On Sunday Chris updated us about the conference she spoke at in Oman.

Chris shared:

Thank you so much for sending me as you did and for praying for me. So, I went out to Oman, to Muscat, in Oman with Natalie Williams on behalf of Jubilee+. We were there with the Family of Grace Church which is part of ChristCentral, part of our family of churches with Tim & Becky who lead the church there.

It was an amazing week, we landed on Tuesday morning having flown overnight and we came back last Sunday, so we were only there for a few nights, but it was so impactful. Some of the highlights that I wanted to tell you about, the church there is filled with many, many nations. I was astonished about how many there were, all with different languages, a little bit of English between them but despite not always understanding each other, there was such love between the people gathered.

When people came together for the Friday morning church service (their services happen on Friday’s not Sundays), it was just amazing to see the unity between all of these people, it was so moving. Then as we spoke to individuals and heard their stories, their stories of what God has done in their lives and how God had drawn them to Him, the grace of Jesus in their lives, they had such incredible stories which were really mind blowing. We were talking to people that had been through so much and yet the mercy of God had brought them together in unity.

The reason we were there was to speak at a women’s conference which took place on the Saturday and that was a tremendous time. It was called “From Brokenness To Beauty – the transforming power of God’s mercy”. So, there were about 200 women in the room who had never done a conference like it before. It was such a humbling experience to have been invited to speak. Natalie was the main speaker, and I was there as like plus one, so I sort of got in on it, but it was just amazing! There were these women that had put it all on, and they were so excited and so hungry to hear more about God. I felt as though, as I was speaking to them, asking myself the question, “what am I going to teach you, you’ve learned so much, you understand so much about God’s mercy”. But God moved and used what we had prepared, and we had lots of fascinating conversations, and they loved the conference.

They had hired a ball room in a hotel and the venue had said you can have it for the Saturday no problem. But when they had asked when they could get it ready for the conference, the venue had said, we’ve got an event on, on Friday night, so you can set up at 1am, is that ok for you? So that’s what they did, so this team of women arrived at 1am and they set the whole room up. The hotel had provided some rooms for them to go and rest in once they had set up, but nobody got any sleep because they were just enjoying each other’s company.

By the end of the conference, God had moved, God had met with me, never mind them, it was amazing and there was just this absolute joy in Jesus, and it felt like God was doing something. Well in fact what God had said to us was, this was like a banquet, I’ve prepared lots of different meals so come hungry. Sometimes when you are invited to something, you can think, “I’m not sure what the food will be like so you might have a little bit of food before you go”. But we felt God was saying, “come hungry, don’t be afraid to try something new, try something different” and I really think that’s what happened over the day.

I had a wonderful time and thank you so much for supporting me in prayer, I really felt that you were with me as it were, which was a real privilege.