One of the major highlights this year was the REAL Women’s Conference that ICB hosts every year. Every year there is so much thought and work put into this 3-day conference, and we are always excited about what God is going to do - but this year God showed up in ways we had never seen before. The only way I can explain it is that the Holy Spirit moved in supernatural ways.
The theme was Surrounded, taken from Ephesians 6 about the armour of God. Check out the intro video that the Creative team made (all with members of our church!):
Real is an amazing opportunity to invite women in the community who wouldn't go to church otherwise. And that's exactly what happened! We saw over 50 women give their lives to Jesus over the course of the 3 days, and many commit to disciple and mentor as well as to be discipled and mentored. It made all the hard work and lack of sleep SO SO WORTH IT! (I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it).
Testimony
Let me share my favourite story about that weekend.
It's about a woman in her 20s who was struggling with suicidal thoughts. As a matter of fact, she was hospitalised in a psychiatric guard because of suicide attempts. She was discharged on that Friday afternoon and instead of taking public transportation (which is the most common thing to do here), she decided to take a walk home.
On her way she walked in front of a school. Which happened to be the venue for REAL this year. When she passed by there was something about it... she wanted to go in. She didn't really hear anything, there was no music or coffee being served at the time. But she walked in.
There she heard about having a seat at the table. About being welcomed with open arms, loved, and what was even more significant, having purpose (and freedom in that purpose). It was the first time she had ever heard the Gospel message. Ever. It was the first time she heard about Jesus outside of rules and condemnation.
That day she gave her life to Jesus and is now part of ICB learning more about Jesus in our Foundations course.
Please tell me you're as excited reading this as I am writing about it!
I don't want to give the impression that ICB is this super charismatic church (nothing wrong with that!), it just... historically hasn't been. People aren't bold in praying for things outside of what they can see and touch, which is very in line with the culture. But the past couple of months, and specially at REAL, God used not only the staff but also the church members themselves to work in spiritual gifts. This is all relatively new to ICB. And yet we saw from physical healings to confessions, prophesy and words of knowledge. The only explanation is that the Holy Spirit was there, and he was WORKING.
I could go on and on about all the amazing stories that we saw and heard about how God moved - but for now, I will let you go back to your Christmas festivities. If you want to hear more feel free to reach out! You can also see a cool recap video here, or if you'd like you can listen to one of the talks here!
I'll see you tomorrow for Day 4 - same place, same time!
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