The sessions and activities of the COMMIT conferences are planned with this goal in mind: to motivate young ladies to choose to seek God first, become fully committed to Him, come to love Him with all their hearts, and humbly serve others in their irreplaceable youth before facing the pressures of adulthood.

Encouraging Mothers and Daughters. The COMMIT conference provides an opportunity for mothers and daughters to deepen their relationship with the Lord and with one another.

Daughters will be encouraged to make Christ the first priority in their hearts and make wise decisions throughout their lives. Along with attending sessions with their daughters, mothers will benefit from mothers’ sessions of practical encouragement and insight.

Mothers attending with daughters will have the opportunity to have many fruitful conversations and strengthen their relationship. However, we do allow girls ages 14 and up to attend without their mothers.

We hope to see you at an upcoming COMMIT conference!

COMMIT Office • 2134 Cadjew St. • Redding, CA 96003 • 530-221-2425

“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? . . .[She] who speaketh the truth in [her] heart.”  Psalm 15

The International ALERT Academy is delighted to invite mothers and daughters of all ages to an exciting retreat weekend geared specifically toward them! Ladies will be inspired through meaningful sessions , encouraged through fellowship times, and challenged during creative learning times.

Moms and daughters will be exhorted in a variety of ways to be built with wisdom, character, and godliness.

Retreat Dates

Thursday, February 24, 2011 – Sunday, February 27, 2011

Pricing

$150 per person. Cost Includes room accommodations, activities and meals.

This is a bunk housing rate. If you would like to have a private room with your daughter, please note that on your application and add $60 to your total.

Contact us for more information and registration:

International ALERT Academy
One Academy Blvd.
Big Sandy, TX 75755

Telephone: 903.636.2000
Fax: 903.636.2013
Email: info@alertacademy.com

I have expressed many times the challenge to fathers to lead their family in daily family devotions. I know this is a challenge and I also know that most men in the church are not doing this. There are many reasons men are intimidated when it comes to taking on the spiritual leadership of their homes, but I do not want to get into that at this time. What I want to do is to share with you, men, how I lead our family devotional time each evening in hopes that it will encourage you to lead your family as well.

When we began doing family devotions it was awkward and challenging. I was uncomfortable, not communicating well with the kids, and they were not enjoying sitting for long. I decided we would read through a book of the Bible. We would gather together after dinner was cleaned up and read a passage. I would ask questions, trying to be practical and help them understand how the passage related to their lives. It was challenging, but we were struggling through it together. We would follow that time with prayer, and then we would work on a passage we were memorizing together.

This process often took an hour, which we learned was way too much. I wanted this to be a priority, but I needed to be more realistic. I needed to find ways to allow the kids to be more engaged, have more fun, and shorten our time without sacrificing what I wanted to accomplish. I needed to be creative, which is not my strong suite.

Jill helped a lot with all of this, giving me ideas, helping me communicate with the kids and encouraging their participation. We began to act out passages, being silly at times, trying to make the time together more interesting. Over the winter, when it got dark early, we were reading through Mark and came to the transfiguration. To try to capture the light shining from Jesus we turned off the lights and put on silly glasses that were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. Is this what Jesus looked like? They knew it wasn’t, but they remember that night, and they remember that story. We are currently reading through Genesis and are in the middle of the Joseph story. Different children are reading the different characters in the story. When Pharaoh chooses Joseph to lead the nation he places his ring, a robe, and a gold chain on Joseph. So the person reading Pharaoh’s lines did the same to the person reading Joseph’s lines. She put a ring, a multi-colored towel, and a…oops, I forgot to get a necklace…oh well, on her brother. They remember the story.

When we pray, each child has a journal. The ones who cannot read have a picture journal. Each one has a day and they lead us in prayer. We are also able to give them updates on how God is answering prayer, which encourages them in their prayers all the more. It is a powerful lesson for all of us, and a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness.

We also do Scripture memory. We have changed the way we do this recently, and it is working great. I found a simple Scripture memory system that I introduced to the family that takes just a few minutes each day and allows passages to stick quickly and be repeated often. To learn more about that you can go to http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/.

You may read this article and still be intimidated. I want to encourage you to simply try something. You don’t have to do all of this. Just start with something. We now take about 40 minutes for all of this. It is an investment that pays dividends every day. Our children are hiding God’s Word in their hearts, they are experiencing God answering prayer, and they are learning how the Scriptures apply to their lives. These are critical life-long lessons for all of us. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6). Start training, men.”

-Sean Martin

Dear ATI Families,

We are pleased to announce that Phil Downer and his wife, Susy, will be
hosting a Marriage for Life conference at the Oklahoma City Training
Center on August 27-28.

Phil Downer has delighted and challenged audiences at the ATI Regional
Conferences this year. His straightforward approach to disciple making
has encouraged hundreds of families to make a commitment to
discipleship.

Phil and his daughter, Anna, have touched many fathers as they have
shared the practical steps they took to strengthen their relationship.

Now Phil and Susy Downer have created a seminar to teach how to build
intimacy and teamwork in marriage. Here is an excerpt from Phil’s own
testimony:

“We do not know where we would be if God had not reached us in the
despair and pain of our broken marriage, the pressures of business, the
crisis in relationships, the horror remaining from combat as a Marine
machine gunner, and given us a purpose in our family, a biblical context
for ambition and success, and tools and practical paths to follow in
nurturing and discipling our six children and reaching others the way we
were reached. Because Christ reached us through godly and committed
people, strategically placed in our lives, we are committed to spend our
remaining days, not only doing the same with others, but assisting like-
minded people, in addition to pastors and leaders, to be life
multipliers.”

For questions or more information on this event you can visit
www.afamilyforlife.com/okc , e-mail events@okc.iblp.org,
or call the Oklahoma City Training Center at 405-526-0001.

Sincerely,

Andrew D. Warner
Administrative Director
Advanced Training Institute International

Libby Zellon, who works in the ATI Department at Headquarters, went to the WIT Conference as an Assistant to Paul and Jenny Speed.  The following is her testimony of the conference.

Have you ever experienced the presence of a Holy God? Have you ever realized that you were on sacred ground? Have you ever looked into the eyes of a hopeless person searching for love? As I was able to watch and examine the people surrounding me I was in awe. To see the people lost in darkness and death is something I can’t really describe. However, when I saw them embrace the light and freedom that comes along with it, it causes my mind to explode with thanksgiving. Our God is so good to rescue those lost in themselves.

What happened at the WIT conference is beyond description. God is amazing. He doesn’t need to prove it to me, but when He does it usually blows my mind. That is exactly what He did this past weekend. He allowed me to be a part of a movement of Him that was powerful-the movement of the WIT conference.

The WIT conference is not your typical marriage conference. It deals with the things that you normally don’t want to deal with. They are things that people would rather shove under the rug and forget about them. However, when people try to ignore this ugly beast of sin it usually ends up destroying families. The beast rises in many different ways and quickly shackles its victims. When these couples come they are bound and chained by their sin. They are trying to blame the other person for putting them in their bonds but miss the fact that they are they ones who allowed the chains to be placed on them. I watched couple after couple enter the auditorium that were oppressed and tormented. Couples entered the room apart from each other as if this invisible wall was standing firm between them.

Before the conference began we met in a room for a meeting that lasted about 3 ½ hours long. In the meeting all the table leaders met and shared amongst each other. They shared their hurts, fears, pain, tears, and allowed their masks to be torn off. They declared in that room that they would be wiling to go back to their past for the sake of freedom for others that would be attending. One proclaimed, “I will NOT stop! I will declare to the spiritual realm victory and freedom!”

Session after session Paul and Jenny Speed repeatedly opened up their ugly past to these couples, reliving the memories and visited each story with a yearning for those listening to find freedom. The power of the openness and brokenness was beyond human power. People often question the reality of ‘supernatural’ power at events such as this. What happened as they spoke was indeed supernatural. It’s almost like you could see freedom coming out of their speech and reaching into the lives of the people around them.

I will admit it was a hard thing to sit back and watch it happen. I wanted to go around and inject truth into these people’s lives. It was like looking at a person that was dying and wanting to just shoot them up with life. But we couldn’t do it; we couldn’t force it upon them. The people there had to choose life for themselves. There was one time I won’t forget for a long time. My parents attended and so I met them in the hallway as they were talking to another couple. This couple was entangled in darkness that they were totally unaware. I had the opportunity to speak to the man and drench him with perspective, life and love. Watching him react to all of those things was heart wrenching. The man broke and tears streamed down his face. It was a beautiful thing to see how Jesus love can be used in people to reach people. To be used by Him was so humbling; it caused me to weep for this man and wife that were struggling in the chains that were tearing them apart.

Please allow me to paint a picture of what freedom looked like at this conference. Imagine this man-once full of strength and honor is now sitting in a dark room looking haggard and shrouded in black. What once used to be a man that people looked to for guidance now was under the control of something more powerful. This power pulsed through his being, changing his appearance and glazing over his eyes. He was so manipulated by the power that he couldn’t even recognize that the people he had loved were now in pain and agony because he had given in to this power. The power is that of sin. It completely changed him inside and out to the point that it looks like he will never return to how he used to be. Suddenly another man in white steps in to the room. He starts speaking truth and life to this man. He commands the possessed man to look him in the eyes. The glazed eyes fight not to look, the strain is evident throughout his entire being. Finally they make contact-the Man that is full of light starts proclaiming that the man can be free. Suddenly, as the man accepts it, the darkness is bound and caste out of the room. Life rushes into his body and floods his soul. His eyes are lit with fire as he rises from the place he has been sitting in. He finally goes to his family and embraces them and is able to rise up again in the position of honor.

There are so many vivid images that will remain with me for a while. They are those of couples finally understanding pure love as they come together in communion, husbands drawing their wives close, and wives becoming beautiful from the freedom they have found. He made beautiful the ashes that were once there.

"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel."

Philippians 1:27

(photo via Flickr)