Sunday by the Sea: Robin Jones Gunn

"And he [Jesus] saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"
~ Matthew 8:26-27

Back in February I had the pleasure of meeting author Robin Jones Gunn at the Woman to Woman Conference hosted at my school (Corban University). I began a post series on what I learned at the conference, but I never finished it. However, I simply had to come back to it and at least share a few words of encouragement from Robin, as well as the picture (above) of me and her! It was super exciting getting to meet her, and she's very sweet!

Anyway, the title of the conference was What if God has dreams for your life? Robin talked to us about her own dreams and how God has worked in her life. (Her first talk of the two made me cry!) One verse she mentioned a couple of times was Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)--

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."

God is all powerful! He is in control of all the seas, of all creation, of all period! And yet how often do we put limits on what we think He can do in our lives?

Here are a few inspiring quotes from Robin:

• "Shame off you!" (Robin noted that she and her sister used to say this to each other instead of "Shame on you" in order to remind each other of God's grace.)

• "When God fulfills our dreams, it's not how we think it's going to be." (We've heard it said that God works in mysterious ways. Well, I think that's true in that we often don't understand how He's working in our lives until we can look back after the fact, and even then we don't have the complete big picture that He does. Robin noted that God plants the dreams in our hearts, but the way He fulfills them is often quite different from our expectations.)

• "You are a victim of grace, honey." (With all the trials of life, sometimes we look at ourselves as victims. But I love Robin's reminder that the only thing we are victims of is God's grace, which is far, far beyond what we could ever deserve!)

I loved getting to meet Robin, and as I've not yet read one of her books, I'm looking forward to diving into the one I bought (and had autographed!) at the conference called Under a Maui Moon--hopefully soon!

Have you had the opportunity to meet any authors? Have you read any books by Robin?

I'd love to hear your stories! And as you begin this week, please remember that the God we serve is omnipotent--all-powerful--and He has a dream/purpose for your life!

An Awesome Conference Experience!

I was so blessed to attend the Woman to Woman Conference at my school (Corban University) yesterday! The Associated Student Body generously offered to pay the way for up to 50 Corban girls, so I was able to go for free and hear author Robin Jones Gunn speak, as well as attend some great classes!

Robin Jones Gunn is the author of the "Christy Miller" series, the "Sisterchicks" series, and many other Christian novels and non-fiction books. Her latest book (coming out in May), co-authored by Tricia Goyer, is called Praying for Your Future Husband, and it was so awesome to hear where the idea for this upcoming release came from! I have to say, I have not yet had the pleasure of reading her work, but after this conference, I am definitely eager to do so!

Robin is a fantastic speaker--so sweet and personable--and I got to meet her, take a picture with her, and have her sign a book for me and a book I bought for my sister! *Squeal!* Yes, I was a tad bit star-struck, as you can probably tell! When I met her, I think I might have sounded quite silly:

Amber: "I'm sure you hear this all the time from people you meet at conferences, but I hope to be a novelist someday, too. I have a blog..."

Something like that! ;) Or how about this?

Amber: "Your talk this morning was so good. It made me cry."

Robin: "I hope they were good tears!"

Yes, they were! Both of the talks she gave us were excellent. Anyway, she was so kind and she gave me a couple of hugs!

She also pointed out that the nice volunteer who was selling her (Robin's) books just so happened to be an author, too, and now I'm going to be reviewing her book(s) here on my blog! How fun is that? Her name is Tracey Jane Jackson, and she has a Civil War Brides series that involves time-travel and romance. Sounds pretty interesting! (She said her books aren't specifically Christian fiction, but they are clean historical romances.)

Well, there's just so much to say about the conference that I'm going to do a series of posts about it! I'm planning on having a post for each of the classes I took (Contentment, Fitness Myths, and Spiritual Discipline), as well as a post about the main talks given by Robin Jones Gunn. I hope you enjoy them--I'm quite excited to share what I learned with all of you! (And I just love the connections between these classes/talks and some of my New Year's Resolutions, as well as the Contentment Reading Challenge!)