A God-Sized Dream takes off today.
It’s been a year since we first started planning how to bring the (in)courage beach house to life – where our community could all put their dirty, sandy feet up on the coffee table together and share their real stories late into the night.
Well today, friends, kick off your shoes because the beach house doors are open!
Our first ever un-conference conference kicked off yesterday.
Today nearly 1,300 women are meeting up in real life because they have a passion for Jesus and His community.
We needed a way to give the thousands of women who visit (in)courage on a daily basis with their aching hearts, their joys, their fears, their prayer requests, their hopes and dreams a real life community to share those with. A community that is seeded online and grows off line.
That’s how (in)courage in real life was born.
And to watch all of you stepping into each others’ real lives? It sort of takes our breath away.
It’s an all-you-can-eat, wear-your-comfy-clothes, invite-your-neighbor, don’t-have-to-pack-for-it, girls-just-wanna-have-fun, in-real-life-is-better-than-online, un-conference, conference! Especially if Instagram is anything to go by!
The webcast kicked off yesterday and there’s tons of new content to tune into today. Just imagine thousands of (in)courage women all over the world getting together in homes, coffee shops, restaurants, or churches – you name it– to connect in real life!
We love the online world, but there’s only so far a comment box can go to connect us. We’re looking forward to stepping through blog posts and into each others’ real lives.
And if no one in your area is familiar with (in)courage and (in)RL, could you invite a few friends you already know over to watch the webcasts with you? Maybe you’d like to curl up on the couch with hot chocolate and watch them by yourself? Whatever you decide is perfectly fine with us.
Everyone is welcome, just as they are. And all webcast content {Friday and Saturday} will be available through midnight EST on Sunday. After that you can purchase the whole (in)RL DVD kit and expanded study guide online. Can I get a whoot whoot!
Some helpful handouts, tips and FAQs for (in)RL:
- The full agenda.
- Your custom (in)RL Webcast handouts – just click this link to download.
- A handy-dandy technology checklist in case you run into bumps on the Internet highway trying to tune into the webcast!
- It’s not too late to register here.
- If you have questions, please check out our FAQ page or contact us via email at incourage@dayspring.com
Let’s keep in touch as we watch together using hashtag #inRL on Twitter and Instagram.
With warm wishes and grateful thanks,
Lisa-Jo and the (in)courage team
Dear Lisa Jo and the entire (in)courage Team,
So much fun to be in community with all of you yesterday. I watched on my own once and then invited a neighbor to join me and we watched together! She really (in)joyed watching as well. We went for a walk afterwards and verbally processed all that was so meaningful to us as we shared the webcast time together. She left my home with 2 books in hand … One Thousand Gifts and You’re Already Amazing!
It was about reaching out and sharing the time of fellowship with a girl friend.
Tomorrow I will rise early, shower, put on my favorite pair of Jeans, and my lovely
t-shirt and travel to Lake Elmo and (in)joy the community of women in Minneapolis / St. Paul.
Remaining constantly In His Arms, Beth
ps I love that you have made this webcast, beach house, whatever one desires to call it so available and affordable.
your prices just plain ROCK!
I really hope that I’ll be able to buy the video afterwards because with three kids running around… LOL! I enjoyed what I got to see of the video Friday, but I missed most of Sara’s story, which I wanted to see. So happy to see it’ll be up all weekend!
Loved the start of it all last night, and following the comments on twitter while watching.
Just 3 hours til our meetup here in N Ireland.
As I said in a text to friends – “I would appreciate prayers for is event. I know numbers don’t matter (where 2 or 3 are gathered…..) and although I’m not sure WHY I am doing this, or WHO I am doing itfor but really felt I should do it”
Praying for all the events today, all the new relationships and connections formed, but offline and online.
I’m definitely stepping out of my comfort zone today…..but I know I am not doing it alone!
I missed most of yesterday but followed along via Twitter. Today though, I am joining a meetup in my town. Nothing ever happens in our town, so I consider it a gift that a group is meeting for this un-conference. I’m a bit nervous because I am not a “people” person but also excited because this is my first step in the direction of embracing what a community based on the same values is. I am hoping this is the beginning of new friendships also. And I so hope you girls plan to have one of these next year! 🙂
I enjoyed yesterday’s online conference so much. I tweeted right along as I heard things I wanted to share with others. I absolutely loved the song in the background of Sara’s story and had to find it on YouTube. Now I can hear it any time and it reminds me of Sara and how she is still impacting people for Jesus.
I am watching the videos today and so glad I can watch them several times.
Blessings and love,
Debbie
PS. Thank you to the (in)courage group.
Oh! It sounds so wonderful! I hope that everyone has an amazing time and that deep relationships are formed! So wish I could be there!
We just finished up with our group! Had a wonderful time and really enjoyed it-Thanks for making this possible.
Thank you.
Yours [(in)courage] is a rare and remarkable ministry of friendship. Your generosity of spirit and genuine desire to see others blessed is truly special. Meeting girlfriends for a beach house weekend, in order to bless and be blessed, to encourage and comfort, to share joys and sorrows, is not so very uncommon, but whoever heard of them opening their hearts to the messy, friendless outsiders – taking time to pray for them, and to respond to their comments – loneliness, deep wound lifted up – all through the year? I cannot thank you enough for the welcome.
May the God of grace strengthen and bless each of you.
Dear (in)courage
It has been great to find out how the community got started and to listen to how God has been leading this all and bringing together women’s hearts in and through Him. I really enjoyed watching the videos this evening and tomorrow I have a couple of friends coming round to watch some, so I pray that we have a blessed time together.
Thank you for having me at the beach house! I am blessed from the experience, as I open my heart to community… eeeek scared but I go in courage!
Prayers and love
Thanks to the team at incourage, I am finding community for the first time in years and I am so tickled about it!
My heart is full and God is so good.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
So great! Wish I could make it to a gathering!
I was so blessed by all of the videos today. Had a wonderful time with other women at our meet up in Siloam Springs, Arkansas! Thank you for making all of these God-blessed resources available to us! And thank you for all the hard work everyone put in to make the event happen! May God bless all of you wise, spirit filled women of (in)courage!
Thank you so much for this wonderful conference! In hosting a meetup at my house I stepped about a hundred miles out of my comfort zone in hosting, and was rewarded with the blessing of a beautiful day getting to know women I’d just met and women I’d known for years. The videos were perfect…honest, relevant, and inspiring. The study guide questions led to hours of heartfelt discussion, in fact we could have talked well into the night! Our beach party broke up only after husbands started texting, wondering what had become of their wives. It was truly a blessing, a time to explore what it means to be in community and to be sisters in Christ. We had a houseful of ladies from different denominations, different stages in life from new mothers to grandmothers…and there was something for everyone, a place where we could all meet and understand each other. Thank you, beautiful (in)Courage ladies! I’ll be buying that DVD set so that it can be shared with a wider audience than can fit in my living room. Truly a blessing!
I’m heartbroken….I’ve missed it all. I registered so long ago, have been anticipating this moment since day one, and I’ve missed it.
…so many factors, and I’m trying to watch before they all expire, but I’ve only two hours left, and I’m stuck at home with an internet connection that is busted, and a ticking clock, and a frail body and mind. My heart hurts that I won’t be able to see these videos, that unanticipated interruption after interruption kept me from missing out on a weekend I KNOW I was in desperate need of. Can anything be done Lisa-Jo? I’m at my last hope.
They will be putting all the videos together into a DVD, so no worries, they will be available. So sorry for your unexpected factors, praying for you right now.
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