Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration

January 22-23, 2010
Houston's First Baptist Church
Hosted by Beth Moore & her two daughters, Amanda & Melissa, and the Living Proof staff

Wow! What a blessed weekend we have had! This weekend, I got to join 508 women at Houston’s First Baptist Church to celebrate our commitment to memorize 24 scriptures throughout 2009. There were about 2000 women that joined the Siesta SMT on Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministries blog last year, and 508 were able to attend the celebration this weekend! There were ladies from 42 states and Canada!

As Beth Moore was telling us how excited she was to have this time together and how God was surely pleased at all of our efforts, the math teacher in me started multiplying how many verses that we collectively memorized. Just in that room, there were 508 women x 24 verses (at least…many times many people had 2-3 verse passages to memorize) = 12,192 verses! Wow! And 2000 women x 24 verses = 48,000 memory verses! Double Wow! How exciting!

She kept saying how God was surely smiling over our efforts! It was really neat on Saturday morning at 10:30 when we had to split up in pairs and move all around the church to recite our verses together. It was neat to see everyone with their little spirals of notecards. They have become quite precious treasures to us all! I was proud that my sister, Shellye, and I were able to recite all of our 24 verses with very little prompting!

We had such a wonderful time of singing and learning! During the two teaching sessions, Beth Moore took us through many passages of Psalm 119. Before she got into the lessons she told us some background on the book.

*Did you know that Psalm 119 (the longest chapter in Psalms) has 176 verses and that those verses are broken up into 22 passages of 8 verses each? (She jokingly said that she was going to have us memorize the chapter together!)

*Did you know the writer titled each one of those 8-verse passages with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order (Aleph to Taw)?

*Did you know that each verse in each of those 8-verse passages began with the corresponding letter? (ex., Aleph passage…each verse began with “A,” the 2nd passage each verse began with “B,” and so on.)

*How cool is that? The writer was definitely under some major divine inspiration to write all 176 verses in that pattern!!!

After the background information, she taught us 8 points that created a run-on sentence, using many verses of Psalm 119. I was amazed at all of the truths that she pointed out to us! It was such a wonderful time of learning!

Here’s the run-on sentence:
I’m a resident alien… (Psalm 119:17-24, 57, 1 Peter 2:11)
seeking direction… (Psalm 119:105-112, 125, 66, Luke 24:45)
in deep want of wonder…(Psalm 119:18)
in peril and need… (Psalm 119:25, 28, 107, 65, 58, 113)
troubled by humanity… (Psalm 119:81-88, 118-119, Psalm 139:19-22, Ezekiel 33:10-11)
–especially my own— (Psalm 19:12-14, Psalm 119:133, 9-11)
knowing that to follow is the only free road… (Psalm 119:30-32)
for a straying sheep longing to be found. (Psalm 119:169-176)

After the session on Friday night, we had a meet ‘n greet time where they served chocolate sheet cake & had a huge coffee bar. Well, I’m not tempted by coffee whatsoever, but I LOVE chocolate. However, I can’t have any right now…that’s one thing I gave up for our church’s 40-day fast as we are preparing for revival.

OK, my first verse of the year came into play. It’s 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has seized you except that which is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it!”

My mind was really spinning…I was thinking, "Would it be so bad? I am at a Beth Moore conference, after all! And it’s just one piece of cake!"

The lady handed me and my sister one. I told Shellye, “I’m not supposed to eat this. Should I?” She said, “You better not.” So I thought, I could just take it to Eric—that’s my way out that God provided! (Well, it didn’t make it to Eric because Shellye threw it away when we got in line to MEET BETH MOORE!) :) I was so proud (in the humblest sense of the word) for overcoming that temptation!

So…the weekend was a blast! And we even got to take our picture with Beth Moore and her daughters and Travis Cottrell, the awesome worship leader! I am SO VERY THANKFUL for Beth Moore & LPM for providing this wonderful celebration to us FREE OF CHARGE! What a wonderful blessing for us all!

Travis Cottrell leading us in worship.

Beth, Amanda, & Melissa talked to us and gave out door prizes at the beginning of each session.

My sister, Shellye, Beth Moore, and me

Shellye came with her friends from church, Paula & Kristie.

Shellye, Amanda, and me

Shellye, Melissa, and me.

Saturday morning...Beth Moore & her daughters were so funny together!

After the conference, Eric & the boys picked me up at the church. They got to come in & meet Travis Cottrell too!

Eric was quite envious that I got to be there and he didn't. It was a treat for him to meet Travis & tell him that our choir just performed his Glorious Day worship concert.

Before the SMT Celebration, Eric, Evan, Ethan, and I spent the day at NASA’s Space Center Houston! We had a blast! Evan and Ethan loved every minute of it and would have stayed all night if they could! Evan’s decided he’d love to work as an engineer for NASA now! Here are a few highlights from our day…and we picked a great day to go…no crowds at all!

Can you see Ethan way down there? I thought it was a neat perspective picture.

I love how Ethan has his neck stretched so far back to see the top of the rocket!

We all had to try on the astronaut helmets. They were SOOOO heavy! Eric reminded us that in space they would feel weightless.


This is heavy, but it sure is fun!