I WILL RISE

Friday, I packed my bags, cleaned out my car, loaded up the trunk and waited for mom to get to my house. Loaded down with luggage and 500 pillows, my mom crammed all of her belongings into my car.....
Destination: Charleston, SC....Mission: 2010 WOMEN OF JOY conference at the North Charleston Coliseum.
 Guests of the Conference:
 Travis Cottrell (host and music performer)
Steven Curtis Chapman & Michael W. Smith 
Liz Curtis Higgs speaker (advised us that the rolls around are middle are a result of wisdom settling at our waists)
Becky Tirabassi speaker (greatly suffers from ADD or over use of caffeine and major stimulants)
Anita Renfroe (comedian) (comedian bred with Weird Al Yankovich)
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Let me back up a bit an explain what happened when I asked my mom if she wanted to go to the Christian Women's conference with me. She was able to recall all of the fantastic things I had to say about the 2009 conference. What a great experience that really did bring me incredible joy. God was there and HE SHOWED OUT! But my mom...well...I think she had greater concerns. When I asked her to join me and that she would only have to pay for her meals, I could hear the wheels clickity clacking in her head....WD40 probably would have helped. She kind of stammered over her answer and then finally fell back on the excuse that May 15th was the date of my parents 44th wedding anniversary! Ok so that was a good excuse..but not good enough. I got on the phone with my dad and asked him MYSELF if he would mind. He said that he thought they had spent 2 or 3 anniversaries in the past together. It would be OK with him if mom went. Let me just share with you the thoughts that were going through my mom's head when I told her that she would be going:
1) Are there going to be a bunch of weird Jesus FREAKS roaming around at the conference trying to convert and save all who enter?
2) Would reptiles, or more specifically SNAKE handling be involved?
3) Would anyone be attempting to speak in tongues?
4) Would there be a bunch of crazed, JESUS FREAKS there?? Oh wait...I already said that...but she thought it!!!
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Growing up, my parents never went to church...ok so I can't say never. I can only remember them going to church when I was really little and then only RARELY as C&E Christians (you know, Christmas and Easter). But both of my parents say that they are saved. They just have just gotten a horrible taste in their mouths over attending church. I think they would be very greatly inclined to give that,"oh only a bunch of hypocrites go to church that want your money!!"
Truly there are all sorts of people that go to church...the good the bad and the ugly in fact. Some hypocrites, thieves, adulterers, murderers and generally negative people go to church. But one must first come to the realization that we ALL are sinners. We ALL are imperfect. We ALL fall short of the glory of God. But generally speaking.....all of the people that I go to church with have big, sharing, loving, open hearts. We all love God. Being able to go to church to worship our God and to fellowship with fellow members, makes my life much more joyful and spectacular...even if I am the only crabby person in the house. I won't leave church crabby!!
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So the journey begins!! Heading down the driving, I realized that my GPS system was kaput. Pete informs me that I will just have to head out on my journey with a PAPER MAP. What the??!!!!!!!!!!! So mom attempts to use the GPS system on her cell phone. A 64 year old using a cell phone GPS system.....PAINFUL! I mean the sheer fact that she has to put READING glasses on just to see the freaking keys on her cell.......ACK!!!!!!!!!!!
I just called Pete and had him GOOGLE our destination. The directions were straight forward enough. Thank you Pete...you saved us $200 because I was just about to pull into the nearest Walmart and plop down the necessary fundage to buy a new GPS. We did get lost a couple of times over the weekend but made it around relatively unscathed.
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Heading down the highway, a couple of hundred miles into the trip, the AC on my 2008 model Mazda 3 decided that it was way too hot outside (92) and that it need to not only quit blowing but stop cooling. So mom and I headed down 26 East with 4 windows down, traveling at 70 mph...enough to cool the temperature of my car to a mere 89 or so! Every time a big truck passed, the noise was deafening. After a good 50 miles or so, the AC fired back up and we were back in business!!! Hallelujah!!!
Later on the drive home, we made it to the Centerville Rd near Rayle, GA. After 30 minutes of riding with the windows down, the cool air returned....sweet!!!
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What a great time we had! No snakes were handled...much to my dismay and much to the joy of my mom! We sang and laughed! We cried and prayed. We clapped and stomped. It was great!! My mom admitted on the way home that it was very different from what she thought it would be...well yea...I told you that she was fearin the reptiles and Jesus Freaks!! She was surprised that the music was so uplifting and the speakers were so REAL. I told her that I thought she based her ideas about what church was like based upon the old tel-evangelists that begged, borrowed, stole and manipulated in order to build some crazy big evangelical empires.
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On the way home, a truck in front of me kicked up a rock, pelting my windshield. Mom said that she hoped it hadn't pinged my windshield. At first look, there was no sign of damage. Soon though, a crack eeked its way up. After I got home and shut my car off, the crack spread out another 6 inches. So in all, at last sight, I had a 12 inch hairline crack on the left side of windshield. But like I told my mom, it was just a windshield and thats what I had insurance for! It sure beat the heck out of the motorcyclist that was riding ahead of us on I26 last night. There were two cars behind him and then following. Suddenly the cars in front of us began to hit their brakes. Not knowing what had just happened with the cyclist, I realized that there was a large dark object that looked a lot like a motorcycle helmet being catapulted toward my car!!! I couldn't swerve to miss the helmet. My only thought was....Dear God, please let that just be a helmet that was left unsecured (yea a lot of good that would do a cyclist)...and please don't let it still have the cyclists head attached because he had just been run over by the crazy drivers behind him!!!!!!! You can breathe now...it was just the helmet. After I ran over the blooming thing, I saw the cyclist pull off to the side of the interstate. Now, I'm not certain whether he intended to run out into the road to retrieve his helmet or not. I pray not!! He really would have gotten squished! God was with us....and with him!
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Let it just suffice to say that any time and every time Ive gone to this particular conference, there has always been some sort of drama! Last year there were several bad accidents and then the "incident" at the Triangle gas station involving 2 women that became engaged in a fist fight and hair pulling contest while Nancy and I were trapped in the store! It was hilarious once we were out of that store. While we were in the store, it wasn't nearly so funny not knowing whether someone would pull a weapon (particularly a firearm)!!!
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Despite a very uplifting conference, I was so glad to return home to my husband and children!!! SO GLAD!