Founders Ellen Miller & Marilyn Lane.
Wow, what a weekend the good Lord prepared for us! (along with a little help from His friends.)
The Christ Our Life Conference was truly a blessed Miracle of Grace. When Covid-19 hit back in February, it never occurred to us that we would still be dealing with it after spring break, much less in September.
But as the months went by, and Satan put roadblock after roadblock in our path, it became clear that if the COL conference was going to take place, it would only by the grace of our good God.
The team had been working on the conference since right after the 2018 Christ Our Life Conference, and we very much wanted it to happen, but in prayer we continually put the outcome in the Lord’s hands. We chose to submit to the will of God, and the will of our dear Bishop Joensen.
And boy did God ever come through!
Things looked a bit different this year. Instead of the 7000+ people at the actual conference we had in 2018, we sold 2059 in person tickets. And in addition to those present at Wells Fargo Arena, we estimate that we had up to 4000 people viewing via livestream, making this conference available worldwide.
Two of our international attendees
We had people from 12 countries and from 4 continents attending the conference via livestream: the US, UK, Ireland, Scotland, France, Brazil, Malta, Malawi, Spain, Croatia, Trinidad Tobago, and Canada.
If we had not had Covid-19, who knows how long it would have taken for us to take the leap to livestream this conference. Moving forward, this will be an international conference. Is God good or what?!
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
There were so many graces this weekend. Did you see the gift of the sun disappearing and reappearing in the video below taken by one of our attendees? Amazing.
And one of our attendees reported that in the adoration chapel, she witnessed floating orbs above our Lord in the monstrance. Could this possibly be manifestations of angels?
These are just two of the countless graces reported to us.
Sr. Miriam James, SOLT
Every one of the speakers gave us something unique, and everyone seemed to deliver exactly what we need to hear.
One of the prevailing messages that came through for me was “Do not be afraid, God has this.” Another one was how much God loves me, and you, and every single one of us. Steve Angrisano said something that really hit home. He didn’t say it this way exactly, but here is what my heart heard: “The people on the other side of the chaos are not our enemies, they are hostages of the enemy.” That re-framed what is going on in our world in such a loving and realistic way.
The livestream option was not problem-free. Most of the difficulties had to do with attendees’ individual connection, but not all. We had a problem on Saturday night when the internet connection to Wells Fargo went down. Thank you for your grace and patience. We are grateful.
We have some exciting news.
This is the first post in a blog we are calling Christ Our Life Everyday. We want to use this blog to stay in touch with you weekly and as a means to support and lift each other up between now and 2022. We all know, in our heart of hearts, that we are going to need that support more than ever.
Do you have any insights or experiences you would like to share with us? Please leave them in the comment field below. We would love to hear from you.
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