I’m so excited to announce here that She Speaks registration is OPEN!! I’m praying lots of our Speaker Girl community will attend, because although I now lead breakouts as a member of the P31 team, I’m also the blessed recipient of seven years of She Speaks training. It’s literally one of the highlights of my year every year.

Please visit the website if you’re unfamiliar with the She Speaks conference. I think it will be love at first sight! The most powerful voices for She Speaks, though, are former attendees, so I asked my friend Amy Lively to share her thoughts:

One wintery morning, loyal dog at my feet and hot coffee in hand, I sat in my usual spot on my yellow loveseat with my Bible and journal and wrote, “I’d like to share what I’m learning with other people.” I filled that journal page with a dozen different ideas, topics and verses the Lord and I explored together… but I had no idea what to do with this list! Perhaps, I mused, I was just going to have a very holy dog. At the top of the page, I wrote a website address for a women’s ministry conference called “She Speaks.” Their website said it was for “women who shared a passion to step out with the messages God has placed on our hearts.” I assumed they would step out to people, not just pets, so I registered.

In the days before GPS, my printed Google Map directed me to the middle of a North Carolina cornfield. I was hurried and harried and having a bad hair day. But finally—after months of planning and hours of driving—I took my seat, took a deep breath, took a look around… and burst into tears. What was I doing here? I was alone. I was outclassed. I was underqualified. I was unworthy. It was a waste of money for me to come here. I was in way over my head!

But it was at that first conference that one of the speakers uttered three little words that made my heart race.

And as soon as I heard her say the words “neighborhood Bible study,” I knew what I was going to do with that list.

The second year I attended She Speaks, I had started my own neighborhood Bible. I called it the Rosewood Café because I lived on Rosewood Drive.

Year three, I wondered if I could teach other women how to do this, and The Neighborhood Café was born. I met Jennifer Rothschild, founder of WomensMinistry.net, and became a contributing writer for her website. Year four, I took my best friend (her ministry, Metamorphisis Wellness Coaching, was born on the way home in my car somewhere between Virginia and Ohio). Year five I was accompanied by three friends and greeted by dozens more. Year six was a two-fer: I attended the She Speaks Intensive (and won a guest post on Lysa TerKeurst’s blog!) in January and She Speaks in July.

Because of the training I received at She Speaks, I’ve been able to walk through the doors God has opened with confidence. I’ve done the speaking gig, the writing gig, the peer groups and publisher appointments. It’s all golden! Several of my closest friends are from She Speaks. The networking is priceless, but it’s organic and natural and gracious.  Many of the features on my website were learned at She Speaks. Speaking skills that were modeled and instructed enabled me to share this story on FamilyLife Today.

I’ve been to She Speaks seven times now. You could say I’m a slow learner. Or you could say I’m a wise woman who knows a good thing when I see it, experience it, and witness it being lived out in my faith, relationships and ministry more and more each year. Each year I question whether or not I should go again. And each year I simply cannot imagine missing the impartation and revelation God releases through the exceptional teachers and the Proverbs 31 staff.

~Amy Lively, Founder of The Neighborhood Cafe

Thank you for sharing, Amy!

Have any of you registered? Make sure to come by and see me at the Next Step table!

Do you have any questions about the conference? I’ll be ready to answer them right here in our comments section.

For those of you who are clients between July 2013-July 2014, I host a breakfast every year to make sure I get some face-time to thank you. You’ll be getting an email in June with the details.

I hope to see lots of you in person at She Speaks this year!

Amy