Art, our Southwest Regional Director, had a stand in the main speaking hall at the Gather Unity Conference, encouraging leaders to stop by - with the help of chocolate and a free book! We’re still not sure which was more tempting.
It was an amazing couple of days. We had 26 leaders - around 30% of the conference attendees - wanting more information about our resources and online courses. We also discovered that about 50% of people already knew who we were, some from many years ago!
At one point Art did wonder, “What am I doing here?” But, as always, God delivered. It was a wonderful opportunity to sow seeds among people we wouldn’t normally get the chance to meet. In fact, Art was so moved by the experience that he could hardly sleep afterwards.
The following month we were off to the New Wine Leaders Conference, but the car getting us there had other ideas! We broke down on the way and had to get a recovery service back to Reading at 3:30am. The next morning we were up bright and early, managed to borrow a car, and headed off again. We arrived very late, but thankfully people helped us unpack and get set up.
At 2:30pm, Rob felt like he couldn’t do it - he felt exhausted and as though he had nothing left to give, and the event hadn’t even really started for him yet. But then he started chatting with someone, and who should walk past but a leader who had been in one of Rob’s breakout rooms on our last Freed to Lead online course. She gave Rob a huge hug, despite never having met him in person, and then went on to tell the person he was talking to how great the course was. It completely lifted the day.
It was a real reminder that God had placed us there to speak to leaders and that He would give us what we needed. By the end of the conference, we had 64 people sign up to find out more - so exciting! New Wine Northern Ireland and Cymru are up next, hopefully.