It has been almost 3 weeks since our wonderful weekend full of digging into the Word led by a fantastic, Eddie Chumney, and fellowshipping with both old and new friends and I am just now finally getting this post finished...lol...I'm not too good at this blogging thing yet...lol.
The weekend started in chaos, but ended in peace and relaxation. Both teachers were awesome and the worship music was phenomenal.
For two weeks, I cooked, baked, and packed in preparation for this conference. It was the first conference we had ever put on, though event promotion is not a new experience for us. As former concert promoters, this was a task we had undertaken before. This was a bit of a larger scale, though, and was a little more involved. In the past, we had never had to do the "business side" of registration, lodging, food for attendees, etc. So that was a bit of a challenge, but went quite smoothly.
Friday (the 15th), the day the conference started, was a bit chaotic though. The kids and I got on the road 1/2 hr later than intended, but that tends to happen when traveling alone with four kids. :) By the time we got to my mother-in-law's house to get a few things we were borrowing for the weekend, it was lunch time and the three older kids all needed to go potty. By the time they were done in the bathroom, I had fed them, fed Chavah (who woke up while we were there), changed her, and had them go potty again, we had been there for over 1.5 hrs and it was already 1:30. I was supposed to be at the campground where we were holding the conference around 1. I didn't get there until about 3. Thankfully, I had some helpers there waiting for me.
The day was also made even more chaotic by the fact that Eddie's flight from Minneapolis to Cedar Rapids got delayed 2 hours. He was supposed to arrive at 11:15 and didn't end up arriving until 12:55. The delay was caused by the storms going through the midwest that weekend (which hit us overnight Friday and again Saturday afternoon). Justin and Eddie had about a 2 hour drive from the airport to the campground, but had to make a stop on the way. Eddie needed to do his research for his 5 minute update and was hoping to get it recorded (which anyone who knows Eddie will know can take a couple hours ;) ). He never did get it recorded that day, though, as he got sidetracked having a prophecy discussion with a good friend of ours as they stopped at her coffee shop to use the WIFI there. I think they finally arrived at the campground around 5 or 5:30 when we were supposed to be starting supper.
If it weren't for the help of Dina Carden, her wonderful kids, Juanita Noble, and her wonderful boys, supper never would have happened that night. Juanita's boys kept my littles busy, while Juanita, Dina, Michaela, and Jonas helped me in the kitchen. We were able to get everything cooked ahead for Shabbat and get the pasta, sauces, and everything else all together for dinner in just about 2 hours. Most things just needed to be reheated, as I had cooked most everything ahead at home and frozen it. Just had to reheat the pasta and sauce for supper, cook the 10lbs of hamburger for the tacos we were to eat the next night, cook some rice to stick in the walk-in cooler to be reheated to go with the tacos Saturday night, and put together the macaroni salad for lunch Saturday (for which, I had already cooked and frozen the macaroni ahead).
On top of all that confusion in the kitchen, we still had lodging to take care of. I had no idea who was supposed to be in which cabin since Justin had handled all of that, but he wasn't there yet. Thankfully the camp director was there and had a list based on the registration list Justin had sent him. While I finished up in the kitchen, Dina took it upon herself to get everyone checked in to their cabins and collect their lodging payments. I never could have gotten all that needed done accomplished if she and her teenagers weren't such faithful servants of Yah. They are truly Yah sent and I am so thankful for having them as my new friends.
Once the initial confusion and chaos was over, we were able to get started. :) Supper went really great. I was so afraid we wouldn't have enough food, but we actually had left overs at every meal. I made about 7 or 8 lbs of spaghetti for Friday night's supper and we had about half of it left. Everyone was so great about bringing food to share so there was plenty to go around. The conference was free (except for lodging, which is quite reasonable at the campground) so we asked that people bring side dishes/toppings/etc. to go with lunch and supper each day. We provided the main dish, some breakfast items, and some desserts. A couple other ladies helped out with breakfast foods and desserts. One large family that was registered to attended ended up not being able to attend because the mom broke her ankle and then her mom went to stay with them to help her out and broke her shoulder. At the end of the weekend, we sent a TON of the leftovers with another couple to give to her. We gave her 2lbs of spaghetti, a loaf of whole wheat bread, cookies, muffins, spaghetti sauce, and I don't even know what else. We just kept adding stuff to the box. It was so nice to be able to provide for them. :)
The only issue we had over the weekend, other than the initial confusion, was rain and lots of it. Friday night one family had to move their beds out of their tent and into the dining hall because their tent was too wet to sleep in. Our tent was a little wet too, but not too bad. Our tent got hit worse Saturday afternoon when a couple of our poles shifted so our roof filled with water pockets dumping it all into the tent and leaving LAKES in it. So we joined the Noble family in the dining hall Saturday night. :) The rain was a blessing, though, as it had been very dry before that.
Matt Dillon was our opening speaker. He is a local Believer and has been a good friend and mentor to Justin for years. Matt used to be Justin's youth pastor when he was in high school. He is also the one who "got us into" Hebrew Roots. Matt spoke on a few big issues he has seen in this movement that needed to be addressed. He spoke about how people nit-pick at each other too much about little things that don't matter so much in the grand scheme and all they are doing is causing division when we should be moving more toward unity as our time grows short.
Eddie was wonderful, as usual. He started out with a quick run through of his Yeshua: Genesis to Revelation teaching. I love this teaching. I always get something new out of this teaching. Yeshua created the heavens and the earth, walked through the pieces in the Covenant with Abraham, gave the Torah, was the cloud & fire, and many more things (and all these things can be proven with Scripture in both the Tanakh & the Brit Hadashah). It is fascinating. He also discussed current events and how they fit into end times prophecy and told us what to watch for next. He doesn't set dates, but did say that whenever we see Damascus destroyed, the economy crashed, and war breaking out throughout the world, we should be prepared to leave on the following Pesach. He says that with the current world dynamic, it is likely to be a Pesach real soon!
On Sunday, I again had lots of wonderful help from the Cardens and others. We worked together to get the kitchen all cleaned up, made sure everyone took home their dishes and any food they brought and wanted to keep. There was such an abundance of food that in addition to providing for the family of 12 whose mom broke her ankle, we were also able to leave quite a bit of food for the camp director and his staff who have been working hard all summer to improve the camp. :) It was really great to be able to serve them in such a manner.
Sunday afternoon, Eddie went home with Matt and went to watch the NBA Finals. I learned something new about Eddie that weekend. He is very much a fan of sports, especially basketball. In fact, he said at one point that had he been a little taller he probably could have gone pro in basketball. He played and, from the sound of it, did so quite well. Can you imagine Eddie Chumney as anything but a Bible scholar? I know I can't!
Since Eddie was off with Matt for the evening, we got everything but what we still needed to use all packed up and had a quiet evening as a family. We sat around the fire for a while, toured some of the cabins, and ate ice cream cake. :)
Eddie had to be at the airport by 3pm on Monday, so we had all morning to finish tearing down camp and relaxing. Learned a couple more things about Eddie on Monday that I never knew about him. He listens to Kenneth Copeland (not that it is bad; I like some of his teachings, as well). I just never expected that would be someone to whom he listens. The other thing I learned about him is that he is very good with kids. At breakfast and lunch on Monday, he was entertaining our kids. Our two year old loves him. :) The girls were having fun with him too, but the boy was just so amused by the games he played with them. Since we took two vehicles, he even gave the kids hugs and told them good-bye before we got all loaded up in the van and he left with Justin in the truck. :)
For pictures from the conference, take a look at the Photos page at
www.scrolldove.org.
