deeper still

On Friday morning, my friend Barb picked me up and we headed towards Atlanta for a weekend of spiritual renewal at the Deeper Still Event. Our friend, Valerie, traveled with us to Alex City where we picked up Tanya and off we went!

We arrived at the Embassy Suites at Olympic Centennial Park promptly at the 3 PM check-in time, giving us plenty of time to get checked in and freshened up before we headed to the Philips Arena. The event was to begin at 7 PM, and the doors were scheduled to open at 6 PM, but there were thousands of women already lining up by the time we arrived around 5 PM. Soon after we joined one of the lines, it became more of a grand mass of women -- many in large groups wearing matching t-shirts. We eventually made our way in, slowly squeezing through wherever we could find a place and making our way to some fairly good seats.

We were able to begin the evening in great Worship led by Beth Moore's Praise Team leader, Travis Cottrell. They were an amazingly talented group of singers who used their God-given talents to bring us to a place of deep worship. That night, we were taught by a gifted Bible teacher, Priscilla Shirer. I will post separately about each of the three teachers from the weekend in a separate post. But, I will say now that she rocked. The event ended with more musical worship and entertainment by Mandisa, of American Idol fame. I was surprised to learn that she had been a member of the aforementioned Praise Team until 2005. She shared her testimony, along with her beautiful voice. We made it back to the hotel and settled in for the night by 11:30 PM, with the understanding that I would be the first to rise and shower which meant I would get up at 5 AM EST (which is much earlier than my usual 7 AM CST rising).

I tell you, this was the best group of women to travel with. We were all ready, packed up and checked out by 6:45 AM! We were near the beginning of the line for the complementary full breakfast (with made-to-order omelets) well before it opened at 7 AM. After a delicious breakfast, we made the 10 minute walk back to the Philips Arena where the line was not nearly as crowded as the night before. We were able to get in and scope out the arena for seats and were truly blessed with seats without seats in front of us, giving us much more leg room. Praise God for great seats! After another Praise and Worship set, Kay Arthur shared another great teaching with us all before we broke for lunch. The four of us left our bibles in our seats and ate our box lunches outside in the fresh air.

After returning, the three speakers (the two already mentioned along with Beth Moore), sat together for a panel discussion where they answered questions that had been raised on the Deeper Still Blog. We then had a short break before it was Beth's turn. Oh, that woman can teach.

After the conclusion of the event, we quickly headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and vehicle. The bags were easy, but getting Barb's van from the valet was a totally different story. We ended up getting the van ourselves in the underground garage. By the time we left Atlanta, stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel, dropped off Tanya in Alex City and were back in Wetumpka, it was after 10 PM. I was both refreshed and tired at the same time. I just pray I can take many of the lessons learned this weekend to become deeper still myself.