She Speaks 2014

Desserts posted first - imagine that! And cheesecake, of all things! This one looked so good, too!  I'm sure it was, but I sat down at.....

 ...this one.  It was wayyyyy too chocolatey for me, but my sister-in-law said it was great!  One bite was all I took.  I would have eaten the whole cheesecake piece, so maybe it's better I sat down where I did!

Oklahoma Christian's lectureship features a day of women's events, beginning with devotionals and lessons from many women, singing, prayers, and fellowship together. The evening ends with the "She Speaks" banquet.

 This year I invited my daughter and her roommate to join me for the evening.

 My sister-in-law and her mother were also at our table, along with our husbands' aunt and a couple of other women.

 The table setting was beautiful.  There were lime green sateen napkins and hydrangeas in glass bowl that had grapevine floating inside.  I'm alway excited to see "properly" set tables!  That's a favorite topic of mine for teaching others....especially children.

 We all love the chandeliers they use each year at the banquet. Something about them just makes the atmosphere more elegant.

 We weren't sure what the main entree' was, but some sort of breaded chicken cutlet on top of mashed potatoes and topped with a cheesy-corn cream sauce/gravy.  I wasn't a big fan of the dish, but the veggies were pretty good and the salad was great!

 Nika Maples was the speaker for the evening. She was great. Her story was very emotional and inspirational. You can read more about her story at nikamaples.com.

 I loved how she talked about us being the gatekeepers of our heart and how that God's Holy Spirit lives within Christians. WE are the gatekeepers of that temple...of our own hearts where the Spirit resides!

Nika gave everyone a free gift - her book. She used it as a symbol of God's free gift of salvation to those who choose Him and who choose to obey the gospel.

We posed for a family group picture before leaving the event.  What a wonderful evening!

Oklahoma Christian: SheSpeaks with Missy Robertson

Monday evening I had the privilege of attending the Oklahoma Christian SheSpeaks banquet, along with my sister-in-law.  

I enjoy teaching classes about manners and etiquette to students in our local 4-H club, and also at school in Life Skills class, so it was pretty neat to put those skills to good use at the banquet!  Do you know what each of the three forks are for???

The centerpieces were pretty white pumpkins wrapped with grapevine.  The table had scattered crystals around the top of the black tablecloth.  Hot pink napkins were placed in the coffee cups.  It was really neat that the coffee and tea were in vase-type containers (they probably have a fancy name that I don't know), so that we could refill our drinks ourselves, without having servers do it.

Eight-hundred guests attended the event. It grew so large that it was moved to the gymnasium, but even in the gym, the event was made to look elegant. Those chandeliers hung from metal pipe things coming out of the curtain.  You can see part of the scoreboard at the very top of the stage curtain.

Here's the program....a pretty souvenir from the event.

 And the dessert.....some kind of flan, I think.  It was pretty!

The dinner (I would say supper, but since it was a fancy thing, I'll call it dinner!) was stuffed pork loin with a yummy sauce, grilled veggies, and a stuffed baked potato.

The guest speaker was Missy Robertson, from the famous hit, Duck Dynasty.  Missy said that Hollywood was very perplexed about the popularity of Duck Dynasty. Hollywood wanted a reality show with a lot of drama and friction. But that wasn't their family.  She said, "Our reality comes from the Word, not from drama.  But then they met Uncle Si!"  And Hollywood liked him!  And now the nation likes the whole family.  Missy read Colossians 2:17, which says, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

Missy's daughter, Mia, talked about being born with cleft and lip palate. She will undergo another big surgery in December.  Mia said, "God is bigger than all our problems!" And He is!  Thank you, God!