Report Back: Growing in the Word Conference

If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information, or to find an upcoming event near you!
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What a pleasure it was to fellowship with the wonderful women of Lindale, Texas, and the surrounding area at First Baptist Church’s Growing in the Word women’s conference in November. FBC’s pastor Tom Buck and his wife, Jennifer are dear friends, so it was great to get to see them again.

When an event is only a few hours away from home, my husband, Scott, usually drives me. We took a nice, leisurely drive into Lindale.

It’s sugar cane season in south Louisiana. We used to serve a church that sat pretty much in the middle of a bunch of cane fields. I miss driving through them.

Stopping at Billy’s (think of it as a small, Cajun Buc-ee’s) when we’re in the area is always a treat.
A girl’s got to have her crawfish pie!

We arrived Friday afternoon to get settled into the hotel, and were greeted by these lovely hostess gifts. This gorgeous cutting/charcuterie board is from Gum Creek Cutting Boards. They have been on my Holy Holidays list of Christian-owned businesses for a couple of years now, and they do beautiful work. (I almost want to hang it on the wall as art instead of using it!) The little thingies that look like marshmallows are actually aromatherapy shower steamers – kind of like bath bombs, but for the shower.

Tom and Jen took us out for an amazing dinner of Texas barbecue, and then this happened.

I had the peanut butter fudge. Which one looks good to you?

Saturday morning, it was conference time. (No audio/video available.) FBC has an amazing and versatile multi-purpose space across the street from the church, and it was perfectly suited for the conference.

My husband dropped me off so he could go do manly stuff elsewhere, and the ladies had a brief time of fellowship and breakfast before things got kicked off.

Sonya did a marvelous job as our emcee, and Lydia was a great worship leader!

Our first teaching session was Holy Mothers (and others) of God’s Word. We took a look at several women of Scripture and how they exemplified holiness to us. God gave us some superb examples in women like Anna, Naomi, Mary and Martha, and others, and we would do well to follow in their footsteps.

After a short break, it was time for Practical Holiness. It’s one thing to talk about holiness. It’s another thing to do holiness at 9:13 a.m. on a Tuesday when you’re at work or taking care of your family. How do we live lives of holiness every day?

Lunch time! The conference team put out a lovely spread of chicken salad croissants a charcuterie platter and other goodies.

When we reassembled, we switched gears from holiness to hospitality.

Hospitality: Welcoming Others as Christ Welcomes Us was first on the agenda. Hospitality doesn’t mean having twelve people over for a fancy dinner on fine china. It’s a posture of heart that welcomes others in because Christ first welcomed us.

Our final session was Practicing Hospitality. We had studied what the Bible teaches about hospitality in our first session, but how should we go about putting it into practice?

During the course of the conference, there were several drawings for door prizes. I thought the planning team organized it in a really fun way. At registration, each lady received five slips of paper with her name on them and she could place them in the baskets for the various prizes as she liked – all of them in one basket, one each in five different baskets or some other split of her choice.

Our hearts were full and it was all over but the picture taking.

It was so fantastic to see my sisters Sonya and Jen again. I love the family of God.❤️

Thanks so much to Tracy and Ky for taking us out for a farewell dinner at this fun place. They had Monte Cristo sandwiches, one of my faves!

A heartwarming ending to an outstanding weekend – we stayed over and worshiped with the saints at FBC Lindale on Sunday. Tom is an excellent expositor.

It was such a wonderful weekend with the ladies of First Baptist, Lindale. Thanks so much to Tom and Jen and all the other brothers and sisters of FBC for making us feel right at home. Thanks also to all the men and women who worked so hard to host a fantastic conference, and extended such warm hospitality to us. If you’re ever in the area and need a good church to visit, make plans to spend the Lord’s Day with these wonderful brothers and sisters.

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If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information, or to find an upcoming event near you!

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Photo Credits

Many thanks to all of the conference attendees who took or shared many of the photos above. You may assume that if I’m in the picture or if it’s a good quality photo that I didn’t take it. The remaining photos were shot by me.