As you may know, She Reads is a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries. And each year, Proverbs holds the She Speaks conference for those wanting to grow as speakers and writers. This year, bestselling author Cec Murphy is giving away ten conference scholarships and you, my friends, have the chance to win one today!
Here are the rules: This contest is for women who have never attended She Speaks. And, it is for women who would otherwise not be able to attend. If you can afford the conference – please do not enter to win a scholarship. Below is a list of sites that are participating in today’s carnival. Leave a comment on one (or all) of these blogs briefly stating what winning would mean to you in answering God’s call to speak. The more comments you leave, the better your chances of winning! A winner will be randomly chosen from all comments and announced on Friday, April 23rd.
Last year She Reads hosted 
a fiction book signing and we will do another one this year. A few authors planning to attend include Mary DeMuth, Tom Davis, Christa Allan, and Marybeth Whalen, just to name a few. So if you’d like to meet some of your favorite She Reads authors in person, make sure you enter to win today’s contest.
www.amycarrollp31.blogspot.com
www.susannescheppmann.blogspot.com
www.glynniswhitwer.blogspot.com
About Ariel Lawhon
Ariel Lawhon is the co-founder of She Reads, novelist, blogger, storyteller, and life-long reader. She lives in Texas with her husband and four young sons (aka The Wild Rumpus). Ariel believes that Story is the shortest distance to the human heart.
As I near the end of this blog tour, I am shaking my head…I cannot believe that I just typed so many different posts on so many blogs to try and win a contest to learn how to speak?? Alls I can say is that I am trying to listen to the prompting from the Lord and without a scholarship, I won’t be able to attend!
Isaiah 26:8
Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.
Thank you for this opportunity!
I am a teenager and have a passion for sharing God with others, especially those of my generation. I want to make a difference and feel God is calling me to speak and write about all He has taught me and how He has changed my life. Through my mom’s cancer journey, I have gotten to know Him better and have learned to trust Him more. As believers we should have the skills to be the best in presenting our message to others. It would mean so much to me to learn how to better communicate. I don’t believe God wants me to wait until I’m an adult to minister to others. I am praying for His provision for me to attend this conference if it is what He wants for me this year. Thank you for the opportunity to apply:-)
LJ
kajohnsonaz@hotmail.com
To be able to attend the She Speaks conference means that perhaps my husband would stop giving me books for special occasions, including Christmas and birthday, which are only one day apart, telling me how to become a better speaker, or a communicator whose message sticks, and how to make it through the dip! Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and love that he wants to see me succeed in this calling God has given me. He is truly my greatest cheerleader, coach, and resource! However, I am a woman and love to be around other women, so for me it would be a whole lot more fun to come and hang out with women who have the same passion and calling and learn together…rather than try to get through the first chapter of the last three books he’s bought me!
Seriously, God has called me to speak and in this season He is asking more of me in this calling. More discipline, more time, more learning! She Speaks would be a great way for me to develop even more as a speaker and to learn all those “things” from those who are much more ahead of me. Obviously, the scholarship is needed, otherwise my sweet husband would’ve sent me rather than buying the books:) Thanks for the opportunity to come and learn!
Anita McGinnis
http://www.trophyofgraceministry.blogspot.com
Just this week, I spoke to my women’s Rejoice Bible Study on creating faith moments with our children. Though I’ve shared this message three times in the last three years with different groups at my church, I’m never quite “comfortable” speaking to my peers. My hands sweat, my heart races, and my voice cracks! But, God still blesses, and many moms thank me afterwards for some fresh ideas to carry out in their own homes. I would love to attend the She Speaks conference to better equip me to share the messages God gives me. I give Him all the credit for any creativity that I possess, and therefore would love to share His ideas with others through possible speaking opportunities.
Julie Lavender
lavenders@bulloch.net
With great excitement, I read about the She Speaks conference scholarship opportunity. I hadn’t quite made up my mind to blog my entry – quite possibly because I tremble at the thought of speaking to adults – , but was praying about the chance to do so. When the time came for my children and I to begin our homeschooling day, I opened our kids’ Bible to the lesson for today, and realized I would be reading to them from Proverbs 31. I chuckled to myself, then made plans to enter the scholarship give-away. Thanks for your ministry.
Julie Lavender
lavenders@bulloch.net
A little over a year ago, I attended a writing intensive led by Cec Murphey. In a short amount of time, I realized I was being instructed by a very gifted writer (and speaker), one who cared passionately for those desiring to impart God’s words to others. I pray that the one chosen to receive this generous scholarship will glorify God, bless other women incredibly, and put a smile on Cec Murphey’s face! I would be delighted to attend the She Speaks conference to learn how to do just that!
Julie Lavender
lavenders@bulloch.net
My passion is Speaking. Imparting wisdom, knowledge and power to those in the audience as the Holy Spirit directs my path. Speaking to women; encouraging them; letting them know that there is someone out there that gets what they are going through, that cares and is there for them is the call on my life. I am a survivor of this world we live in. I have survived sexual abuse, domestic violence, self-loathing, hatred and the desire to end it all until I found God. Truly found Him. Let him in my life and embraced the love that He so freely gives me. I am at a point in my life where I yearn with all my heart to take all that I have learned and impart it into others. I want to laugh with them; cry with them; and grow with them as they embark on a deeper, closer relationship with Him. Being able to attend She Speaks! will get me one step closer to the dream.
kdchristian44@gmail.com
She Speaks
Wow, it is amazing to see how God is working in and through the hearts of so many women He is calling to speak.
God saved my life from the hands of a very violent and abusive marriage. I was saved and called into His leadership army within the same year. He spoke to my heart saying “all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28. Even though I knew this truth, I still felt as though I was in the “March of The Unqualified and the Unworthy”. Over the years He has reminded me that Moses and countless others formed His leadership army then and the call is no different now. For as He calls thus He equips…God spoke to my heart and said you are unconditionally loved, emotionally healed, and made whole. Remember my daughter there is not an affliction beyond My conviction. Your responsibility is to be 4 real to be healed.
I began serving with a local domestic violence shelter teaching cooking classes and sharing my testimony. I served within this organization for eight years. God expanded my territory and I served on a local governance board that supports domestic violence initiatives. At my former home church I served in the health care ministry where I was asked to speak/share my testimony at several events. God expanded my territory again and I worked and shared my testimony to survivors of violence in Celebrate Recovery.
In 2008 God called me to write devotion about my life experiences on this journey with Him. He spoke to my heart sweetly, that the devotions would become topics/platforms for my speaking ministry. In 2009, God created two open-door opportunities for me to speak. One was at a local college where five women who are walking with Christ shared their personal testimonies of surviving violence and God’s calling on their lives. The other opportunity came from a dear friend who was led a women’s ministry at her church. With God’s leading she purchased my ticket and paid me a nominal fee. I spoke at her women’s conference and the topic was Unconditionally Loved, Emotionally Healed, and Made Whole.
It has been a year since I last spoke. I have continued to write and develop the speaking platforms for which God is directing me. I am follower of your ministry and have prayed for three years to attend your conference. Finances have prevented me. I realize that God will complete His plan in His timing. This opportunity for Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference is God’s open-door opportunity to expand my territory once again. To allow me to be in the company of women that are called to speak, write, and teach His word and increase His Kingdom for His glory.
Joan Taylor
Jtaylor349@aol.com
This has been a year of turning for me – transitioning, answering His call. In 1992, the Lord called me to minister to Christian women who are struggling with their faith – women who are not established in His Word. He spoke quietly to me about sharing the hope that I have in Him. I have used these 18 years to prepare for this calling, to develop my skills, to learn more and more about the heart of a woman – from God’s perspective. I have waited for His timing – it is now! I have launched Jubilant Light Ministries – http://www.jubilantlight.com – and have begun a daily devotional blog, Morning Glory, which teaches nuggets of gold from God’s Word. I would love to attend She Speaks! Without a scholarship, I am unable to do so. Thank you for this opportunity.
Now, on to one more blog…
Bless you!
Nan Jones
My God has great plans for me and my family, it has been a desert walk for about 10 years but He has been so faithful taking me step by step in the direction He desires for my life. It was just impressed upon my heart in the last weeks about public speaking and been confirmed by God through someone else. I truly desire to share more of Him and less of me. Thank you for this awesome opportunity.
Barbara Martin
Words matter because people matter more. God called me to the ministry of writing long ago. But as I’ve grown in Him, He’s helped me to view my words as a vehicle to connect people with the One who loves them more than they can imagine. And I believe He intends to use both my written and my spoken words to accomplish His purposes.
As He’s grown my writing, He’s expanded my speaking opportunities. That’s why I began to pray about attending She Speaks. My husband, like many others, has faced the heartbreak of job loss this year. As important as the conference is, family obligations come first. A scholarship would allow me to attend.
I know the One who calls me to speak and to write is faithful. I’ll trust Him to meet the needs of all who enter. Thanks for offering She Speaks along with the scholarship opportunities. Because both words and people matter, I’m grateful.
I believe that God is my Father and that He has always been with me, protecting me and guiding me through the deepest, darkest and most despairing circumstances in my life. Sadly to say, it has been during these most vulnerable times in my life that I fell away from God. But being God, He was always there and found a way to bring me back into His grace. I do not know where God is leading me or what His plan is for my life, however, I do believe that God has been actively encouraging me to dig deeper into His Word for His purpose in my life. I do not know if I have the abilities, knowledge, skills, characteristics or work experiences to be selected for the “She Speaks Scholarship.” But I do know that God is my Father and that I love Him with all of my heart. Perhaps some of my life stories, actions and outcomes, might help someone else to find their way back to God. It would be the greatest honor of my life to be selected to attend the “She Speaks” conference and training and allowed to study and grow among such a dynamic group of Godly women.
God bless each of us.
Take care,
Marilyn Fielding
mefielding@aol.com
“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6 NAS)
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.” (Matthew 18:12-13 NIV)
As a breast cancer survivor at the age of 35 with 2 small children, I felt God calling me. I have been invited to speak at large events about my experience. Never having an opportunity to attend a conference like She Speaks, I told the Lord that the Holy Spirit will have to speak through me or provide me with the gumption.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Shelley Rindfuss
mrindfuss@columbus.rr.com
Thank you for the opportunity to try to win the She Speaks scholarship.
Rachel Latham
I have an ache to bring hope (real hope) to hurting hearts. Trully, I have a lot to learn and am not wise but along the way I have begun to learn how good and faithful God is,and how dearly He loves us. I ache to share that in any way possible. I also have had a love for public speaking since I was young. The dream of sharing God’s faithfulness and love has been on my heart for a long time. I just haven’t known what to do with it, other than sharing with people in my life. I’ve never been to the conference and probably won’t be able to attend without a scholarship. It would be a treat to be considered for this scholarship. Thanks for your time.
sarah_gillaspie@yahoo.com