This past weekend I took a road trip to Greenville, South Carolina for the Allume conference. A drive through the mountains, dotted with trees in various stages of transforming their summer coats to Fall, is a deep soul breath in a busy world. I traveled with a friend, who was attending Allume for the first time, and soon my vision filtered through new eyes ready to soak in all the weekend would offer.
We chose to go a day early to allow ourselves some deep exhales before the hotel would fill with new and old friends. When the conference began on Thursday, I immediately was drawn in by the symphony of voices that filled the lobby as well as the ballroom. Beautiful altos mixed with whispery sopranos and a tenor intermingled here and there as voices joined in unison for worship. But it wasn’t just the pitch of the voices that stopped me in wonder. The voices could be seen in rich color, depth of purpose as well as gentleness of spirit. The voices became a kaleidoscope of God’s creation that moved and blended as each person interacted and soaked in the words that God ordained for this weekend.
[Tweet “A kaleidoscope of voices blends into God’s creation as the Spirit blesses the union of women.”]
At times the voices lifted in unison and other times the voices were a cacophony of noise that sounded like dissonance until you were drawn into a conversation. I found that my voice blended beautifully with the others and the sweet moments of real life hugs and conversations were my favorite. The blending of voices turned into a union of hearts that beat together as stories were shared and God bound us together in love and friendship. Other moments my voice was quiet, as I processed and began to seek my place in the crowded room. Where does my voice belong and why does God bring us together for such a time and place?
The patterns of the kaleidoscope were intricate and detailed as each speaker added his/her words on the theme “together”. The varied backgrounds of young, older, women, men, white, black and everything else added to the beautiful details that made this kaleidoscope of voices richer with promise than you would think possible. Together is not just a mixing of voices, but a union of hearts that choose to work in unison toward a common goal. This weekend the goal was finding the common thread to tie our stories, seeking and asking for the Holy Spirit to guide us, letting God interrupt our day to show Him the glory and recognizing that we cannot change the world until we change our world first.
A kaleidoscope of voices came together in clear detail as God orchestrated the meeting of 400 women in Greenville, S.C. to learn, grow and interact with Him and the other women who were intentionally chosen to be part of the weekend. The harmony of hearts beating as one as commonalities were discovered became the praise we lifted back to God in the moments of worship, prayer and quiet acceptance of God’s presence.
Together this group of women raised their voices in praise to God and became the body of Christ. Everyone joined to become the pattern in the kaleidoscope as the Spirit bonded us as one.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. Acts 4:24
God brought us together in this time and place as a beautiful reminder that with a few twists and turns our voices will blend as an intricate kaleidoscope of unity.
In grace and peace,
Mary
A big thank you to Logan Wolfram and the Allume team for making this weekend a wonder, a time for learning and a joy-filled event.
Linking with:
Jennifer Dukes Lee at #TellHisStory
Beth at #WeddedWednesday
What a beautiful post Mary. I love the comparison of all of our varied lives coming together in a kaleidescope. Wonder, color, beauty and ever changing. I’m so thankful that I got some time apart to get to know you more and to meet dear Candace! What a wonderful group we are fortunate enough to be a part of.
Blessings to you my friend,
Patti
I was blessed by spending time with you at Allume. How lucky were we to be together in such an amazing atmosphere? Thank you for your kind words about my Allume recap. There was something about the blending of voices that really spoke to me at the conference. You are a dear and of course, I include your good friend Debbie in that too!!! 🙂
I always think our paths will cross at Allume, but they do not usually. But I recognize your name every year. 🙂 so hi, I am Jamie. I love your Allume wrap up. So beautiful! The conference was wonderful this year.
Well this can’t keep happening! I recognize your name too and we definitely need to meet. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your encouragement. I am blessed.
It’s so easy as bloggers to feel that we are competing against one another for attention, when we really need to remember we are a choir that allows for our voices to be blended in a more spectacular way than we could ever do alone, Mary! I’m grateful for your encouragement to us in this. I’m also so glad to see that you had a great time of refueling and “firing up” on your mission here. You are doing a great job and inspiring all of us to sing along!
My experience this year was so different than last year. I wasn’t sure what my takeaways would be as I was driving home. I love how God has been making it clear to me in the few days since I arrived home. God does want us to join our voices in harmony as well seek to honor Him with our choices. Thank you for affirming my words and for loving me and my words.
Mary, what a beautiful wrap-up! It was marvelous to see you again and to spend time with new and old friends alike. The kaleidoscope of voices certainly points to our differences but also reminds us so much of our similarities and the reasons that we need to come together. Whether it’s for a weekend conference, or it is in our daily lives, we can’t let things like gender, race, politics, church, or whatever separate us. We are one in the Savior who died for us. Now we just gotta act like it! 🙂 xoxo
Amen! You summed up my post perfectly. My biggest take away was the union of voices that needs to reach outside a weekend conference and into our everyday lives. You are a treasure my friend and anytime with you is a gift.
Mary, what beautiful reflections on the Allume conference. I love your perspective and I could feel it in my soul as you talked about the voices and community. It was so good to meet you in person and hug your neck. I hope we’ll get a chance to chat more in the future. Blessings and hugs to you, friend.
It sure was wonderful meeting you in real life. There were so many wonderful new friends that I met over the weekend and I was blessed by everyone. What a gift it is to put a face with a name in real life. Thank you for your sweet words today. Allume is special and after going two years now, I am learning that each experience will stand alone in how God teaches and what stirs in my heart. Praying your week is blessed!
Mary, what a beautiful description of the warm and wonderful allume conference…I was so glad to see you there and enjoy all the sessions as a newbie this year…such an atmosphere of “welcome”…many blessings to you!
I loved meeting you in real life. There is nothing like that connection. Thank you for encouraging me as always. I am grateful for the chance to go to Allume as well as be surrounded with such love and grace. Hugs friend!
I’m glad you scoped on Thursday night so we could feel like we were a part of it all. Hopefully one of these days. I loved this line: “The blending of voices turned into a union of hearts that beat together as stories were shared and God bound us together in love and friendship.” That is beautiful and so true.
Your description of the weekend is absolutely breathtaking, Mary! I’m so thankful I had that experience with you. I keep hearing Sarah Mae’s sweet little voice giving me permission to take whatever breaks I need. Getting a Facebook page together may be the only blog related task I complete this week, and I’m ok with that :). Much love to you, my friend. I’m blown away by your ability to post this beautiful piece in the midst of your 31 days series.
It sounds like it was an inspiring conference, Mary. I’m so glad you were blessed. Is that Candace in two of the pics?
Allume is a wonderful experience that I would highly recommend. Candace and I went to the conference together this year so yes she is in several of the pictures. I take it you know her. Thank you for stopping by.
Oh wow, you’re incredible, Mary!! 31 Days and Allume all at once! Talk about brave!
I see a few familiar faces in your pictures … and you’re all glowing. I’m happy for you … and hope you’ll be sharing more about the weekend.
I think it’s super-courageous to go off to a conference on your own … I’m glad you had a pal to share the adventure with you. This introvert would find the whole idea of venturing off by herself oh-so-daunting.
Hugs!
;-}
Linda- you would be surprised how well you would do even as an introvert. I am an introvert and even though I crave quiet when I get home after the weekend, I do well while I am there. BTW- my friend that I traveled with is Candace, who you know. I didn’t mention her name but I was blessed that we were able to ride together as well as room together. I would love to meet you at a conference someday.