conference creating

Well, welcome to April! Wow, where did March go? I guess I missed it whizzing by in all my busyness. I think things are returning to normal this week...our conference is over, all projects for said conference are over and done with (though, I still haven't unpacked...my clothes or bins of 'extra' stuff I had dragged along) so I do have that aftermath to look forward to. But overall, I kind of feel a little bit of relief to get back to some routine. I do feel sort of bad that all my kids lost their day off today to make up the many snow days they had this winter, but I'm sure they will survive. And I'd rather make it up now than being going to school til the 4th of July!!

Anyway, I thought today I'd give you an idea of what I've been doing these past weeks of going AWOL here.

I was asked to be part of the creative team to help plan our church network's international leaders' conference. Part of what we did was decorate the stage area and create the banner for a backdrop to the stage. The theme this year was Pursuing Our Destiny. Here's an overall shot of the stage, though I obviously took it from way to far away.
Closer shot of the banner:
Flower arrangement for the final night's celebration:
One of the more major projects that I had was to create a contemplative prayer chapel. We made stations where people could stop and meditate, pray, and sometimes had an 'interactive' type thing to do. Each station had various things to look at, touch, smell, taste, etc. to help people to focus on various aspects of the scripture passages we had based the 'prayer journey' on. We used these verses - Psalm 84:5-7 and divided them into sections, each represented by a different station.

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. (represented by 'journey' items)

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, (represented by desert and brokenness; Baca means 'weeping' or 'barrenness')
they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. (represented by a garden, including live plants and a flowing water fountain)
7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. (represented by a 'throne room')
The chapel was a lot of work, but I had many people who helped - contributing ideas, items for me to use, clean up and just generally making themselves available - I couldn't have done it all myself (THANKS GUYS!), but I have to admit I did have fun. I really, really enjoy this kind of creative stuff. And it's a double blessing to get to hear how so many people appreciated their time in there and how they were blessed to be able to meet with God in that space. So, all in all, totally worth it! And by the way, the tall paintings at each station were done by my friend (and part of our leadership team), Ang. She's an amazing artist - as you can see. And the paintings were done on the closet doors I took out of the kids' bedrooms last summer! And the 'throne' was a hideous chair my sis and I found at a thrift store back in the fall and she repainted and reupholstered to create this throne for their poinsettia show at Christmas! (Gotta love recycling!)

And now, speaking of routine, there's children to be dressed, lunches to be packed, etc., etc. so I better keep moving!! So glad to be back!!

I linked this up to DIY Day at