Back in April, Lisa and I had the pleasure of attending a women’s conference at Shades Mountain Baptist church in Birmingham.  We came home with dreams of hosting our own conference at TBC.

Fast forward three months, several Starbucks meetings, even more phone calls and emails later and our dream became reality.  Saturday night, TBC hosted it’s first ever Women’s Conference.

Originally, I wanted to call it Wrecked, just because I thought it would be super funny to introduce it by singing “He came in like a wwrrreccking ballllllll.”  My humor is debatable.

We decided on Unraveled, because that is exactly our prayer.  That women would become unraveled for Jesus and His kingdom.  We prayed that God would rain down His presence on the ladies in attendance and light a fire that could not be put out.  It’s time for us to DO SOMETHING.

One of the first things we did (after getting the green light from our pastor) was contact Emily Fox, co-founder of Forget the Frock, about speaking.  The Forget the Frock movement encourages people, specifically at Easter, to purchase a t-shirt instead of a fancy frock (aka Easter outfit).  All proceeds from the t-shirts go to feed orphans in Africa through the organization Feeding the Orphans.  (Feeding the Orphans does so much more than just feeding orphans, though.  Visit their website to find out more!)

So we have Emily, we have some friends from our area-Grant and Angela-for worship, and we set up a chocolate fountain and coffee bar for snacks.  Then we prayed like crazy people. 🙂

Saturday night, after months of dreaming and praying, God showed up.  From the ladies in attendance to the worship to Emily’s testimony, everything was on point.  If a lady left there without feeling God’s call to do something for His kingdom, she was having trouble with her hearing.

A few highlights from Emily:

• There are hurting people everywhere.  While she and her organization deal largely with women and children in Africa, we could find something closer to home.  The point isn’t necessarily what you do for the Kingdom, but that you listen to God’s call, say yes to Him, and do something.
• There are tons of reputable companies out there selling everyday items–clothes, jewelry, bags, shoes–and using the profits to do good.  Purchasing with a purpose.  We have to BUY those things anyways, so why not buy from these companies?  You can find some of these companies here and here.  I’m also working on a permanent list to go in my header, so check back soon!

Emily brought along merchandise from Better Life Bags and Feeding the Orphans, so we were able to shop, snack, and fellowship after she shared her heart.

You guys, we have got to become doers of the word.  James 2:26 says ‘faith apart from works is dead.’   Christianity isn’t just going to church and hearing a sermon and serving ourselves.  Our job is to go out, help those in need and spread Christ’s love.  And our world needs more of that now than it ever has.