The Conference is Over, but the Community Lives On!

It's Saturday morning and I had my first good sleep in about two weeks, so I'm feeling great! Not just about the sleep, but mostly about the experience of the last two and a half days! When we started this journey together on Wednesday, I had only imagined what it was going to be like to be in one room, all worshiping, learning and growing together. It was better than I ever dreamed! I watched the video highlights from each session this morning and smiled through every one. My friend Dave, did a great job capturing the moments and editting them together. I'm marvelling at our good God's blessing on every aspect. I sat through the confernce reflecting on the planning meetings and Nancy's leadership during the development and brainstorming, the ideas that came from our producer Sherri and the members of the planning team and I am in awe of how God used each and everyone. Just another reminder of what Erwin said to all of us...that God has created us to write stories...it may look like scribble at first, but the artistry and poetry is His gift to us. I'm humbled by the commitment and dedication of the "Online Team" that came together to do what had not been done before at a Willow conference. This whole event was a HUGE team effort...Ops, Marketing, IS, Customer Service and the hundreds of volunteers...I'm so grateful for each one and would love you to meet them all. One of my favorite things has been reading all the comments. Thank you so much for your openness and honesty. We're taking seriously all that you say and we'll learn and grow from it. Thanks for sharing, so personally, some of your challenges, that authenticy helps all who read to identify our own challenges. It was even fun to see that some of you went beyond what happened online and met up with each other. This is a great start to a community that will keep going beyond this event. We appreciate you! Now that you're home and have had some time to process, what impacted you the most at this year's Arts Conference? What do you want to make sure we keep doing or stop doing? What are some of your favorite memories that are lingering on? Let's keep the conversation going!