At the beginning of July, the three of us girls had the privilege of helping with a week of Bright Lights conferences.  Last October, we helped with the ones in St. Cloud, MN.  This time, however, we traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  We were so blessed by an amazing week of ministry and fellowship with over 40 leaders from around the country (IA, MN, NE, TX, GA, MD, IL, & WI).

The Strong in the Lord conference took place on Tuesday & Wednesday, while the Radiant Purity conference took place on Friday & Saturday.  During the conferences, there are large group sessions with singing (Deborah helped with music), Sarah Mally sharing Bible truths through teaching and stories, personal testimonies from small group leaders, and funny skits that reinforce important points.  Then, all the girls are split into smaller groups and the parents have their own sessions.  Small groups are led by one or two leaders (which each of us got to help with) and include discussion, games, and snacks.  The conference days are very full, but it is so rewarding to be able to invest in these girls’ lives.  To hear that they have made commitments to serve the Lord, clear their conscience, honor their parents, and read their Bible makes it all worth it!  So here come the pictures:

Thursday was our “off day” so we took some time to relax and refresh ourselves for the weekend conference.  We spent the morning touring the Mally’s bookstore (Noah’s Archive) and visiting a cute little coffee shop where we enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship together.

After lunch on Thursday, Grace Mally showed us a video on witnessing and then we all had a long and helpful discussion about sharing the gospel with others. The Lord has really given Grace a heart for witnessing, and she has a vision for encouraging young people to be bold with the gospel.  She has written an excellent book on the topic of witnessing called “Will Our Generation Speak?” that is full of witnessing stories and practical helps.  After our discussion, we went to a nearby park for personal time with the Lord, more fellowship, and a little bit of witnessing.  Since there weren’t many people at the park to witness to, Grace took a group of us out after supper where we went witnessing at a nearby mall.  I wish I had time to share the whole story here, but since I don’t, you can head over to Grace’s blog and read about our amazing, God-orchestrated evening here.

Here’s a few more random, behind-the-scenes pictures from our week:

We stayed over Sunday and enjoyed worshiping at the chapel where the Mally’s attend.

It was such a blessing to spend an entire week with a group of young ladies that love the Lord and are seeking to follow Him. We had a wonderful time of ministry and fellowship together. We were so thankful to the Lord to be able to take part in the ministry of the Bright Lights conferences.

My sisters and I (Sara) had the privilege of going down to help with the Bright Lights conferences in St. Cloud, MN, October 8-12.  It was an amazing week of ministry and fellowship as we served as part of the staff for the conferences.

Bright Lights is a discipleship ministry for girls encouraging them to be strong for the Lord in their youth.  There are over 500 Bright Lights discipleship groups in the U.S. and internationally (visit our Bemidji group’s blog), and during the summer/fall the Sarah Mally (founder of Bright Lights ministry) and staff conduct conferences all over the place.

We were so blessed to be able to help with the Strong In the Lord conference and the Radiant Purity conference.  Both conferences include main sessions packed with teaching, stories, skits, testimonies, chalk drawings, and music.  There are also small groups for the girls attending to discuss what they are learning in the main sessions, as well as sessions for the parents.

We were glad to have the opportunity to serve as small group leaders (Sara) and small group assistants (Deborah and Abigail) for both conferences, as well as helping with many other aspects of the conferences, such as making snacks, greeting attendees, helping them to find their name tags, handing out notebooks, sharing a testimony, and Abby even got to help out with a skit! 🙂

We were so refreshed by the fellowship with the other young ladies on the team.  It was great to spend time sharing insights from the Word, praying together, sharing reports and responses from the girls in our small groups, and simply talking and laughing together.  On Thursday (our “off-day), we also had the opportunity to go witnessing at a nearby mall and then spend time outdoors at a nature park.

We are continually blessed and encouraged by the Bright Lights ministry and the role that it has played in our lives.  It was so nice to get to know Sarah and Grace better over the week… they are such sweet, godly young ladies with a passion for serving the Lord.

“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. “

-1 Timothy 4:12-

Note: Thank you Grace, Annie, Chelsy, and Karen for sharing pictures for this post!