All Access 2011

This past week our church staff attended the ARC All Access Conference in Baton Rouge, LA.  All Access is a conference for church planters, those that want to plant a church, or those that want to link up with the churches in the ARC.  It is packed full of amazing speakers...men & women that have endured the struggles and joys of planting a church.  It is one of those conferences that you wish so desperately that you could put into words, but no words could ever express what this conference does for you.  We left there greatly encouraged.  We left with a deeper unity throughout our staff.  We left with more tools to reach our community and see it changed for the Kingdom of God.

Our church secretary working hard during the conference!

Another reason that this conference was special was because the founder & president of the ARC, Billy Hornsby, had just passed away a couple of weeks before the conference.  He was able to record a video speaking to us before he passed.  His opening line was, "If you're watching this then that most likely means that I'm with the Lord."  I'm not sure that there was a dry-eye in the place.  Even in his last days, he was thinking of others and encouraging others to keep persevering in the work that the Lord has for them.

I know that I could go on & on about the conference, but I'm struggling to find words to describe it best.  So I'll just move on to the fun things that happened.  

First up...our hotel.  We were the first from our team to arrive.  We walked around the mall, ate, I got a pedicure, and then we returned to our hotel.  My husband goes to pick up a coffee cup to pour some water in it.  And what to his wondering eyes did appear but.....a bag of weed.  Yes.  WEED.  My husband joked and said that it was an answer to prayer about 15 years too late.  We were kind of freaked out about it.  We did the only thing we knew to do and we flushed it down the toilet.  

Second...the great Mississippi River.  Our friends, Tony & Fabiola (parents of our son's best friend & the children's pastors), had never seen the Mississippi River.  We took the opportunity on the morning before the conference to go down to the Mississippi.  We walked around Baton Rouge and enjoyed all of the historic architecture.  Then we found a hole-in-the-wall Cajun restaurant.  I'm not a fan of Cajun food but everybody else is.  They enjoyed some stuffed crab and gumbo.  I enjoyed a small meal only so that I could really enjoy my dessert of Mississippi Mud pie.

Mississippi Mud!

Tony & Fabiola at the river.

Us in front of the former governor's mansion.

On Wednesday night of the conference, Healing Place Church held their famous Cajun after party; equipped with crawfish, beignets, gumbo, a ferris wheel, fireworks, and of course, episodes of "Swamp People".  It was a great party!  It literally stunk...because I hate the smell of crawfish.  But it was fun!  

Sucking some crawfish.

The beignets were gone in 10 minutes.

Sadly, I have to kiss this face after he's kissed that crawfish.

Westgate Staff!

The BEST part about All Access was seeing our precious Trisha!  She was in our youth group and is now a part of Highlands College.  She was there, with all of the ARC interns, serving.  She worked hard setting up and tearing down and ushering.  She sat with us as much as she could.  I cherish every single moment that I have with this girl.  She is my jewel!

After the conference was over, my husband & I went to Pensacola, FL for a couple of days of R&R.  My husband spent 3 years there for bible school.  We lived there together for 10 months after we got married so that he could finish bible school and the internship.  Everywhere we drove & looked held a memory; anything from street signs to restaurants to our first home to  Brownsville AoG to Gospel Lighthouse.  It was crazy!  

For now, this is the memory that I would like to keep eternally in my dreams.

Pensacola Beach!

SWEET DREAMS!