Posted on Thursday, August 22, 2013

Refreshed, Renewed, Inspired

I am refreshed, renewed, and inspired when I came back from Declare Conference (8/9 – 8/10), in Dallas, TX.

I am refreshed because it was a great weekend to spend with a bunch of amazing and wonderful friends I have met online and now in REAL LIFE! It was because God has given me a time to just hang out with them, enjoy each other presence, laughed with them, sang worship to God and prayed with them.

I am renewed because God used the speakers to teach me and to renew my world view about blogging and writing and to give me encouragement I need to go on in this journey.

Jeff Goins shared about how to build a platform with words, passion and people. He says that writing is not all about finding a topic, but it is about finding your voice. Do you write? Then you are a writer. Do you blog? Then you are a blogger. For a long time I didn’t wanna call myself a blogger (a writer, maybe not yet). But from his session, I realized that I am a blogger because I blog, I write blog post. What do you call yourself? Jeff also said that our platform is about our readers, not us (the writers).

“If you are not gonna believe who you are, who would be?”

Mary DeMuth has so much wisdom sharing with all of us how God has led her step by step through all her darkest hours and use them to glorifying His name through her books and testimonies. Finding our voice is not only just write what you know for the readers/audience, but it is about knowing well what God calls you to write and to share to the right audience. Writing takes time and practice and practice and practice. Have you spent your 10,000 hours in writing? Have you read books widely?

Kat Lee (The Blogging Ninja!) shared with us blogging tips and she said that we are overwhelmed is because we are wearing too many hats (CEO, Manager and Writer) at the same time. Be an effective and efficient blogger!

Lara Williams says, “The Gospel is not only to be preached it, but to live it.” Everything begins in our prayer closet. She shared her life testimony that God is care more about changing us rather than the circumstances, but he will use the circumstances to chance us and to bless us. She also said that ask God always to fill us up every day, we need to spill it up to others and keep on being filled when we want to serve others.

Abbie Haberstadt, at the DIY Blog session, shared the importance in blogging about DIY is Clarity. What is the purpose of the blog? Why am I writing this post? Are my directions easy to follow by the readers? Are my pictures and visual aids clear and helpful? She gave us some good examples of each point. She said, “Tell a story, just talk about it, make it personal and BE REAL!” And oh briefly she showed us how to use PicMonkey, online and free photo editor. Quick and easy!

I wish I could go to every session and can give you more detail on what I’ve learned there. I am still processing every note I took at the conference. It will take sometimes for me to process as I learn to apply them.

I am inspired because of all of these women have one desire: TO DECLARE GOD’S GLORY through their writing and blog! I am encouraged to take the leap of faith to write more of what God has put in my heart, to continue writing blog with confidence knowing God is with me and surround me with all supports I will need. Looking up to these women of God, I see God and His faithfulness in their lives.

I am thankful I was there. I wanna thank every friend who prayed for me and my family. God made it happened!

And Yancy Not Nancy was there! She is my daughter’s most favorite ever! Yancy writes praise and worship songs for family and kids. If you have kids and love worship, you should get her CD/DVD! (I will have a special blog about it and a giveaway… stay tune!)

Most of all, my favorite thing from the Declare Conference is the Selah Room, sponsored by The Seed Company. It is the room where we could pause ourselves from whatever we were doing and spend time with God in prayer.

So, people says that picture worth of 1000 words… then… here are some of the pictures I took at the conference. I wish I could take a picture with everyone I met there.

I link this post at Declare link up. Over there, you can read all the stories shared by those who attended the conference. I am blessed when I read their posts and I know you will be, too!

Make sure that you visit Declare website, Twitter and Facebook to get their update on next year conference. Pray and God will make the way for you to be there!

Posted on Monday, August 5, 2013

Writing In Action #3: Where To Start

This week I learned about where I start to write or what I write about. It seems simple but it is not to me. Denise explains that we all begin to write with a blank page or screen but the word will come. The written words not only reveal themselves, they reveal something about the writer, too.

They tell us who we really are and what we value the most. Writing leads to discovery… in order for our words to inform us, we must first write them down.

So… where do I begin to write? what do I write about?

Some tips from Denise:

Write what you know
Write what you feel
Write what you are passionate about

At previous chapter, she also mentions about it starts with Write-Based Prose (words just for me) and we can turn it into an idea for Reader-Based Prose (words for others/readers).

In this chapter she also gives us 3 practical Ways to Begin:

Tell a story
Join a conversation
Answer a question

I am going to start with the first.

I write to tell a story of my life, one wrecked girl, found and saved by God’s grace, have a new life in Christ and to live the given life with trust and obedience to Jesus’ lordship. I write to tell the story unchanging everlasting God, who so loves the world, sent His one and only Son, to died for its sins and rose from the death on the third day, defeated the death and won the battle. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord and King of kings, the Son of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life. I write to declare this News to the world. I write to let them know there is HOPE in Christ Jesus. I write to testify.

I write to represent those who are Bibleless, the story of what it’s like not having a word of God. I, my own language, does not have the whole Bible. I am thankful to have 5 partial books of the Bible, but there are about 2000 languages in the world who don’t have one single word of God, 209 million people speak those languages. Imagine how your life would be when you don’t have the God’s word.

If my life is a book, I wanna start with those story.

What would you want to write in your life story book?

Posted on Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Declare Conference: The Voice We Have

I love this quote from Declare Conference blog sidebar. The purpose we come to know God is to make Him known to our family, friends, and to the whole world!

Twenty three days remaining until the Declare Conference (August 9 – 10, 2013).

I am excited to be there, not because this is my first blogging conference, not because it’s a trend to go to a blogging conference, but I have my very own reasons to go.

Honestly, I do not write well in English and just “gibberish” here and there on my post since 2008.

Yes, I am nervous. Yes, I am not a “regular” and “consistent” blogger. Yes, I am a newbie in blogging world. Yes, I am a home stay mom and work at home mom (for now). Yes, I am a missionary. Yes, I am not English speaker. Yes, I’ve made TONS of mistake in my writing (even in this post, perhaps). But those are the WHYs I wanna go to Declare Conference.

I wanna be there because I wanna be voice through writing my stories, testimonies to declare the glory of God, to make Him known among the nations, be the voice to share the needs of the people who do not have one single verse of God’s word in the language they understand, to mobilize more Christians to see how they can be part of God’s mission works in every way they are called to. I am super excited to meet The Seed Company bloggers, those who have one desire and vision to end Bible poverty!

I wanna go equipped and learn from the bests how to write and share my stories effectively so that the message can be delivered in ways the readers can understand it. I want my posts impact lives!

I wanna be there because I wanna be inspired by other Christian women bloggers who have been great blessings in my life thought reading their posts.

My list can go on and on… but I would like to share with you today that this conference is not just a gathering of a bunch of bloggers, this conference will make a difference in your life and others.

If you have the same (or maybe similar reasons) like mine, or life just like my kindda life, then you might wanna pray and ask God to send you to this conference.

This is the conference where you wanna be there and together we shout out our voice to declare the awesomeness of our Living God, the greatness of God and to know that we are not alone. This is the conference where you can find mentor, accountable friend, and encourage each other. This is the conference where God will glorify HIS HOLY NAME through your and my posts!

What is the FUN part of going to this conference? OH YEAH! This will be SO MUCH FUN! We get to meet friends we have met through Twitter and Facebook group, or any other Social Media IN REAL LIFE!! Isn’t that wonderful and FUN? Meeting them, hugging them and having conversation with them in person! We will make new friends and building relationships. And oh I almost forgot the mention that the Hotel where you can stay with special deal for Declare Conference attendees is amazing!

There is coffee/tea in your rooms.
Room Service is also available.
The restaurant downstairs serves Starbucks coffee.
There is a Starbucks 1.3 miles away at 4010 N Macarthur Blvd
Declare is hosting a special European Coffee Bar on Saturday:

“Fresh orange, lemon zest, shaved dark chocolate
whole cinnamon sticks, rock candy stirrers,
grand marnier flavored whipped cream
featuring premium regular and decaffeinated flavored coffees”

(Michelle Acker, Declare Conference host, person who can help you with anything related to the conference :D)

Friends, I do hope and pray for you that God will make a way for you to go to Declare Conference this year. If you feel God leads you to go, you still have time to register today!

Register: http://www.declareconference.com/register/

About: http://www.declareconference.com/about-blogging-conference/

The Speakers: http://www.declareconference.com/speakers/

Session Topics: http://www.declareconference.com/session-topics/

Posted on Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Send Me To Declare Conference!!!

WOOHOO!!!! I really excited for this conference! I’ve heard a lot about any blogging conference out there, and I found out about Declare Conference a couple of months ago. I’ve been praying and asking God to make a way for me to go since.

Why do I wanna go to Declare Conferece?

Main reason is so that I know how to declare God’s love and grace to the world through my blog, to mobilize other Christians to pray and get involve in mission works to reach out the world and spread God’s Gospel!
Where I can learn from the amazing and favorite Christian bloggers, so that I can improve my blogging skill (I SO NEED TO LEARN IT!)
Where I can meet up with my friends I have met online in person and making new friends who has the same passion.
Networking with other bloggers
My first blogging conference!

I wanna be there! To be there is an answer to my prayer and a dream come true!

You can win a free ticket to Declare Conference? You can go to HelloMornings and check out the details.

Wanna know more about Declare Conference and what is all about, you can go here.

Who will be speaking there? Here they are.

Posted on Friday, June 28, 2013

Bloglovin’ for Blog Reader

Google announced awhile ago about they will stop Google Reader on July 1, 2013. There were lots of questions how we can read the blogs we follow. I found Bloglovin’, recommended by several bloggers I follow. So, I decided to try it.

I like it so far. It has iPad and iPhone App too, that make it easier to read the blog posts from those I follow.

You have 2 more days to try it and import all blogs you follow from Google Reader to Bloglovin’.

You need to register to have Bloglovin’ account. It is easy, you can just simply follow the steps here.

To import from Google Reader to Bloglovin’ is very simple. You can click here once you have your account activated. It took about 1 minute for me to transfer about 500 (a lot!) blogs I follow. But the speed depends on your internet connection too.

You can follow me on Bloglovin’