No, that wasn’t an invitation to hug the speaker, it was the title of the talks we enjoyed at this years’ IBC Women’s Conference in Portugal from 25-27th April. Fourteen ladies from our church, representing six countries, joined 130+ ladies at the yearly conference.

Liz Curtis Higgs, the speaker and author of 26 books such as “Bad Girls of the Bible”, was a scream –I have NEVER laughed so much in a sermon– but she packed so much excellent teaching, so much drama, so much insight and wisdom as well as comedy into the four sessions that we just lapped them up along with times of joyful worship led by Miriam Wallace, a talented and sensitive worship leader.

We lapped up the good food, the sunshine, the beautiful Algarve coastline and the abundant fellowship too – we talked and talked and talked as only women can, sharing our joys, fears, hopes and lives with each other.

We came back having drunk deeply of the wonderful gift of Christian friendship, the costly gift of experiences shared in seminars where women showed how letting God control their lives has made all the difference to their marriages, ministries and homes, the daring gift of sharing honestly about their past sins and failures and the exciting gift of how God has transformed these very weaknesses into their strengths through the power of redeeming love. What a WONDERFUL God we have!!

He knew JUST what we needed to hear, just which buttons to push to open up areas of our lives that require his loving attention. We’ve been challenged to ‘Embrace Grace’ and let it make a difference.

Watch out, we might even embrace YOU!!!

Written by Alison Mckay