What an amazing weekend! I had the amazing privilege to take some dear friends (really wish I could have taken a LOT more of my friends but it was sold out and I was lucky to get as many tickets as I did) to a women’s conference at my mom’s church. This is the second annual one (with Ann speaking) and this year it was also a part of the big In RL worldwide conference.
(sorry for some slightly blurry pictures, I used a small point and shoot camera that I am not used to)
Our group of about 125 people was so blessed to have Ann Voscamp as our speaker since this is her home church. She was SO good!
As usual I was in tears more than once….. LOL
The topic of the inRL conference was “Staying in Community” and Ann talked about being a real friend.
How God uses community to heal us from the pain we have from bad community.
Even though it can be really scary to make friendships with women because we can be so hurt by other women, we desperately need each other to heal and grow and learn and just have fun.
During the talk we each took a small rock from a pile on our tables and wrote down one or two things that is holding us back in our friendships with other women. Rocks that we use to build up walls….insecurity, fear, past hurt, brokenness, were just a few of the things written down. On our way out we were encouraged to take a rock or a bunch of them and throw them into the pond beside the church.
It was really a neat thing to do I thought. There was a lot of cool symbolism in holding two rocks that are holding back my sisters in Christ and to throw them as far as i could where the water would wash away the words and the rocks would be gone for good. 
Oh, ya. And we had to be super nerdy and get our pictures taken with Ann. 🙂
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my2monsters 
Nice! I’m glad you took pictures. Ok, so when’s the next girly getaway?
Come with us to the Beth Moore one in Sept, plan it now. 🙂 Before that I don’t know, I’ll have to keep my ears open for another one. 🙂
So glad you girls could come! I missed a lot of it . . . but then I got to work with your mom in the kitchen which is always a treat. 🙂 Bloom has been a ladies event that has been in existence for several years. We’ve been blessed by Ann who has graciously spoke this year and last.
oh ok. I guess my mom has only helped for 2 years that I know of. 🙂 Thanks for the work you did Deanna!
What an honor to spend (in)RL in real life with Ann and so many women in one place! And nerdy? Well – I would have been right there with ya! I love the visual and actual practice of the rocks and releasing… reminds me of Jennifer Dukes Lee’s post today too!
I’ll have to look for that post! Yes, I loved it! I thought it was a fantastic idea.
I bet that was so much fun!!! I went to the Northern VA (in)RL meet up with my sister and was excited to meet Lisa-Jo Baker and several other women I really enjoy reading. It was such a cool event, and I can’t wait for next year. I love the idea of the rocks… very smart.
It’s so fun that all over North America women were meeting up to talk about the same stuff! I can’t wait for next year either!! 🙂