Friday afternoon Randy dropped Alicia and me off at church and we set out with nine other women for a thirty-hour adventure – attending the Extraordinary Women conference in Pensacola. I have attended Women of Faith conferences, but had never heard of this organization, so I was interested to see the differences between the two.
We arrived at our hotel around 4:15pm, got checked into our rooms and headed right back out to grab some dinner at a Mexican restaurant next door to the hotel. You know it's a lively dinner when you have eleven women at one table! :) We didn't have much time to enjoy a leisurely meal as we needed to get to the civic center for the first session of the conference.
Friday night's session consisted of a very powerful first person dramatization by Joe White about the man who built the cross on which Jesus was crucified. At the end of his session many, many women accepted Jesus' gift of salvation. It was very moving. There were three musical performances, the only who I'd ever heard of was MercyMe. And they were very good – on-your-feet, clapping, good.
Some of our group
Teresa, Alicia & me 
Saturday morning started early; we were supposed to be ready to leave by 7:20. The first session began at 8:30 and it was going to be a long day. Again, I had only heard of one of the speakers, Candace Cameron Bure. She played DJ Tanner on the show, “Full House.” For the day there were five speaker sessions in all. That's a lot! My favorites were Angela Thomas and Lysa TerKeurst. They were very witty, thought-provoking and kept my attention.
The final speakers were Kim & Krickett Carpenter, who inspired the movie, “The Vow.” Unfortunately because they were the last speakers of the day, they did not get my full attention as I was about brain-dead by then. And I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Our group felt like the conference should have ended about an hour earlier than it did. So, I do not want to disparage the Carpenters, as their story is a moving one, but I sure didn't get much out of it.
We left Pensacola about 5pm and headed home, stopping for dinner at Cracker Barrel. We got back to the church a little past 8pm. Randy picked Alicia and me up and we headed back to the park.
All in all, I enjoyed the conference and gained more insight into my walk with Jesus. I was also able to get to know some of the women in the church better. And Alicia and I got to spend time together. Win, win, win all around!
Today has been a typical Sunday for us. Church this morning; lazy afternoon, then church this evening.
Tomorrow begins our last week here in Bonifay. We're both working most days, but hopefully taking Thursday to do a little sightseeing with Andy and Alicia. I'm sure the week is gonna fly by.
Until the next time . . .
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