We're Gearing Up!
I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALMOST OCTOBER. OH MY! This will be the first of many emails so I encourage you to read them. Please read them!
First, I have received several deposits from www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com. This really makes me feel great to know folks are visiting our website. A number of you paid the $25 conference special deposit in February at the Cove, so I have you on my list too. This is the first order of business.
IF YOU PAID A $25 DEPOSIT at the 2017 ACWC for your 2018 conference I need you to send me an email via this link. [email protected]
Rooming at the Cove is very limited and I need to verify all those who paid the $25 at the conference in February to hold your spot. Please respond to me via the above email and let me know if you want a single or a double and if you want a double, who is your roomie. I do not want to miss anyone who has paid this deposit to hold their room and between my surgeries, technology, and life, there is always room for mistakes. So please, respond to me asap so I can verify with the Cove that I have all your names on the list.
So here's what's coming down.
I have gone through not one, but two brain surgeries this year with the most recent being August 31. It was tempting to add the "after surgery photo" in hopes to draw on your sympathies, but I decided that would only serve to scare you silly. :) Things are going well. I'm progressing slowly. My hearing is about 75%. It simply takes times for all the internal swelling to go down and for my hearing to improve and my thoughts to become uninterrupted. For this reason, I ask first and foremost for your prayers and your patience with me. I do lose thoughts and words at times and though I know this will improve with additional healing, it does make things a little frustrating. Please bear with me. FOR THIS REASON...DO NOT RESPOND BY REPLYING TO OUR NEWSLETTERS. Please send me individual emails to [email protected] . Concentration is hard and when emails are stacked, I struggle to wade through. Please be kind and email me on individual new emails so that I do not miss anything. I hope to be 100% by the conference but your help now, would be amazing. There is money, reservations, classes, individuals all pouring in at once and I need our communication to be as easy and clear as possible so I don't miss anyone or anything.
Having said that, here is what I need for you to do:
Please, please do not reply to this newsletter with your questions or even answers to questions I have asked. I cannot find all the responses. Yep, I said this in the paragraph above, so I hope that tells you that this is VITALLY IMPORTANT.
- I will be sending notes to you to verify your registrations and your roommates. If you have signed up for a double and NEED A ROOMMATE, I need to know this so I can help locate you a buddy. We are trying to discourage triples and quads because conferees will end up dropping out of the conference and the roommates are left to pay the difference between a triple and a double or a quad and a triple. If you absolutely must have a triple or a quad, I need to know that, and I need to know you have roommates before you register. I cannot guarantee that I can locate someone willing to share in a triple or a quad.
- Secondly, talk us up. Share about the conference with your peers and recommend they attend. We would love to have them. Keep in mind our prayer team is already praying for God to send those He'd have attend. Beth Fortune and I have been sending out letters to our warriors since March. We are up to 76 conferees. Our conference can accommodate 125 conferees. This means we have space for 49 more conferees. That's all. Your help in spreading the word will help us fill these slots. God always maxes us out. Always. But when you spread the word about the conference, it's the nudge some may need to commit.
- NEXT AND VERY IMPORTANT - We have a new website for the conference. It's very nice and very user friendly. www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com . Everything you need to know will be there, even these newsletters. We have a tab called CONFERENCE UPDATES. When you click updates you'll find information on registration, checking in at the hotels, contests as they progress. Any kind of update. Currently this page houses last year's information, but honestly, it won't change much. So read through it. Under Conference Updates you will also find NEWSLETTERS. You will be able to read every newsletter, so I encourage you to check in on this page and make sure you are getting all the upcoming news, needs, and happenings. As always, beginning in January we will offer a few weeks of emails with additional teaching for you. The closer we get to the conference, you will receive weekly letters. October through December, you will see monthly letters.
BIOS for our ROSTER
For those returning, you know the drill. We need a new photo and a short (50 word bio). Please send those to [email protected]. You may put your bio in the body of the email, but attach your photo as an attachment. Cindy Saab worked hard last year to make a form that very few of you actually used for your bio. Please label your email in the subject line BIO, so we know to send it to Cindy Saab. If you are new. I need a 50 word bio, written in 3rd person, and a photo of yourself. Please make your photo of you and not your entire family. We just don't have the space in our roster for large photos. Please keep your bio down to 50 words. Add your email address. This will be your networking tool. Every year I ponder whether to do away with this but then I realize what a valuable tool it is, so we trudge ahead. Start sending those. It doesn't matter if you sent one last year. SEND A NEW ONE THIS YEAR. We do not have the time to dig through last year and find your bio.
Finally
Pray for this conference, for our faculty and for the conferees God will send. This is so important to us. Like I said, we began praying for you the day the 2017 conference ended. Begin to prepare your hearts. I'm working on some new things for the conference this year and with this surgery...I need your prayers.
Our faculty will be as follows:
Our headliners: Bob Hostetler (we all love the Bobster) and Tim Shoemaker (Tim is the most amazing man - you will really love him)
Our teachers: Edie Melson, LaTan Murphy, Andrea Merrell, Sarah Thomas, Anna Floit, Lori Hatcher, and Lin Johnson
Our mentors: Yvonne Lehman, Larry Leech,Vonda Skelton, Linda Gilden and Edie Melson
Agents: Diana Flegal, Les Stobe, and new agent for the Steve Laube Agency, Bob Hostetler
Publishers - Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and also from the Christian Communicator - Lin Johnson
Magazine - Lori Hatcher
I am nervous, after these surgeries, that I will miss important details. Will you specifically pray for me? I'm excited to see who God will bring to us this year and even more excited to see what works He will perform. I can't wait to see you all. It's like a momma hen scooping in all her chicks on Day 1 of the conference.
Send your bio and photo
Talk us up
Pray for us
PREPARE YOUR HEART
One other detail. We do record all our classes and keynotes. HOWEVER, many of you asked why we did not record worship time. We can't. We are not allowed to record the music. It's a copyright thing and we can't afford thousands of dollars to pay for the rights to record. I'm sorry. But LaTan has cd's and she'd love for you to purchase one and worship with her at at home.
FINALLY, let me share where God is leading us this year . . .
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. Philippians 2: 14-16 NIV
Attitude sets the pace. That's what my high school band director used to tell us after hours of marching on the field to prepare our half-time show. It was hard to bear the relentless summer heat while we tediously learned music and precise steps. By the end of the day hearing, "Once more. Back to your positions," didn't do much for our tired bodies and attitudes. When our director sensed the tide turning sour, he'd run through the ranks patting students on the back, encouraging them, praising them - rejoicing in the hard work already done. His enthusiasm lifted our attitudes and pushed us to continue.
Despite everything, this is true. Attitude does set the pace and it can be joyful and fun or one that drives us nuts.
As a managing editor, I've experienced lots of "attitude" from writers. Some who are so hungry to publish that their excitement brings them an amazing attitude of gratitude and pleasure. Others, exhibit the attitude of entitlement. They grow demanding, pushy, and honestly . . . quiet hurtful at times.
Paul didn't menace words when he reminded the Philippians to do everything without grumbling or arguing. Better yet, he explained why. So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Our nation . . . our world is filled with rhetoric and chaos. It's as though the very foundation is crumbling below our feet. There seems to be no pleasing folks and every word only seems to incite glaring anger. Satan is very happy because we're playing right into his hot little hands.
It's up to us to change the attitude. To stop demanding like toddlers. To stop carrying our feelings on our shoulders and insisting everyone is out to destroy us. Your attitude will shape change. Your attitude dipped in the blood of Christ will make a difference, but you have to choose to let God guide you in the right way.
As you prepare for this conference, start now developing the attitude that Paul suggested. Let go of the "all about me" stuff, and replace it with "all about Him." In all things bring Him glory and honor and when you do . . . not only will you be happier, but God will bless your efforts.
GET READY. We're ramping up!
Much love,
Cin
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