I found out about this conference from my friend, Laura Wilcox ~ pictured in the middle here.  Laura was the first Bible study leader I had in college at the University of Texas 22 years ago.  Laura had connected with the founders of PURE through her ministry with Campus Crusade and Priority Associates.  Laura led one of the breakout sessions on the topic of the pure heart.  She also recently published a Bible study entitled Capture my Heart, Lord.  (The pretty red-headed lady on the right is a childhood friend of Laura’s ~ also a blast from her past!)

 It was especially fun to meet Margery ~ one of my sister’s friends who went along with us and shared a room.  What a special lady she is, and how fun it was to talk food, theology, and men with her!  🙂

 I think the highlights of the conference were hearing from three women in particular.  Lysa TerKeurst spoke three times on the topic of saying yes to God.  Her testimony is an incredible account of Christ’s ability to redeem women from the sins of promiscuity and abortion as well as a religion of rule-following. She was extremely funny and yet incredibly passionate in her relationship with the Lord.  Her story of how the Lord led her and her husband to adopt two teenage boys from Liberia (while parenting three young biological daughters) was so precious and miraculous.

Another woman was Lisa Luby Ryan ~ a prominent interior decorator and community leader in Dallas, TX.  I was in awe of her bravery in telling her story ~ one of extremely horrific childhood sexual abuse, multiple abortions, forsaking a husband and children through adultery, and THEN the redeeming and restorative power of Christ after it all.  Absolutely heart wrenching and beautiful all at the same time.  You can see her and hear some of her story here.

Allison Shigo did a short presentation during the Global Ministry session of the conference.  Her love for film making, but her restlessness over the worldliness of the business led her to leave a job with a production company(hostile and anti-faith atmosphere), take a job with a documentary company (“at least these stories would be true”), which led to her coming across a Times article and National Geographic feature on obstetric fistula. The documentary that she produced, called A Walk to Beautiful, on this African epidemic led her to begin a ministry to the women who suffer from it called Healing Hands of Joy.  The work she now does there with the women in Ethiopia is truly beautiful.

My one regret from the weekend is this:

 

I missed one of Cooper’s basketball games and his first points scored in a game.  And it wasn’t just one basket he made ~ it was THREE, one of which was a three pointer!  I kept getting text messages like this:  Coop just scored.  Then a few minutes later: Scored again.  And finally: 3 pointer for Coop! Fortunately, Robert got it on video via his Blackberry, and sent it to us at the resort.  And yes, that would be my husband whooping and hollering in the background noise!