Back in May I learned about an upcoming women’s conference with my two favorite speakers of all time, Abi stumvoll and Havilah Cunnington, and EVEN better they would be speaking at Bethel Redding’s women’s conference with 8 other powerhouse women! Ahhh my two favorite speakers + a trip to California with my best friend + 3 plane rides each way/exploring airports before school starts up again = a dream come true! I honestly never thought it could become a reality and within a week of finding out about the conference, I was majoring planning out the whole trip with my best friend. Everything LITERALLY fell into place. I found an AirBNB at a home of a former bethel children’s pastor, the husband of the host was an part time Uber driver, the plane tickets would get us there on Tuesday which would allow us to go to Bethels young adult group and we had some time on Wednesday and Saturday to explore Cali!

Tuesday August 30th 7:00am came, our first flight from buffalo to Chicago was at 8:15am. At 7:30am after going through security and bag check, the first text comes in from the airline, flight delayed until 10am. Okay okay we can still make our Chicago flight if we run once we’re off the first plane. But just to be sure let’s get in line to talk to the agent, about 15 minutes into the waiting in line, another text comes through…flight delayed until 12pm! Okay, now we will never make the Chicago flight, so after waiting an hour in line and then 45 minutes with the agent who pulled strings to get us on another flight, we had a new flight plan, but it was dependent on that 12pm flight. Well that flight got delayed until 1:45pm then, so we get back in line and there’s really nothing they can do, except get us on that plane (that kept having mechanical issues) either later on causing us to stay overnight in Chicago or put us on the same plane at 6am the next day. So we were talking it over, my friend was on the fence on whether to just cancel the whole trip. I was determined to find a way, but there just wasn’t anything really to do. We both did not want to get on that plane with all the issues. In the midst of deciding, it was then delayed again until 6pm. Okay last straw for my friend. We went up to get my friends ticket refunded but I was still deciding. They ended up refunding both. When they told me that, I could have just said okay, it’s a sign I shouldn’t go, but nope. I immediately got on my phone to look at other airlines, called my mom in the meantime to come get us, found a flight with two seats, ohhh yeah!! So I called to see if I could get it price adjusted to my original ticket price. But as I talked to the agent, there was only one seat left and suddenly both were gone. I knew it was time to stop, there was nothing else to do. I’m not going to lie, I was super disappointed, I thought this was guided by God, He gave me confirmation after confirmation that it would be possible. So I knew that there would be another bethel women’s conference in two years and I could start planning for that one. As I looked more into abi and havilahs speaking schedules, I saw that havilah would be coming to a church about two hours away in Canada in October. As I looked at Abi’s, I saw that she was coming to Cleveland, but get this…she was going to the Cleveland Bethel church! Whhhatttt?? I had no idea there was a Bethel associated church in Cleveland! And even better, it was two weeks away from the original bethel trip!

So August 14th, I hopped in a car after work with mom and drove three hours to Cleveland, ready to start the next two days of the conference on Thursday/Friday. Thursday morning session with Beni Johnson (from bethel Redding) was a great start to the conference, she ended her message with a time of soaking. So if you don’t know what soaking is, I barely heard it before, but it’s a time to clear your mind, listen to instrumental music, and just allow God to speak to you. The afternoon session was supposed to be a question and answer time with Abi and Justin Stumvoll, but Abi felt led to turn the next hour and half to two hours into a ministry time. She had asked for people to come up to the front if they felt like their voice was small, it was taken, it cannot be powerful, or they don’t have confidence when they speak. So I went up and then she called up others from the audience to come in front of us and we had to look each other in the eyes, hold their hands, and then scream “I have a voice” and “freedom” at them. It mildly made me uncomfortable and anxious but I did and let me tell ya, it felt great! Beni Johnson finished out the night with an incredible word.

That night (Thursday) I replied to Abi Stumvolls Instagram story telling her that I couldn’t wait to see her tomorrow and that I came from buffalo to see her! I kid you not, she replied within like 5 minutes telling me to come say hi. Ahhh I get to say hi to my favorite speaker, this is going to be so awesome!

Friday morning came in with such a fire from Chloe Glassborow, wow! She began her message but then moved into ministry time! There were people receiving physical healing and people feeling the tangible presence and love of God all around the room, the worship team was killing it with the incredible worship time. The afternoon session was a Q&A with Chloe and her husband Stu, they have an incredible testimony of how God healed Chloe physically at a conference and how God spoke to Stu through his doubts and not understanding of charismatic Christians.

After Chloe’s time was done, I saw Abi and Justin leaving and I immediately approached them and they told me to find them after the Friday night session because they were headed to lunch.

Then came the night I’ve been looking forward to so much! Abi stumvoll closing out the conference with such a powerful word on how emotions are so important and how to find a healthy balance. Two most impactful takeaways are “Emotions are like kids, you don’t let them drive your car or put them in the trunk” and “Feelings buried alive..do not die.”

Now the conference has officially ended. My heart begins racing because I get to meet Abi and now have to approach her despite so many people wanting to talk to her. So I see that she had immediately exited the main room with someone a few minutes prior and honestly I let some lies enter in. I thought oh no, she is leaving, she must have forgotten that I was going to talk to her, of course she would. Things like this always happen to me, I mean there’s so many other more important people and conference/church people that she actually knows and who need to talk to her. So I let my heart sorta rest in that defeat and went out to the atrium to find the bathroom. My mom points out that she is over by the doors on the other side and is talking to someone, I just kinda half heartedly said okay, but I’m gonna go to the bathroom. I still at this moment, was believing that I wouldn’t be able to meet her and letting those lies become my truth.

I get out of the bathroom and she is still there so I go closer to her so she can recognize that I’m waiting but give enough space. She notices me, and quickly wraps up her conversation, telling the other person she has to talk to me. Immediately those lies fled and truths were flooded in. She asked me intentional questions about the conference, about my schooling, and my walk with God. She listened and didn’t give superficial, generic answers. She agreed with me in prayer, she prayed over me, she spoke truths over me. I asked her to sign my notebook and she wrote an incredible message in it that related directly to me, and hugged me at the end. Ahhh it was such an amazing experience! I then went over to her husband Justin and wanted him to sign my book too. He was so genuine, and intentional as well. I told him it was on my “bucket list” to meet both him and Abi and he seemed so honored by that, he also wrote a message that was spot on with what God had been telling me throughout the conference.

I walked out of the church feeling so filled, so loved, so overcome by God, and was almost in tears with how happy I was.

If I had gone to California for their conference, I would have never gotten the opportunity to meet Abi or Justin. On the slim chance I did, it definitely wouldn’t have been as personal or intentional. That plus the promises that I heard God speak to me throughout the conference was worth all the disappointment and doors slammed shut. God has such a better plan for me then I could ever imagine. God truly does have our best interests at heart and truly gives his those desires because the next conference is the Shine women’s conference in Hamilton, ON, Canada in October to see Havilah Cunnington. And who knows, maybe I’ll get to meet her too!