Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Up Date

Well ladies retreat is past, our two night revival is past, and Sister Connie has gone home. I hope she made it back safely and without incident as I dropped her off at the airport last night at 11:30 pm for her flight to leave out at 1:30 am. She gave so much of herself. At ladies retreat she taught a class on "The 'Spirit' of a Godly Woman" and it was awesome. Then her messages held so much for us to let go of. There were a lot of tears. She shared a scripture in Daniel about how satan desires to wear you down. That's the way I felt the ladies came to retreat, worn down, physically, emotionally and some spiritually. We took in a lot, but I'm not confident that there was complete victory in the place. The enemy fought her with exhaustion the first night and then by last night with coughing spasms while preaching. She preached some real heavy messages. Full of warnings, especially last night. Their was a spiritual battle going on in that place. I felt the enemy coming against my mind but my heart was responding to the Spirit (if that makes any sense). The warnings were soooo strong but we watched the faces as some fought the conviction and left the same. Lord help the souls.

On the lighter side...Sister Connie is hilarious. We roomed together and Friday night she was soooo exhausted and she says when she's really tired she snores. Yeah and he means she snores. It was hilarious...I slept rotten as I had been on my feet so much that day that my hips hurt so I kept waking up and she was snoring really loud, but the woman never changed position in her bed. About 3 am she must have gotten into a deep sleep as all of a sudden the snoring stopped.

Then her preaching. Between her bib and apron message and her literally STANDING on all the way up on Jenna's lap, her helping me with my rock collecting during my class on "God, Can I Go Home Now?", and her pulling Brother Nowling up to the altar by his tie... She really leaves visual impressions with everything she does.

This woman doesn't only help you take care of the inward man; but she does the outward man. Perms are so expensive here, I cut my hair real short and was trying to go straight, but I really wasn't liking it, so she volunteered to give me a perm. It didn't take long at all and she did a wonderful job. We did it after church Sunday night and we had invited whoever wanted to come for pizza ahd ice cream, so the guys were experiencing the lovely fragrance. After she got it done, Joleesa gave her a facial and did her eyebrows. This was total relaxation for her with her green mask and cucumbers on her eyes.

God blessed us by having this Godly woman come to Alaska. God used her to give us much meat to chew on. I hope we all apply the Truth that she spoke to our lives. Pray for Alaska.

5 comments:

Vicki Smith said...

So glad to hear the report on your Retreat. All who know her, know Sister Connie is a mess. But WHAT A BLESSING! She just is who she is. She's got an amazing ability to bring visual aids to her messages that will stick with you forever. She really gets her point across. But just so you know, she SAYS she snores when she's really tired but she's ALWAYS really tired! *tee hee* But she can snore in my presence anytime--I love her so much.

Tammy Washburn said...

When Sis. Connie taught at our Family Camp, she had ALL ages sitting on the edge of their seats and her revival at our church was wonderful!

J Nowling said...

She kept apologizing for snoring and I told her she is in the other bed and had her back to me the WHOLE night (hey should I take offense at that ~ grin) therefore making her not as loud as my husband.

She is definitely as precious as they come and genuine. As she was teaching her class she kept saying she was learning things too, and you could tell.

The women and our local church were truly blessed to have her. And I forgot to say how I was glad to have the chance to get to know the ladies more.

Pam said...

Sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I just love Sister Connie. She has been a big blessing to my family and myself. She is like another mother to me.

Juls4Him said...

Sister Connie is truly one of a kind. Usually one of her shoes ends up flying from the front of the church to the back. I don't know how she keeps that energy going when she is up front. I know she always pays for it. I can picture her standing on Jenna's lap. Have you ever seen her impression of the folks at cogop assembly when a "popular" speaker was on board? She shows you how they would fight for THEIR seat and she will end up on somebody's lap to make her point (I remember because it was mine one time). She leaves me in stitches but like you said, duly warned! She reminds me of my first pastor who could be hilarious one second and before you could get your breath, shouted out an admonition to cut you to the core! It's my kind of preaching because it surely leaves an impression you never forget. She is probably headed to her PA retreat this week end or next. She has done that one like 13 years in a row. Those ladies can't wait for her to get there. I'm so glad she came, you needed a "Sister Connie Fix", Sis! Hugs from NC.