Summit VIII

Last week I got the privilege to attend the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit

they host one every year and this year it was hosted at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest CA

I had never heard of the conference before but Laurie, a lady from my old church, wrote about it and

I just knew that I needed to be there and boy am I so grateful that the Lord allowed all the details to come together so smoothly and I was able to attend.

I had such a wonderful time at the conference and learned so much!

the conference was two days long (Thursday and Friday)

 so needless to say Laurie and I were exhausted by the end of each day

the whole time change thing really gets ya!

each morning started off with worship with the Saddleback house band

and then there were a few speakers

and the rest of the morning and afternoons were filled with breakout sessions

in total for the two days I attended six sessions

(Missional Living & Orphan Care, Steps to Serving Foster Children by Taking a "mission trip" In Your Community, Mobilizing the Whole Community to Rescue and Restore, Exploring the Father-Heart of God, Creative Models for Engaging the Church for America's Fatherless, Your Church as a Safety Net)

there were so many different breakouts to choose from 

I had such a difficult time figuring out which ones I would benefit most from.

at each of these breakouts I learned different way that I can serve as a single young adult 

(eventually I will do some individual post on the two secession that I got the most from)

as young adults its hard for us to figure out what we can do

were unable to adopt or foster children and taking a mission trip isn't always possible

but there is so many different things we can do right in our own community

we can become respite care or mentor

we can advocate for waiting children and participate in Orphan Sunday.

there are seriously so many different things that we can do at our stage in life!!

in the evenings they had a closing session both nights 

on the first night Francis Chan spoke about being thankful for our salvation

and about how our journey should be about the gospel and Jesus being glorified in the end.

I always love hearing him speak it always seems like he knows exactly what I need to hear!

the second night we had a night of worship with Stephen Curtis Chapman

and that was just simple beautiful!!

besides the confernce Laurie and I were able to spend a couple days discovering LA

which will be a whole other post in itself!!

we had such a fun few day

 I've seriously not laughed so hard in such a long time

Laurie is such an amazing woman and I really look up to her!!