The Conference that Almost Didn’t Happen … But God Came Through

On January 25, I posted about the Orange County Christian Writers’ Conference that I was asked to direct. Last week I shared how God came through, in spite of all the obstacles the Enemy threw our way—and they were many! And how God abundantly blessed the people who attended. I heard from registrants, volunteers, and faculty members who were all praising the Lord for things that happened at that event that I was so tempted to cancel so many times!

And you know what? Although my focus was totally on creating an event through which people could be blessed, God blessed me too! (He always does.)

One of the first blessings was a humorous thing that happened on the second day of the conference. In the middle of the morning sessions, the chairman came up to me and whispered, “Do you have a cell phone number for our contact with the church?” When I told him I did, he said, “Can you call and let them know that there’s a snake in one of the classrooms?”

A what? We were in a nice church (Ev Free Fullerton, where Chuck Swindoll used to preach) in a busy suburban area. What was a snake doing in our conference

I called our church contact, and she was aghast! She couldn’t imagine how a snake had gotten into a classroom. But she sent someone over. He interrupted a mentoring track and asked if anyone had seen a lizard. (Apparently he didn’t believe there could be a snake either!) He went through two other classrooms before he finally found it. And yep … it really was a snake!

Apparently the Enemy was so frustrated at not being able to stop this conference from happening, he showed up “in the flesh,” so to speak.

I love God’s sense of humor!

I received lots of other blessings as well. I had several fantastic appointments with attendees. I made dear friendships with many of the faculty members and volunteers (even though we were all really busy during the conference, of course).

One faculty member, Chris Morris, is a CPA who specializes in working with authors, editors, and other freelancers. I made an appointment with him, and we talked about thrilling topics like finances and income taxes. He ended up making me a deal I couldn’t turn down! Not only did he offer to take all the hassle and stress out of doing my income taxes, he even said he could help with my day-to-day bookkeeping—freeing me up to spend more hours doing what I enjoy and am a whole lot better at: writing and editing! I’ve been praying for months that God would find a way to give me more hours in my day, and this is definitely going to do that. Hallelujah! (If you’re interested in finding out what Chris could do for you, check out his website, www.ChrisMorrisCPA.com and contact him through the website, or e-mail him at Cmorris@chrismorriscpa.com. If you tell him you heard about him from me, he’ll give you a digital copy of his Entrepreneur’s Guide to Tax, Accounting, and Business Structure for free!)

God provided even more blessings through this “conference that almost didn’t happen.” I’ll share about them next week. In the meantime, I’d love for you to share some experiences where you were tempted to quit or cancel something, but you persevered and God blessed.