Women of Faith Loved: The Farewell Tour

Friday night, I headed to the American Airlines Center in Dallas to go to the Women of Faith: Loved The Farewell Tour. This is the final tour for Women of Faith and one of my old co-workers was able to get all of us former employees a suite to watch the event together. She had told us about it many months ago so I was excited when it finally got here.

When I started at Women of Faith, I worked as a Product Assistant, then became a Volunteer Coordinator and then finished as an Event Planner. Dallas was my event to plan for many years so it's always had a special place in my heart. When I left Women of Faith, it was because Mallory was 7 months old and I did not want to travel as often for work anymore. I loved all the people I worked with and was sad to not see them everyday anymore but knew it was the best decision for our family. My time at Women of Faith was a wonderful season of my life. I was there for a total of 6 1/2 years and am so grateful for the time there so it was so great to go back and see it all again!

Once I got to the AAC, I walked around aimlessly but finally found out suite and hugged all former co-workers and friends. A lot of people who left around the time I did are now back working for Women of Faith so we chatted about things past and now. I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time seeing my friends.

Be warned: Many selfies were taken this night. I wanted pics with everybody so that's what I got! One of the people I couldn't wait to see was my friend, Jodi. We were really close friends when we both worked at WoF. Jodi was a Hotel Coordinator and after our event in Rochester in 2008, we traveled to Niagara Falls together. It was such a fun trip! I hadn't seen her in so long so it was great to catch up!

I didn't watch much of the event because while it was going on, I walked around the concourse to see all my friends that were working the Product and Registration Tables. Traveling with these people for years was fun so I had to go and hug their necks. This is Clay and we came to WoF about the same time in the Product world. He's still working some for WoF and I can't keep track of where he lives because he is always on the move!

And I kept walking and then got to see my sweet friend Katie Adcock - who is now Katie Peslis. I hadn't seen her since her wedding 2 years ago so it was so nice to chat with her. I introduced her to the greatness of Dinosaur's BBQ in NY and we enjoyed many times just hanging out, relaxing and chatting in our hotel rooms after a busy WoF weekend.

Katie is now going to be leading worship at a new Teen Event: There{4}. I'm so proud of her and thrilled to see how God uses her! She will also be touring on her mother-in-law's farewell tour next year as well.

I finally got to see Betty Ashley. She and I were Event Planners together and she became such a great friend for me. We keep in touch even though she now lives in Spokane and we don't get to see each other that often but when we do, we pick up right where we left off. She was the EP for the event this weekend so she was working as well but we had a good amount of time to just talk.

During the break on Friday night, they had arranged for all those who had worked at Women of Faith to get together and to see each other again. Our former leader, Mary Graham, was there as well as the speakers that we all worked with so it was a wonderful time! I saw so many friends and we got to all say how we all see each other's lives on social media but are finally happy to see them all in person again! 

Mary talked for a little at the beginning and then after we took a group pic (which I hope to get soon), she talked some more and had everyone in tears. She reminded us of how all of our hard work was for the kingdom of God and how she knows there will be people in heaven who are there because they found Jesus at a Women of Faith event. Makes all the travel delays, long weekends, etc... totally worth it. There were times I couldn't see all God was doing during the craziness of travel sometimes but He was working in many people's lives at each event and mine.

This lady was and is a great leader and I'm so glad I got to work with her for many years. I learned so much from her!

Anna is the emcee this year and is a great successor in the emcee position after Mary. She got to come in during the break before heading out to keep working.

And since she was there, I had to go over and say hello to Jen Hatmaker! I loved seeing all the speakers who have been there for many years but it was also great to see a new Women of Faith speaker! She was so nice and easy to talk to! Such a fun moment!

This woman: Loretta Cannon. She hired me on at WoF as a Product Assistant and I'm so grateful that she did. She gave me my start at WoF and she is still leading all things WoF Product.

Molly the Marketer! She was and is leading the Marketing Team at WoF! We were cracking up all night long! This girl can make me laugh!

After visiting with my former co-workers, I headed up top to see my friend Melissa. She said she was at the top, but I didn't realize she was the Very Top of the arena. We laughed as I walked all the stairs up there. I took this picture to show the wall behind us. It's always great to see her!

Before I left for the night, I stepped into the arena to see Katie, who I mentioned above, sing with Sandi and her family. She made me promise to come in and hear them so I did.

She rocked it as usual

The event went on on Saturday but I only went to the Friday night portion. It was fantastic and I'm so glad I got to say a nice goodbye to an event that was such an integral part of my life. There will be more events to come but not one that means as much to me as this!  I'm grateful God allowed me to have the opportunity to be with this event for 6 1/2 years. Truly life changing.