Our Experience at the Dallas Rebelution (Update: Pictures)

Go HERE to see pictures of the VIVIT band and members of Legacy Baptist Church at the conference.

The bloggers that I got to visit with at the conference include Connie, from Practicing Theology. Connie's husband is an elder at Dennis Gundersen's Church. My husband and I use to go to that church and I was baptized by my husband there. It is a church that we thought we would get to go back to when Jon was done with residency, but obviously God had other plans. We are now very honored to worship and serve the Lord at Legacy Baptist Church and we are grateful to the Lord for directing our footing there. We do still love to hear of the encouraging things the Lord is accomplishing at GBC in Tulsa, so it was a joy to see Connie and her family there. It was such a joy, that when I turned around and saw her husband and one of their daughters at the pool in the same hotel we were in, I squealed with delight... to the point that Connie's husband thought someone was panicking because his daughter was drowning. oopsy. We were sitting poolside with our pastor, our neighbor and other friends from church, so they all got to witness this squeal. One of those moments you can't take back. My husband's justification for this outburst to our pastor... "My wife loves people."
I remember meeting Connie's daughters for the first time after they adopted them from Russia. Two beautiful girls that have grown so much. You can read about this precious adoption story HERE. Connie and her husband are very calm people... and apparently I... squeal with delight like a kid in a candy store when I unexpectedly see people that I use to go to church with and have prayed fervently for and with.
I also got to meet Kim from Lifesong. Very sweet lady with beautiful daughters. I did not have a camera, but thankfully Connie and Kim did, so they had someone take a picture of all three of us together. This pic was taken near the end of the day-long conference... so I was very tired (thankfully too tired to squeal. That was embarrassing), but all of us were very encouraged by the message proclaimed. Kim is someone I have been longing to meet. She has some great stories and testimonies on her blog, so make sure you check it out. She is also, I think, in the process of adopting a girl from China.

Before the conference began, the young adults from VIVIT and Legacy Baptist Church decided that they wanted to sit up front. I had no idea that they would all get seats front row center stage. I was up there talking with them and one of the kids asked me how to sign "Do Hard Things"... so while I was in the middle of teaching them, Gregg Harris approaches. He talked with me about signing and how sometimes there is organized signing for their events, and other times it is unorganized. He told me of how his wife sometimes signs songs and then asked if I would feel comfortable being an interpreter for them. I told him if there was a need I would sit by the person in need, but my signing abilities are limited. I am too slow to be an interpreter and would likely come across as frustrating to a deaf person and offensive to professional interpreters. I could, however, sit by them and explain why I am slow and give them the gist of the message, as long as they knew of my limitations.
That's the thing. Sometimes doing hard things is knowing your limitations. I do sign songs, and as much as I love sign language and know a lot of this beautiful language to get by conversationally, I am not equipped to do it in such manner, no matter how hard I tried or how badly I would want to, to communicate quickly enough. Part of the hindrance for me in this language is not so much lack of knowledge, but physical pain in my hands that we think is from the Multiple Sclerosis. There is ongoing pain that seems to keep me from rapid finger spelling, but there are also times my hands cramp so severely that I cannot move them. This happens unexpectedly and I can often hide it well enough from others so they have no idea. If I were signing... how could I hide it?
One time at church, I couldn't hide it. My pride welled up as I had no choice but to ask for help. My son does not get why I am so prideful about this. Honestly, it is rather stupid. I really do not like others seeing me in pain. Anyway, every Sunday after church at Legacy, we eat lunch together. That is why I often post recipes for Sunday lunch. I was holding my girls plates in line, heaped with food and my hand suddenly cramped. Oh God, not now. People might see. I was about to drop the plates, so I turned to a lady that I barely knew. With tears in my eyes, I asked for help. My hand immediately seized up and I could not open it. I tried to sit down and hide it from everyone. Hard to do when everyone is use to seeing me help my children. The pain was intense. I was stripped of my pride. I needed to be stripped of my pride.

Anyway, about the conference. Brett talked about how he wished he could be a conductor of an orchestra... but he knew that God had gifted him in other areas. Being an orchestra conductor is a hard thing... he would love to do it, but instead of focusing on what he could not do, he would focus on what God has gifted him with and do hard things for the glory of God in the way God has equipped him. They had so many excellent things to say to the young adults and to the older ones. Inspiring truths, in my opinion, that they would have not been able to receive as well from us older folks. Stuff we all needed to hear.
Truly the whole conference was a sweet aroma in the nostrils of our holy and mighty Heavenly Father. I want so badly to tell you every word. Especially about the presentation of the Gospel by The twins' dad. Excellent. The music by their older brother was beautiful and God-honoring as well. I could not do it all justice in my mere words. However, I do want to encourage you to get the CD's of one of their conferences or make it a point to go. There are only two more left.

One more thing. Alex and Brett had book give-aways through-out the conference. My boys ended up with three of them. I will post more later about which 3 they got. One of them was "Worship Matters" and the other two are from the same author. One of these three books I bought several copies of and gave to the other VIVIT band members, and two other families from our church. Again, I will elaborate later. Still tired.