I Thirst For God...When Can I Go Stand Before Him?

The women here at Valleydale represent quite a wide variety of ages and stages in life.  We are a captivating group of single women, newlyweds, "veterans", and empty-nesters.  Some of us work outside the home while all of us work inside the home.  With all this diversity we still have some very important points in common.  We all have a long list of people demanding our time and attention to fulfill a never-ending list of responsibilities.  And though the specific demands and obligations change with each new stage, we remain victims of the vortex created by the warp-speed our society seems to demand of us.  In fact, there seems to be some unwritten law that the most successful woman is the one with the busiest schedule.

I love being a mother, and I have enjoyed each new stage, but I can remember as a young mother longing for the opportunity to actually speak complete sentences with other adult women - to enjoy the comaradarie of other females who were experiencing the same things I was experiencing or who at least understood and had words of advice.  But more than that I yearned for those extended times when I could just get still and quiet and listen for the still small voice of God without the madness of the world rushing in upon me.  Oh, I had my quiet times, but you know how it is.  The phone rings, the baby cries, the doorbell dings, the dryer buzzes....inevitably somebody NEEDS something RIGHT then no matter how early you try and get up to meet the mad rush. 

Our souls naturally long for that connection with God "like a deer pants for the stream".  We have to be diligent to nurture that relationship.  We have a wonderful opportunity at Valleydale to escape the vortex for awhile and feed that yearning we have deep in our souls to open up and have an intimate "heart to heart" experience with God.  There will be no ringing phones or crying babies or buzzing dryers...just you and God communing one to one...heart to heart.  While "life" pulls us in a thousand different directions, He YEARNS for that quality quiet time with YOU - to listen to YOU, to speak to YOU...

We have that opportunity here at Valleydale on January 20-21 when  we have our in-house women's conference called AWAKEN: A Heart to Heart with God.  You don't have to pay for a hotel.  You don't have to pay for gas to drive a long distance.  All you have to do is leave the kids with hubby (he can handle it!  He's tough and intelligent!) and come and enjoy that intimate time with God.  You an go home at night and make sure the house is still standing if you want, or you can bunk out at someone else's house and get a good night's sleep!  Because that is another huge perk about the weekend - you get quality fellowship with other women who speak complete, intelligent sentences!  lol 

I want to leave you with one thought.  The theme verse for the weekend is Psalm 42:2

"I thirst for God, the living God.  When can I go and stand before him?"  

Well, any time, of course.  But January 20-21 is a great opportunity for some quality time to quench that thirst.  I hope to see you there - for the weekend just won't be the same without YOU!

by Robin Kelley

Awaken: A Heart to Heart with God

This is an awkward blog post for me to write.  Over at my own blog, I've talked about the conference in passing several times.  Before the Valleydale women's retreat last year, God started repeating to me the word coffee in an unusual way.  And through that, I met Nikol because her blog is Coffee with Christ.  In the meantime, I was in the Beth Moore David study at church when God called me to write and to speak.  God had previously called me to ministry but I wasn't really doing ministry other than writing on my blog.  God had some things to teach me first.  Anyhow, I shared with Amy Harris that Nikol and I were being called to do some women's ministry together.  Through all of those events, we all discerned that God was calling us to write and to speak at the upcoming women's conference in January.  Nikol posted some great posts about it here and here.

Nikol and I are excited about the work God is doing and has been doing in us for almost a year now in preparation for this conference.  We expect God to move in mighty ways because we've been seeing Him move mightily already.  It started with Nikol hearing the word awaken, and then I thought we would look into men in the Bible who are literally awakened or had their eyes opened and that's how God showed us what material we are to teach.

The theme verse for the conference is "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?" (Psalm 42:2), because we believe God wants to awaken our unquenchable thirst for Him and that He is going to meet with us during the conference weekend.  We are excited to see what He does.  We hope ladies are awakened to His covering as we look at Noah, His voice as we look at Samuel, His presence as we look at Jacob, His battle as we look at Elisha, and His peace as we look at Jesus and the disciples.

 We will see how God promises us this:

"The LORD your God is with you (presence),
   he is mighty to save (battle).
He will take great delight in you (covering),
   he will quiet you with his love (peace),
   he will rejoice over you with singing (voice).”

Zephaniah 3:17

 
Make plans to join us for this exciting weekend!
January 20-21, 2012

We will have food, fun, 5 learning sessions, 4 breakout sessions (a chance to meet new people), some quiet time on our own, games, and worship, all while leaving the kids and housework at home for a few hours. 

Don't miss this opportunity to have a Heart to Heart with God!

Jamie Harper