Posted on Monday, August 25, 2014

My Wild Obedience, My Little YES

“This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14

I went to Declare Conference 2 weeks ago. It was an amazing women blogging conference. From the name of it, you can tell that where we can go to learn more about blogging, how to blog, tips and tricks, social media, graphics, photography… But for me, God had something different in store there.

I experienced the unexpected.

He started with my heart, the very important part of this life.

He spoke to me clearly at every single session I attended.

So much to ponder in my heart and mind.

One of the speakers, Kristen Welch, said that our little YES can be others’ big YES! God can work things out that we cannot imagine how big it will be just because HE IS GOD!

This is my wild obedience to God’s calling, to what He has put in my heart. My little YES is to spend 5 Minutes ever Monday to pray for Bibleless and Unreached People in this country. My little YES is to mobilize more people to pray and to get involve in reaching out to them so they may hear the Good News. And I wanna see what God will do through our prayers, that He is unstoppable, that He listens to our prayers and that He is at works.

I am living my given life with a God-sized dream, to go serving Him and live among the people of SEA* one day with my family. The first step is, to pray. Prayer can end Bible Poverty in the Bibleless countries. Prayer can reach the Unreached People Groups wherever they are. Prayer can bring changes in people’s lives!

Would you also take 5 minutes today to pray for Focus Unreached People Group in Indonesia?

I am going to have a weekly post on 5 Minutes Monday Focus UPS starting next week. As a start, this is Indonesia. There are about at least 779 people groups in Indonesia, and there are about 227 unreached people groups and 450 of them need God’s word in their heart languages. This is a HUGE unfinished work for christians in the country. We need YOU! We need YOU to pray. We need YOU to standing with us in the gap for them. We need YOU to go with us as a team to reach them out.

Pray for God’s Kingdom come and His will be done for Indonesia!
Ask God to send more partners and workers to go and reach them out.
Ask God to open the ways for the people of Indonesia will hear the Good News, understand and be saved because they trust in the Lord and Savior.
Ask God to show you how you can be part of His mission work in Indonesia.

Terima Kasih! Thank You for praying for Indonesia today!

Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Things About Me (You Might Wanna Know or Not)

Less than 2 days….

I am going to Declare Conference in Dallas on Thursday morning, leaving my husband and 2 daughters at home for 3 and half day (I think…LOL!) But this conference had been a great blessing to me last year (we all got to go last year!). I learned a lot about blogging, writing and social media. And even more than that, I got to meet my friends that I met them first on internet world. It was just so different. And this is going to be another adventure with God who has called me and provided for me to go.

Few days ago, the hosts has started a link up for getting to know all attendees. I kept postponing to write about me. But today I decided just to write the 4 things about me…

4 Things About Me:

I am an Indonesian, has mix-culture background.
I am forever thankful that God the Father call me as His daughter, saved by grace and love by Him.
I am a wife to amazing husband and a mom of 2 daughters.
I can speak 4 languages and Mandarin is on my next list to learn.

4 of My Endearing Quirks:

After spending 7 years learning English at collage, and got married to a husband who speaks English and now we live in States for over 6 years, I still make a lot of mistakes. I often say “He” when I meant “She” or vice versa. So bear with me, English is my 4th language!
I am clumsy when it comes to sharp things. I cut myself a lot when I do craft projects or cooking.
I have a mom who is a cook and cater, but this girl just don’t like cooking at all. But when we moved to States, I don’t have my mom with me, so when I want to cook some Indonesian or Chinese food, I call her or Skype with her.
I am a flipflop and show lover, especially Convers a.k.a. Chucks and flat shoes. LOL! And my 2 daughters are showing it too right now! My husband has to watch out for us when we go to store, especially Target or shoe store…

4 Things About My Blog & Writing:

I started blogging back in 2006 when I was at collage. I did that because some of my friends showed me their blogs and I used Blogger (free!) as a start. I used Indonesian on my blog in 2oo6, then started using English 2007 because I realized that it was a good way of practicing my English.
At the beginning, I wrote a lot about what God had taught me through my Bible Study and then it developed. Not only about what God has taught me, but also my experiences with Him, journey, family and mobilization topics.
I am super THANKFUL I met Denise Hughes at Declare Conference 2013! When I went back home, I bought her book, On Becoming A Writer, I have been learning a lot since I read her book. As a English major graduate who has to use her English every single moment, writing is my other weakness. But I ask God to give me wisdom and ability to keep improving myself in this area.
Now, my blog is about Mission and Crafting. I write about Mission and needs of God’s word in languages that people can understand best in their hearts, who do not have one single verse right now. We are serving God with Wycliffe Associates now and preparing to go to SEA* There are a lot of needs there. We cannot wait to be there. And I also write about DIY, craft, scrapbooking and card-making projects. I create projects with a mission, to declare God’s glory though my handworks.

4 of My Favorite Things:

I love love love to spend time with my family. My favorite thing to do every day! I cannot imagine when I am not with them. I’ll MISS them so much!
I love dark chocolate 😀
I love dark roast coffee with half-n-half and teaspoon full of sugar.
I love my husband’s cooking!

(I wish it is not limited to only 4 things… I could go on and on… LOL!)

I am super duper exited to be at the conference, to see again some friends I met last year and to meet new friends. I see y’all there on Thursday – Sunday! WooHoo!

Posted on Thursday, August 22, 2013

Refreshed, Renewed, Inspired

I am refreshed, renewed, and inspired when I came back from Declare Conference (8/9 – 8/10), in Dallas, TX.

I am refreshed because it was a great weekend to spend with a bunch of amazing and wonderful friends I have met online and now in REAL LIFE! It was because God has given me a time to just hang out with them, enjoy each other presence, laughed with them, sang worship to God and prayed with them.

I am renewed because God used the speakers to teach me and to renew my world view about blogging and writing and to give me encouragement I need to go on in this journey.

Jeff Goins shared about how to build a platform with words, passion and people. He says that writing is not all about finding a topic, but it is about finding your voice. Do you write? Then you are a writer. Do you blog? Then you are a blogger. For a long time I didn’t wanna call myself a blogger (a writer, maybe not yet). But from his session, I realized that I am a blogger because I blog, I write blog post. What do you call yourself? Jeff also said that our platform is about our readers, not us (the writers).

“If you are not gonna believe who you are, who would be?”

Mary DeMuth has so much wisdom sharing with all of us how God has led her step by step through all her darkest hours and use them to glorifying His name through her books and testimonies. Finding our voice is not only just write what you know for the readers/audience, but it is about knowing well what God calls you to write and to share to the right audience. Writing takes time and practice and practice and practice. Have you spent your 10,000 hours in writing? Have you read books widely?

Kat Lee (The Blogging Ninja!) shared with us blogging tips and she said that we are overwhelmed is because we are wearing too many hats (CEO, Manager and Writer) at the same time. Be an effective and efficient blogger!

Lara Williams says, “The Gospel is not only to be preached it, but to live it.” Everything begins in our prayer closet. She shared her life testimony that God is care more about changing us rather than the circumstances, but he will use the circumstances to chance us and to bless us. She also said that ask God always to fill us up every day, we need to spill it up to others and keep on being filled when we want to serve others.

Abbie Haberstadt, at the DIY Blog session, shared the importance in blogging about DIY is Clarity. What is the purpose of the blog? Why am I writing this post? Are my directions easy to follow by the readers? Are my pictures and visual aids clear and helpful? She gave us some good examples of each point. She said, “Tell a story, just talk about it, make it personal and BE REAL!” And oh briefly she showed us how to use PicMonkey, online and free photo editor. Quick and easy!

I wish I could go to every session and can give you more detail on what I’ve learned there. I am still processing every note I took at the conference. It will take sometimes for me to process as I learn to apply them.

I am inspired because of all of these women have one desire: TO DECLARE GOD’S GLORY through their writing and blog! I am encouraged to take the leap of faith to write more of what God has put in my heart, to continue writing blog with confidence knowing God is with me and surround me with all supports I will need. Looking up to these women of God, I see God and His faithfulness in their lives.

I am thankful I was there. I wanna thank every friend who prayed for me and my family. God made it happened!

And Yancy Not Nancy was there! She is my daughter’s most favorite ever! Yancy writes praise and worship songs for family and kids. If you have kids and love worship, you should get her CD/DVD! (I will have a special blog about it and a giveaway… stay tune!)

Most of all, my favorite thing from the Declare Conference is the Selah Room, sponsored by The Seed Company. It is the room where we could pause ourselves from whatever we were doing and spend time with God in prayer.

So, people says that picture worth of 1000 words… then… here are some of the pictures I took at the conference. I wish I could take a picture with everyone I met there.

I link this post at Declare link up. Over there, you can read all the stories shared by those who attended the conference. I am blessed when I read their posts and I know you will be, too!

Make sure that you visit Declare website, Twitter and Facebook to get their update on next year conference. Pray and God will make the way for you to be there!

Posted on Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Declare Conference: The Voice We Have

I love this quote from Declare Conference blog sidebar. The purpose we come to know God is to make Him known to our family, friends, and to the whole world!

Twenty three days remaining until the Declare Conference (August 9 – 10, 2013).

I am excited to be there, not because this is my first blogging conference, not because it’s a trend to go to a blogging conference, but I have my very own reasons to go.

Honestly, I do not write well in English and just “gibberish” here and there on my post since 2008.

Yes, I am nervous. Yes, I am not a “regular” and “consistent” blogger. Yes, I am a newbie in blogging world. Yes, I am a home stay mom and work at home mom (for now). Yes, I am a missionary. Yes, I am not English speaker. Yes, I’ve made TONS of mistake in my writing (even in this post, perhaps). But those are the WHYs I wanna go to Declare Conference.

I wanna be there because I wanna be voice through writing my stories, testimonies to declare the glory of God, to make Him known among the nations, be the voice to share the needs of the people who do not have one single verse of God’s word in the language they understand, to mobilize more Christians to see how they can be part of God’s mission works in every way they are called to. I am super excited to meet The Seed Company bloggers, those who have one desire and vision to end Bible poverty!

I wanna go equipped and learn from the bests how to write and share my stories effectively so that the message can be delivered in ways the readers can understand it. I want my posts impact lives!

I wanna be there because I wanna be inspired by other Christian women bloggers who have been great blessings in my life thought reading their posts.

My list can go on and on… but I would like to share with you today that this conference is not just a gathering of a bunch of bloggers, this conference will make a difference in your life and others.

If you have the same (or maybe similar reasons) like mine, or life just like my kindda life, then you might wanna pray and ask God to send you to this conference.

This is the conference where you wanna be there and together we shout out our voice to declare the awesomeness of our Living God, the greatness of God and to know that we are not alone. This is the conference where you can find mentor, accountable friend, and encourage each other. This is the conference where God will glorify HIS HOLY NAME through your and my posts!

What is the FUN part of going to this conference? OH YEAH! This will be SO MUCH FUN! We get to meet friends we have met through Twitter and Facebook group, or any other Social Media IN REAL LIFE!! Isn’t that wonderful and FUN? Meeting them, hugging them and having conversation with them in person! We will make new friends and building relationships. And oh I almost forgot the mention that the Hotel where you can stay with special deal for Declare Conference attendees is amazing!

There is coffee/tea in your rooms.
Room Service is also available.
The restaurant downstairs serves Starbucks coffee.
There is a Starbucks 1.3 miles away at 4010 N Macarthur Blvd
Declare is hosting a special European Coffee Bar on Saturday:

“Fresh orange, lemon zest, shaved dark chocolate
whole cinnamon sticks, rock candy stirrers,
grand marnier flavored whipped cream
featuring premium regular and decaffeinated flavored coffees”

(Michelle Acker, Declare Conference host, person who can help you with anything related to the conference :D)

Friends, I do hope and pray for you that God will make a way for you to go to Declare Conference this year. If you feel God leads you to go, you still have time to register today!

Register: http://www.declareconference.com/register/

About: http://www.declareconference.com/about-blogging-conference/

The Speakers: http://www.declareconference.com/speakers/

Session Topics: http://www.declareconference.com/session-topics/

Posted on Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Send Me To Declare Conference!!!

WOOHOO!!!! I really excited for this conference! I’ve heard a lot about any blogging conference out there, and I found out about Declare Conference a couple of months ago. I’ve been praying and asking God to make a way for me to go since.

Why do I wanna go to Declare Conferece?

Main reason is so that I know how to declare God’s love and grace to the world through my blog, to mobilize other Christians to pray and get involve in mission works to reach out the world and spread God’s Gospel!
Where I can learn from the amazing and favorite Christian bloggers, so that I can improve my blogging skill (I SO NEED TO LEARN IT!)
Where I can meet up with my friends I have met online in person and making new friends who has the same passion.
Networking with other bloggers
My first blogging conference!

I wanna be there! To be there is an answer to my prayer and a dream come true!

You can win a free ticket to Declare Conference? You can go to HelloMornings and check out the details.

Wanna know more about Declare Conference and what is all about, you can go here.

Who will be speaking there? Here they are.