is what Gideon named the altar he established.

I am praying for the retreat.  I will be praying for the Lord to have His way and to just give courage to our sisters so that His name and renown would be known!

If you have a testimony that you would like to share as a memorial to the goodness of God in your life, please use the comments space below to tell us what the Lord has done for you.

We have been giving some additional information about workshops that will be offered at this year’s conference. Today we will add a little teaser on two more.

Marion Graham is called by God to pray and to teach others to pray. Come and learn and be inspired to talk to God.

Marion Graham is convinced that God delights in answering the prayers of His people. In fact, she believes that God is glorified when He answers prayers. She believes that God often begins when we are children to lay dreams on our hearts that are attached to His plans for our lives. So often we allow circumstances to cause us to put down our dreams, but God wants to stir some of those dreams up and bring them into the realm of faith.

What did you dream about doing when you were a child? Do you ever dream of doing something mighty today? The Bible is full of stories of fulfilled dreams, stories of men and women who dared to believe that God could do the impossible in their lives. “God is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” Marion recently said, “but also the God of Hannah and Ruth and Esther and Sarah.” He has a plan for all of our lives, not just the “bigwigs” but also the “ordinary” people who have learned that they serve an extraordinary God!

Susan has been through a tough year since last year’s conference. There wasn’t a great tragedy or traumatic event— in some ways that would have been easier! — but the Holy Spirit has led her on a journey of rediscovering herself and her calling, a year getting to know God at new levels as she followed Him through a spiritual whirlwind of confusion and doubt from which she has now emerged stronger and more full of faith than ever before.

Out of her struggle, Susan will share with us “God in the Whirlwind: Why Suffering?” Isaiah 61 is her jumping off place as she shares on the faithfulness of our God who insists on giving us “beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning that He might be glorified.”

Here are some notes on two more workshops that will be offered at the Wellspring Women’s Conference 2009. More complete information is available by clicking on “Wellspring Conference 2009 Site” at the top of this page. If you are reading this on Facebook, you can go to www.wellspringwomen.com for more information on these and other workshops that will be offered. The same links will give you registration information.

Ronda Martz has such a heart for those who do not know Jesus. She and her husband Bobby spent many years on the mission field in the Philippines and traveling around the world conducting crusades. But her heart is not just for the foreign field but also for her neighbors here at home who are unsaved. She believes that wherever she is at any given moment is the place where God has sent her to demonstrate His love and share His gospel.

Being around such a woman could be very convicting except that Ronda also has a heart to help other Christians learn how to share their faith in ways that fit their individual personality. She believes that God made each of us individually and each of us can find ways to share the gospel that fit us like a custom-made glove. Not everyone is comfortable knocking on doors to tell people about Jesus, but all of us have neighbors and acquaintances that need to hear the gospel. Ronda will give practical ways to share out of her own experience and out of the experiences of others she has known.

If you want to learn better ways and acquire new freedom to share your faith, this is a workshop you don’t want to miss!

Laryssa Toomer will conduct her workshop on "Walking Worthy" from Colossians 1:10: "so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. . ."

Laryssa is an inspiring Bible teacher and her workshops at past Wellspring Conferences have always drawn a crowd. This year she will be sharing from the book of Colossians on “Walking Worthy.” The apostle Paul wrote to the Christian Church at Colossae to give them practical advice about how to fulfill the destiny prepared for them by God. His advice is both deeply spiritual as it encourages the people to receive all that Jesus died for them to receive, and practically relevant as he advises them on how to overcome hindrances to successful living.

Laryssa will draw from a wealth of personal experience as well as her love for Biblical scholarship. Her workshops are always challenging and those who attend always come away better equipped to live for Jesus. This year she will be teaching from one of her favorite books of the Bible so we are in for a special treat!

Have you ever been frustrated by a relationship that you just can’t make work? I’m not talking about the relationships that are close and vital that sometimes get cracked or broken, but about the random people you run into on a regular basis — the lady who checks you out every week at the grocery store, your mail deliverer, your neighbor from down the street with the nasty dog in the backyard — that make part of your life consistently unpleasant at times. You can’t avoid them and you can’t make them like you, so every unavoidable encounter is unpleasant or, at best, awkward.

For years, the Lord and I have been playing a game with these people. I talk to Him about them, and He gives me clues about how to win them over. When Jesus and I coax the first smile out of them, we have a wonderful celebration together. The first time they actually say something pleasant, we really whoop it up! Not so the person sees, of course — that might destroy all we’ve accomplished! — but in the privacy of my car on the way home.

Many years ago, this little game began between Jesus and me through my reading 2 Corinthians 3:15-16. “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?” I had read that passage in my morning devotions, not paying a lot of attention, frankly. Later that morning I was at the grocery store and a customer was really rude to me. I tried to be nice and not take offense at her, but I kept running into her and every encounter brought another rudeness. At the check-out, the clerk commented on this woman’s attitude (she had checked out just ahead of me). “Somebody needs to wash the stinky off her upper lip so she’ll stop turning up her nose at everyone!” the clerk said.

We both laughed and the tension was defused but the unpleasant woman was definitely still an irritation in my soul. On the way home I began to ask the Lord about her. He said, “To her, you stink. You have BO.” Instantly, I remembered my devotional reading and understood. The fragrance of Christ in me was a stench to her! I had Body odor (as in Body-of-Christ odor)! Fantastic! It wasn’t anything I had done that irritated her, it was Jesus in me. I smelled like His Body!

I was instantly inspired to begin targeting this woman with the love of Jesus — and the Lord was my co-conspirator. I began to run into her everywhere, and once noticed, I became an observer of her. I came to realize that she did not drive and that she was never with friends. I saw her pushing her little shopping cart along the roadside in all kinds of weather, so one day I stopped and offered her a ride to the grocery store. We got the cart into the trunk and her into the front seat, but I don’t think she said a single word on the drive to the store. I offered to meet her after our shopping and give her a ride home. Still no words, but she did give a yes-nod.

The giving of rides became a regular thing between us, but conversation has never taken place. Once I was given a sturdy metal cart that folded. I put it in my trunk and the next time I offered her a ride I gave it to her. That made the ride offers much easier for both of us, but I still, to this day, do not know her name!

This lady was the first of many who reacted to my BO and became the target of my Jesus Game. I shared it with Michael and he has become an avid player as well. We never push a relationship, but we do try to go a bit out of our way to express thoughtfulness to them. In fact, this game we play with Jesus actually requires that the more rudeness they show, the more love is required of us. Fun! There have been some amazing break-throughs! There was a “Customer Service” person in the Walmart to whom Michael was very gracious who ended up pouring out her heart and her troubles to him while he waited for me. She let him pray for her and even accepted his invitation to church. There was a surly bag-boy at the Big Star that I eventually had the privilege of praying with to accept Jesus.

Eventually, I moved away from the town where the cart lady lives and did not see her for several years. But a few weeks ago Michael and I were riding through that town and he pointed and said to me, “Isn’t that your old friend with the shopping cart?”

I looked where he pointed, and there on the corner, with the old folding shopping cart, was my rude friend, waving AND SMILING to catch my attention. It was the FIRST TIME I had seen that smile! Michael and I (and Jesus) had a grand celebration!

One of my beautiful daughters-in-law, Martha Margaret Cotten, posted this on her Facebook page a couple of months ago. I missed it somehow back then, but I just saw it on their family webpage and it touched me deeply. I expect it will impact you too so I decided to post it here.

I attended a funeral the other day for a beautiful sister in Christ whom I knew from childhood. She was a woman whose testimony was one of faithfulness in the face of suffering, of joy in the presence of despair, and of beauty in her fear of the Lord. It was so touching to see how many people loved her and were encouraged in their faith because of her.

It isn’t often that Catholics and Protestants talk to one another much less enjoy it! But while we lived at the coast we met a lovely couple who were Catholics. . . AND they were genuine, born-again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, believing and evangelizing Christians just like us. Charlie was our real estate agent. He prayed with us to find the right house and later prayed with us to sell it. Now, I had met Catholic Christians before, but these friends were my first experience with Christian Catholics who were as RADICAL in tgheir commitment to Christ as I was! I also found that they often experienced the same kind of bewilderment and misunderstanding from other, less radical Catholics that we experienced from other Protestants. We became close friends with Charlie and Lydia during the three years we lived in Carteret County and have continued the friendship ever since. That’s one more dividing wall broken down and shattered in my life!

Through Charlie and Lydia we met a friend of theirs, Father Ed Wade, a Catholic priest who is also a radical Christian. Ed’s heart really burns for unity in the Body of Christ as does ours. So while we were at the beach we formed an unofficial “coalition” for the purpose of fellowship, mutual support, and prayer for unity among believers. WE sponsored a few public meetings, but mostly we fellowshiped together. Our little group came from the most disparate of backgrounds. In fact, the one common denominator among us was radical commitment to Jesus Christ. There was Charlie and Lydia and Ed and us, plus a black Pentecostal apostle and his wife who is a pastor, and an Episcopal priest who had had to leave his denomination because of disagreement over the ordination of homosexuals (now THAT’s RADICAL Christianity!) and his wife. When we got together we rarely talked about the things that separate us, but majored on the things we have in common. Nothing was off-limits for conversation, but our hearts really reached out to one another in a genuine desire to know, love and support one another. I think we all grew as we fellowshiped together.

We still see all these old friends regularly — not as often as we would like because we are all busy, but enough to keep the relationships healthy and alive. In recent months, Father Ed has been able to host a weekly radio program on International Catholic Radio (Radio Maria) called “Thy Kingdom Come”. On it, Ed and a lovely Scottish woman named Elizabeth Pringle interview some of the most interesting people, including my hubby twice now. They had Michael to talk about Prophecy and it was fantastic! On the second program people called in from all over the place to ask questions about the gifts of the Spirit. There are Catholics out there who are hungry for the things of God! How awesome that He would allow us to be in one spreading the word among them!

This Thursday at 3PM Eastern Time I will be on the “Thy Kingdom Come” program on Radio Maria. I would encourage you to listen and to pray for us. And please give me your feed-back here or on Facebook. We will be discussing things from my book, In the Beginning on the topic of women and God’s vision for women. I had a marvelous time discussing this today with Elizabeth over Skype video. She is thoroughly delightful and I expect you will love her almost as much as I do already! You can find the program online by going to the Radio Maria website. When you get to the Homepage, click on the button for “Listen Live” and it will take you directly to the broadcast which will begin at 3 PM.