
The first time we came together for a Nonfiction event was in 2014. I was President of Women’s Ministries for the UPCI Louisiana District at the time and it had been a while since the women in ministry of our state had come together for an event. We needed connection and fun and camaraderie, so I gathered my trusty few around me and said, “Let’s do it!”
We held that first one on the Louisiana District Campground and, with the help of one who shall remain nameless 😊, we begged, borrowed, stole (yes, literally, for just 2 days, then put them back!) couches and chairs and ottomans and love seats and anything we could find on the grounds. We hung string lights and rented a big, fat popcorn machine and set up game tables and passed out socks. We showed some cheesy media and laughed like crazy. And it was just wow!
We had to cancel the one in 2016, but we did it again in 2018. Following that one, our family relocated to the Midwest, but deep in my soul I knew it would come back to life at some point. Following some tragedies involving some of my personal friends in the ministry, we distinctly heard God say, “Now” in September 2021, and Nonfiction sprang to life in Terre Haute, Indiana.
It feels as though something massively deep has begun surging and churning in the spirits and the souls of this Tribe and we know we are catching a glimpse of something brilliant and glorious and exhilarating just beyond the veil.
I’m not sure where Nonfiction is going, but this I do know for sure: it won’t take a typical, linear path. It won’t become “just another event.” We will do the events as God leads us–we will write the words as God leads us–we will gather together as God leads us–we will become as God leads us. Because that’s part of this whole audience of one thing anyway, right?
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