Why Attend a Christian Writers Conference?

In less than three weeks the Cedar Falls Christian Writers conference will be over. This is the 22nd year for the conference, my 14th in attendance. It is also the second year that my husband Nick and I will serve as co-coordinators, along with a key group of people who serve on the leadership committee and those we have chosen as speakers. Nick and I take our part as coordinators seriously. Thanks to prayerful discernment in every aspect of the planning, we are keenly aware of God’s orchestration in who he brings to the conference and the encounters that happen there. This year our keynote speaker is the award-winning fiction author Susie Finkbeiner. We’ve added a new dimension to our conference with our first-ever artist-in-residence, Amylee Weeks. Why an artist at a writer’s conference? We are choosing one artist each year who uses “words” in their art, God’s Word, in particular, whether that means art with actual words (this year’s artist) or prayerful meditation on God’s Word during the creation of art. (next year’s artist Emily Rose Artistry) Besides sharing their faith story, the artist will lead attendees in a writing exercise based on a selection of their art.

For those who are prayerfully discerning whether they should attend a Christian writer’s conference, I have five good reasons to do so:

To learn more about the craft of writing. No matter our level of expertise in writing, it seems there is always more to learn. Sometimes we need to make a commitment of time and money to really hone our craft. Committing to a conference or a class could be the first step in taking our writing seriously. I’d been writing and getting smaller pieces published with some success for 21 years before I attended my first conference in 2011, but my seven book contracts came only after I’d learned more about the publishing world, mostly through the conference and the people I met there.

To learn more about the business side of publishing. It’s not enough to be a good writer; you also have to learn about the ever-changing world of publishing. What is a book proposal? How do I write a query letter? How can I build up my platform? Do I need an agent? Where do I find markets for my work? These are questions you can find the answers to at conferences and workshops.

To connect and network with other writers. There is nothing more enjoyable than “talking shop” with another writer who understands the foibles and follies of the world of writing. Writers at conferences and workshops share markets with each other, commiserate about rejections, and support each other’s accomplishments. I’ve made life-long friends at each conference I’ve attended. I also met my writing mentors (now good friends) Shelly Beach and Cecil Murphey at a conference.

To meet and network with editors, publishers, and agents or writers who have experience with them. I’ve developed both personal and professional relationships with editors, agents, publishers, and more experienced writers at conferences. I met and signed with an agent whose wife sat with me at a lunch table at one conference, though I eventually sold my non-fiction book to a traditional publisher without an agent. New writers at our conference can learn the difference between self-publishing, traditional, and hybrid publishing. They meet authors with agent representation and those without. There are opportunities for questions so they can make decisions about what they want for their own writing.

Amazing moments and divine encounters regularly happen at Christian writing conferences. I can’t speak for all conferences as I’ve only attended Christian ones, but I’ve found that if I pray fervently before, during, and after a conference, and keep my eyes and heart open to God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, amazing things have transpired at each of the conferences I’ve attended, some so powerful they’re difficult to talk about without crying. God works at these events in a mighty way. I may have attended my first conference for the publishing knowledge, but I kept coming back for that spiritual aspect my soul was hungry for.

To learn more about the Cedar Falls Christian Writers Conference, check out our website: https://www.cfcwc.org/

The Gift of a Praying Partnership

“Truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:19-20 (NIV)

What if there was a simple relationship tool available to all couples, one that could elevate an ordinary marriage and take it to extraordinary heights? Wouldn’t you want to try it?

Between us, Nick and I had over 70 years of marriage under our belts when we met each other in 2021. One would assume then we’d know everything there was to know about commitment, communication, and the covenant of a marriage relationship. Yet in all those years with our first spouse, we can’t recall praying with them outside of the rote prayers of our Catholic faith, at church or the dinner table, unless perhaps it was a quick prayer under duress. We’d certainly never held hands to pray out loud for our marriage or each other. We weren’t even sure how to do that kind of praying for ourselves, until the darkness of grief got us down on our knees.

We are convinced now that unified prayer would have benefited our first marriages. How could it not? Yet, many of us grew up never having observed a model of couples praying together. Praying out loud with our spouse might feel unnatural. Vulnerable.

No matter where you are in your relationship, whether newly engaged or married for fifty years, praying together as a couple is one of the most rewarding and intimate spiritual disciplines a couple can embrace in their walk with God.

On February 9, in Wheatland, Iowa, Nick and I will be sharing what we have learned and provide guidance in unlocking the key to the practice of praying together.
What better gift to give yourself as a couple than a delicious five-course prime rib dinner with a program that will enrich and fortify your marriage? Cost is $75 and includes the meal for two.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

I Take This Man

Cedar Falls, June 9-10, 2023 © Dave LaBelle

I took this man to be my lawfully wedded husband nearly two years ago.

This man, who recently spent three days helping at a Christian Writers Conference I’d agreed to lead just three weeks before we met. God went before me, knowing I would need Nick’s business sense and cooking skills just as much as I needed the support of a faith-filled partner.

The moment we make the decision to follow Jesus, we become new creations and God can do his restorative work in us. He had a lot of work to do in me in the ten years before I met Nick. Widowed in 2012, I began an odyssey of faith that would lead me to a personal relationship with God. I grew stronger in faith, reading the Bible and devotionals, doing bible studies, and spending contemplative time praying and journaling.

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I did, indeed, find Him. By 2018, I’d learned to listen to the Holy Spirit, trusting God to guide me in every aspect of my life, including the decision to sell half my possessions to move an hour away from my adult children, grandchildren and a Bible study group that had become like family to me. I left my comfort zone and biggest support system for a job at a spirituality center. Loneliness exacerbated by the move, I turned to God all the more, which was why I knew to listen when He asked me to pray for my “future husband.” Not pray FOR a future husband, mind you, but for a specific man God had already chosen.

The woman I’d become knew to obey the command to pray for a man I did not yet know (and didn’t quite dare trust existed) who evidently was going through something that prompted an urgent request from above.

Three years later, in July 2021, I met Nick at a time in his life he was seeking his own personal relationship with God. By the beginning of our second date, I already had strong feelings for him. We’d spent the better part of two hours getting to know each other with complete ease, sharing thoughts we’d never shared with anyone else. That his wife had died shortly before my 2018 prayer did not escape me. The first time we held hands was in the prayer time we shared at the beginning of our second meeting. By the end of that nine-hour date, I was certain Nick was the man God had asked me to pray for. For the first time in three years, I uncovered the prayer in my journal and read it to Nick.

“Do you think that man was me?” he asked, in awe of the idea of a God that cared so much about him he would ask a stranger to pray for him.

Knowing God had brought us together and was in our relationship from the beginning made it easy to say “yes” to each other just six weeks later.

I’d always wondered what Nick was feeling or experiencing when the urgent request “Pray for him,” came to me. He wondered too. There was no way to know. He didn’t keep a journal like I did and had no memory of anything unusual going on in late July 2018, outside of the usual grieving one does in the months following a spouse’s death.

That we become a new person when we begin following Jesus Christ has been radically demonstrated in my life. The pre-Jesus Mary wouldn’t have known how to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit any more than she would have trusted God’s promise of love.

Shortly before coordinating the writer’s conference, Nick and I were scheduled to speak at church on what it means to have a praying partnership. Pre-Jesus Nick might not have imagined participating in either of these events but seemed confident God would equip him for the call of speaking publicly on faith. At least, until the day before the scheduled talk, when he admitted to some doubt.

“Lord,” I prayed the next morning before Nick woke up. “I know Nick can do this. I know you have prepared him for this, that you want us to share our story. Allow me to help strengthen his faith. Show me how to help him.” Knowing exactly what would increase Nick’s comfort level, I dared to add “And please, Lord, let Nick have a chance to demonstrate his sense of humor.“

Look in his VA records. I wasn’t sure I understood the directive. I had access to his doctor’s records through the VA, but I’d never thought to dig through what amounted to thousands of pages of medical data.

Look in his VA records for the date when I asked you to pray for him.

It took a while to find records from late July 2018, but there it was, doctor’s notes from a visit to the emergency room. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I realized that the very day God had asked me to pray for my future husband, Nick had ended up in the ER in excruciating pain, having tripped and fallen. Experiencing physical pain on top of emotional pain, I knew Nick must have been in a very dark place when I was prompted to pray for him. When I told Nick what I’d discovered, all his doubts disappeared.

Our presentation was flawless, our natural rapport evident to the group of couples present. I was slightly disappointed that the serious topic of prayer didn’t really allow for Nick’s natural humor to shine as I’d prayed for. Then someone asked a question.

I picked up the microphone again, not realizing Nick had already turned it off. I began talking before the realization hit me.

“You turned me off,” I said.

“If only it were that easy,” he quipped. The room erupted in laughter.

Thank you, God, for the gift of Nick and a marriage centered on You. Thank you for answering prayers in your unique and wondrous ways.