Home, in the process

2025 conference prep has brought with it a whole new level of patience and fortitude for me on the front end. I spent five months emailing and phone calling locations all over Spokane, Medical Lake, Spokane Valley, Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, and beyond, trying to nail down a location for this year’s Paideia Northwest conference in early November. I began looking into locations as far away as the Tri-Cities in WA and Moscow in ID! The humor of it was not lost on me that we were struggling with homelessness for the event which topic was to be Home. The Lord loves to stretch me and test me and grow me by His grace in the process of sanctification, and I really felt that tug during the months of struggle to land on a location. Just when I would think I had something that would work, a snag would pop up and it would fall through. We could have continued to use a building that would limit our size, but last year we literally used every chair and table that The Oaks had to offer us, and we could have used more! While I don’t love the idea of Paideia Northwest becoming so big that it loses its sense of intimate fellowship and regional camaraderie, I also don’t want the event to become elite or an event only for the privileged (those with a certain amount of money or the quickest internet connection or whatever). I do not want to have to turn away women who want to attend this event for encouragement and fellowship and gaining wisdom. That is why I am committed to keeping the cost as low as possible (and if you think Paideia Northwest charges a lot for a conference ticket, try looking at other comparable events and you’ll be surprised), even though costs for everything from food to printing to airfare & accommodations for speakers to speaker costs & location rentals… it is has all gone up year over year ever since I began this event in 2018. Most things have nearly doubled. All that to say… I do not want to stumble into this event becoming elite in nature or cutthroat in availability. So I will continue to work to keep ticket prices as low as I can manage, which comes down to details like reusing name badge lanyards and finding new printers as often as necessary and balancing out how I choose a speaker panel. I have been quoted as much as $5,000 for a speaker and $4,500 for a location. And as much as I would love to have hired that speaker and used that location… it would mean raising ticket costs substantially, and that’s not something I am currently willing to do.

Thankfully, it seems that we have landed on a good location for the conference this year which will allow for growth as well as the ability to stay in the general I-90 corridor area between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, which has been a priority for me that I have not wanted to go by the wayside. The only current remaining question about it is whether or not they have people I can hire for sound tech and janitorial. These are important considerations, so please pray with me that the Lord would provide exactly the personnel necessary. I already spent over five months landing on this location, and without those personnel, I would need to once again look for a new location. God has always provided! We trust Him.

This year’s graphic art has taken a longer time to get returned as well. I did my original sketch and then sent it off with descriptions of what I wanted for style, coloring, and needs for particular usages, but it took much longer than the expected month to get returned in a usable format. That also has been a struggle I’ll have to see about overcoming in the future. But it’s definitely difficult to begin marketing without a graphic… and it’s difficult to get a graphic done when we aren’t sure about the details… and nobody can nail down things like conference speakers and date without a location. It’s all a real big domino effect! And until you’ve been the one behind the scenes dealing with all the moving parts, it seems nearly silly. But as the one trying to set up the dominos properly, it’s not silly at all, it’s more like downright aggravating. It’s been a real stretch of my patience and growth in sanctification this year! This was the first in eight years where I’ve been truly tempted to throw in the towel and just cancel it altogether.

One way the Lord surprised me with a sweet provision was with catering. I randomly mentioned on Facebook somewhere in a local group that I was looking for a caterer for between 600-700 people for an event in early November, and within days I had someone asking if they could come over to my house to discuss possible details. She threw menu ideas around and shared how she wanted to take that stress off my shoulders and just simply get it done. And need I mention that she’s pregnant with a baby while already mothering multiple babies and tots?! She is an amazing go-getter with a heart to serve. I can’t wait to hire her and officially get her serving all the conference attendees. And while Panera’s box lunch has been a blessing in recent years, the cost continues to go up while I don’t know that the quality or quantity has. I haven’t had any official complaints to file, yet there’s been a nagging in the back of my head that I would rather pay a Christian family business than a big faceless woke company. And that is where this year I really feel encouraged. Just like I have had Abide Culture Coffee and Josiah’s GF Bakery serving at Paideia Northwest before, I want to continue to grow in the ability to hire local/regional businesses run by Christian families wherever possible.

I still use nameless probably-woke companies for printing journals, stickers, magnets, mugs, and tees. If you have any leads for me on how I can take these things to a local Christian option, please let me know! I had been using Swan Graphics, and if there’s any way I can do that again for shirts, I will. I have to balance my principles and plans with cost/benefit each year. I just pray for wisdom from our Lord who is in control of all the details, including every penny in my budget.

The speaker panel this year is what I have been passionate and confident about every step of the way. There’s been no doubt in my mind that Abigail Dodds, Mystie Winckler, and Sarah Mackenzie are going to speak with joy and conviction, while challenging each one of us to step up our game in all the various ways we serve in our homes. Homemaking, hospitality, and home education are kind of the “big three” I see coming at us on November 8th, but there are multiple other nuances that we might find woven throughout: housekeeping, home decor, finance, real estate, gardening, personal education, personal piety. So many things could be covered under the topic of HOME – which is exactly why I wanted to give us such a big umbrella to work beneath.

I hope you, like myself, are looking forward already to whatever the Lord has prepared for our annual event. And in the meantime, pray with me that He would make plain every detail along the way. He is good and His. mercy endures forever.