BELYDIA EVENTS FIGHT SEX TRAFFICKING: 5 LESSONS LEARNED

1. Spiritual Warfare is no joke.

If you only knew the spiritual attacks the beLydia team encountered getting ready for this event, you wouldn't believe it! One example: You know how the week before you're hosting a party, you have a list a mile long of things you need to do so that you're prepared? Well, I had that mile-long list and then came down with the flu, so two days before our big event, I could barely lift my head off the pillow.

From daily planning sessions with Christina who has become my right-hand woman; Sue who just dove into the deep end of event planning; Amanda who set up and took charge of registration; Gracelyn painting beautiful ornaments; Shari running out to Home Depot at the last minute to purchase more lights; Ashley Canfield signed up as our event photographer; Julie helping plan men's events; Stacy helping create home gatherings; Elizabeth singing; Katie helping with a bible study; the vendors, sponsors and all the volunteers (Ryan, April, Veit, Clio, Colette, Kara) that made the event a success! The fact that beLydia has a team now is amazing. WE ARE BLESSED!

Special thanks to Sambucol and essential oils for helping speed recovery along.

So with all of the drama behind the scenes, this photo reminds me that I am so blessed to have a team of prayer warriors that are lifting me up. Moments before this photo was taken, I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack because of stress and these beautiful women covered me and beLydia--what a blessing.

2. Trust your gut.

From the beginning, my concern was having enough lighting for the vendors. I was assured over and over not to worry. Well, that's great and I agree, I shouldn't worry but I should have trusted my gut and gone out of my way to personally take care of the lighting instead of trusting someone else's opinion. In hindsight, that gut feeling was probably the Holy Spirit telling me to pay attention and respond. Fail!

3. Having an emcee is a smart decision. 

beLydia is so blessed to have beautiful Teresa from Let's Talk TV as our emcee. Having her emcee our event was a gift to me and gave me more freedom to concentrate on other things. There were moments where we had technical issues or time constraints and it was obvious that she was being led by the Holy Spirit so I didn't have to worry.

4. People want to help.  

After our first beLydia Gathering,  God brought beLydia the most brilliant, hard-working, talented people and what a blessing that is! I cannot even begin to tell you how much I appreciate them.

From daily planning sessions with Christina who has become my right-hand woman; Sue who just dove into the deep end of event planning; Amanda who set up and took charge of registration; Gracelyn painting beautiful ornaments; Shari running out to Home Depot at the last minute to purchase more lights; Ashley who signed up as our event photographer; Julie helping plan men's events; Stacy helping create home gatherings; Elizabeth singing; Katie helping with a bible study; the vendors, sponsors and all the volunteers (Ryan, April, Veit, Clio, Colette, Kara) that made the event a success! The fact that beLydia has a team now is amazing. WE ARE BLESSED!

This photo reminds me of all of my helpers. Because I was so far behind due to being sick, I had to scramble to get ready and I left this table a MESS. I had all the products sitting on the table, most of them still in containers. I ran home to take a quick shower and thought to myself, "What if I just don't go back?" because I felt so stressed out. I really wanted to quit and go back to bed.

I obviously knew I couldn't do that so I raced back and my messy beLydia table was totally transformed. The vendors pitched in and did one of the things that they do best, make things look beautiful. Blessed!

Special thanks to Whim Hospitality who donated the beautiful tent and chairs for our event (HUGE blessing) and to Trader Joe's who donated all the beautiful flowers for our event.