The ONE Conference

Last weekend, we were so BLESSED to be able to attend and participate in the ONE Conference in Miami. Before we even knew that we were going to be living in the southeast region of Florida State, Daniel found out about this conference that was going to be happening over my birthday weekend in 2012, and we decided to register to attend and do whatever was needed to get there! By God’s grace, we are living only about an hour North of Miami so going to the conference was easier than we had imagined. Why were we so excited to be a part of this conference?? Let me (Laura) tell you a little bit about it. :)

 

We had listened to and watched sermons by Pastor Pedro Garcia who pastors Calvary Chapel Kendall in South Miami while we were still up in Washington. For a time we even considered moving to Kendall just to serve at his church until God directed us where He wanted us to go. His passionate preaching of Jesus Christ and the Gospel message is so real and compelling. The LORD had placed the vision for this conference on Pedro and his wife, Lourdes, for the uniting of the CHURCH as a whole in the city of Miami. The vision of the conference was to UNITE the Church, IGNITE a passion for Jesus, and IMPACT the world with His Gospel! There were over 10 speakers who shared over the course of 3 days including Francis Chan, Franklin Graham, Bob Coy, James MacDonald, Greg Laurie, and others. They PREACHED IT UP! It was a weekend that brought together over 200 churches and 6,000 people from the Miami area, and we all worshipped our Savior, saw many people come to Christ for the first time, and were challenged to put our faith into action.

This conference was so inspiring to us partly because of our involvement in REPOSSESS in Olympia. That movement was very similar as the heart was to bring unity in the Body of Christ in Thurston County. It is so beautiful to see that God is moving not only in Washington State, but across the country to bring His Body together as ONE! We had a great time together getting to worship Jesus with such a crowd of believers.  

Side note: It has been a particularly cool thing that God has also allowed our path to cross with Pastor Pedro who we have known about since before our move to Florida. Daniel met Pedro shortly after moving here last summer and has been able to build a friendship. It’s been awesome to see God’s hand at work in Kendall. Our friend, AJ, met his fiancé through this conference last September (she was one of the directors for the conference), so we can see how the LORD had been directing us toward this conference before we had any idea how great an impact it would have on our lives personally. We were also able to host Hillsong United and serve them throughout the conference--which was really cool. :) And we had no idea about any of this when Daniel registered us last Spring!