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Pray for Samuel Baxter

Just wanted to put this out there for you guys to be praying about. A couple who work with us recently had a baby boy, named Samuel. We as a staff team, and family are excited about seeing this little guy grow up. Cat and I are excited and hope that he and Krieg will be little buds. But we want you to be praying for Sam because he has Downs Syndrome. As we have thought about it, we believe that God could not have given a Downs baby to a better family than theirs, nor a better community than that of our staff team. But do please remember to pray for Sam because he has some medical complications. He has to wear a heart monitor because his heart rate is not consistent and sometimes drops. Pray that our staff would be a strong haven for their family to find relief and courage.

Letter from a girl at Western about ATL

I feel like from ATL God really put on my heart lies I had been feeding in my life. I gained this not just from one talk but many of the sessioins, however the main talk that got me going was our womens talk. In it she spoke about stages of blindness, 1-not seeing anything -darkness, 2-people look like trees-the blur of knowing, and 3- Clear View- seeing your sin. For me my vision became clear that I was seeking fullfillment in other things instead of Christ. She asked us the question what is your turkish delight? And then she listed some things that people sometimes hold over God in their lives. Next she challenged us to really seek out those lies and write them down. So, with all that Im making a lies and truth chart and writing down the lies on one side and then putting what the word of God has to say about that on the other. Because it would be easy for me to go down to ATL and hear, see, and learn about this sin and my life and be like okay, glad that's over. But it's not it's an illusion to lie to myself and think that it, so I really want to take action about these things in my life, and really follow the verse I claimed for myself this past semester; But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now to the day of eternity.

A letter from a student at Furman

The Illusions Conference changed my life, hands down. Before I had had a
few bad experiences at various retreats, and at the last minute I was
convinved to come, and I really feel like it was God's hand guiding me
there. I had spent the first trimester of my college experience drinking
and partying, beginning each weekend on wednesdays at a bar and ending it
sleeping till 2 on sundays. I felt very empty. I tried to find
fulfillment in other people, party friends and boys, but none worked, I
even began smoking weed. I saw nothing wrong with my behavior, but I just
couldnt understand why I felt so depressed all the time. Even when i
thought i was having a good time partying, that would only last a few
hours. I had gotten drunk and high the day before I came to conference.
I had such a wonderful experience at Conference, it was so amazing. My
roommates were so supportive, but at the same time asked me the hard
questions, like had I acknowledged Jesus as my savior. I struggled with
my desire to continue partying throughout the whole weekend, thinking what
would i possibly do when I returned to FU. But the beauty of it was that
through the talks, activities, and time spent together I made so many new
friends, and strengthened other relationships that would keep me in line,
and help me up when I would fall, or have doubts. I learned so much at
Conference, and realized so much about myself, my sin, but most
importantly about the magnitude of God;s grace. I am so much more
comfortable talking about God now, and praying(which I had never really
done before at all), The talks also shattered my perception of the world
we live in, and especially about myself, that I would not lose my identity
when I became a christian, but i would in fact become what i was meant to
be by becoming closer to God. It was such a great environment, because
everyone sppoke freely and frankly about God, and helkped me realize how
He has been pursuing us, and how He love us all. I could go on for pages
about all the amazing things I learned about God at Conference, but one of
the things that most stuck with me was letting go of my problems, For
years I have been trying to control my own life, but once I surrendered my
life to God, everything began to fall in place, and for the first time in
about 2 years i was genuinely happy. My heart flutters even thinking
about it now. This is the first time I have truly felt God's love,
because I acknowledged Him as my Savior the last day of Conference.
I also absolutely loved the Concert on New Year's Eve, and Pastor Duce
was fabulous. It was the first time the lyrics made sense to me, and i
finally understood their gravity-We are the Redeemed and in this life we
are Free! We belong to Jesus! I gave up drinking and smoking, and have
tried to maintain the friendships I made through it, but I plan to stay
away from parties for awhile, until I grow stronger in my Faith, because I
am still a toddler in that sense.
Conference changed my life. I am looking for a church now( i tried
Mitchell Rd this past sunday and was so excited that I got to hear Andy
Lewis speak again), and am having pretty regular quiet times, attending a
bible study, and I have gotten even closer to the friends i made there. I
confessed my partying sins to my mother, and have grown even closer to her
in the process, and I have been trying to spread the Gospel.
I hope you all who were on staff realize how thankful I am for The
Illusions conference. I feel so blessed to have had such an opportunity,
and I can't even express my gratitude for all you have done- you are all
truly blessed by God because I heard him speaking through you.
Thank You!

Talks available from ATL

The main rally talks and most of the seminars from our ATL07 Illusions conference are available online. You can listen to them for free. Some of them are really good, and if you have time you should check them out. All of the Illusions talks are great. Illusions about Heaven, your life, God, the American dream...those are some amazing talks. Also you can look at the seminar titles and see if anything sounds interesting to you.

Here is the web address or you can just click on the title above
http://atl07.org/

ATL Conference

We took 35 students from Western to the conference in Atlanta. The theme this year was Illusions. It was probably the best theme I have ever seen us do for a conference. The idea behind it was "things aren't always what they seem." Almost like an Illusionist or a magician who performs a magic trick. The audience is amazed at an illusion that appears to be real, but if you know the "magic" behind the illusion, it never seems as amazing as it appears. We actually had an illusionist come to our conference and do a set. One of his "tricks" included making a table levitate. Now, he did not reveal the workings of the illusion, sadly, but he did tell us that one time he did this trick in Nepal and found out a man who lived in the city, did the same trick and said it was because he was given special powers through spirits. He met the man and asked him to do the trick and realized it was the exact same one as him, he even ordered the table from the same illusionist. But this guy in Nepal was using it to peddle himself. The table levitating seemed real...but it was just an illusion. There are many things in life we believe to be real that are just illusions. Sometimes there are things we believe to be illusions that are very real. This conference was about shattering those illusions. Some of the illusions shattered, were illusions of heaven, illusions of life, illusions of God, illusions about yourself, and illusions of the American dream. All of the talks will be available by the end of the month online and I will let you know when that happens, some of the talks were amazing. Overall it was a great conference for Western. A few students made some big decisions to really commit to following Christ. God also revealed some damaging behavioral patterns in some of our students, which I hope will translate into changing some decisions they make in their lives. Thank you for praying for us and our students during this time. I will let everyone know when the talks from the conference are available online.

more pics from ATL conference

More pics from ATL Conference

Pictures from our ATL Conference