A day at Maranatha

Friday, July 26:  It's been 20+ years since I have been out to Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference Center, and NEVER have I been here to actually participate in an event. However, a few weeks ago, I received an email from the Women's Ministry at Calvary inviting me (and others) to come out for the day to attend the Women's Summer Breakaway session ...

I'm not sure WHY I hesitated to sign up immediately ... perhaps it has something to do with my background with Christian camps, meetings, doings ... I don't have a very positive memory of much of that. But for some reason, I felt God wanted me to come today ... so I signed up and accepted a carpool from church for transportation there and back.  

 I met a new lady today by the name of ELLEN. She and her family have been coming to Calvary now for close to four years. She works as a part-time receptionist over at WCSG. What a nice person she turned out to be! How fun to get acquainted with her a little bit. She grew up in Livonia (so did I--between the ages of 5 and 11) and we found we had a lot in common. Plus, I carpooled with Susan S., a person I greatly admire and appreciate (she drove), along with my former Monday Night Bible study leader, Mary June. It was a nice drive, a beautiful day, and I found myself relaxing and enjoying the time. 

These pictures do not show ANYTHING of what my actual day looked like. Maranatha has 80 acres that border Lake Michigan, but the actual conference is perhaps a quarter mile inland, which was where we spent most of the day. We took a little "jaunt" out to see the big Lake before our sessions began, as well as during lunch. 

The key speaker today was JILL BRISCOE and although I had heard of her and knew she authored quite a few books and was a well-known women's speaker, I had never read a word she had written nor had I ever heard her speak! She was a real joy to listen to. She is 84, was born and raised in Liverpool, England, has traveled extensively all over the world, and has stories coming out of her ears! I could have listened for hours.

Jill's main thrust in her talks today, however, was PRAYER during tough times. How do we draw near to God during times of indescribable grief and discouragement? Don't we usually distance ourselves from God at times like these? Don't the questions arise about "Where are you, God?" I loved hearing her journey of faith and her struggles. She was very real. 

She gave a simple outline for praying, P = PRAISE. Praise God for WHO HE IS in what He allows. Even when we do not understand. Even when it seems like God has abandoned us. We need to realize and thank God that HE DOES UNDERSTAND. Remember how Jesus prayed to His Father in the garden? Remember how Hebrews describes Jesus' desperate cries that night when He asked if there could be some other way to save us? R = Repent. She referred to these are our "sorry prayers." We need a lot more of these! A = Ask for OTHERS, which we do pretty regularly, without much difficulty, but not always accompanied by faith. It helps if we go to God's Word and KNOW His promises to remind Him about. It also helps to know that GOD'S SPIRIT is praying along with us when we do not know HOW to pray (Romans 8:26). Y = Yourself. In that exact order. But we reverse it pretty regularly and never DO get to the "sorry prayers" or the "praise prayers" for that matter. 

Jill's talk centered around the Prophet Elijah, and how God provided for him in an extremely difficult situation. This was super cool, since Emma and I will begin our study of Elijah over the weekend, and I have been studying him all week! Thank you, Lord, for the insights gained today about Elijah through Jill's teaching!

PS  Look up on amazon this title: "Spurgeon's Letters to his Students," a book that Jill recommended.