Colour London 2017- Utterly An Experience
Utterly an experience. These are the three words that come to mind for Colour Conference 2017 in London. This is Seele’s first time at Colour and it was a blessing to cover this women’s conference that’s in its 21st year and that spans over 5 nations.
Day 1
Photo Credit- Ally Portee.
Lights, praise and worship, comedic entertainment, glitter; and confetti- a theatrical production is how Colour London 2017 opened. The opening ceremony started with a cast filled with people from all walks of life of all ages pacing the stage.
“I enjoyed Colour so much that I got tickets for next year. It was awesome.”
Colour London Opening Ceremony, Photo Credit- Ally Portee.
Bobbi Houston in the opening night of Colour London, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Bobbi Houston, the Senior Pastor of Hillsong was the ever-gracious host, hosting with sweet boldness. She opened Colour, welcoming the 11,000 women attendees from across Europe. Her message was clear, “if my path could teach your anything, it is wisdom from costly experience.” She encouraged women to stay the path- to stay the course. To do that she pointed out, women must lean into God’s heart and align themselves with what concerns God’s heart. To do this, Houston pointed out to the crowd that women must look after their own hearts. “Your mental resistance to challenges depends on your heart, so guard your heart!” she stressed to the crowd. “No one can steward your heart, others can try to control it or hurt it, but only you can guard it.”
Houston encouraged women to train their hearts and minds in Jesus, and to get a relationship with God’s ways. She closed out the opening night telling the women to remain exclusively His in order to stand tall.
Day 2
Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Nashville native, Lisa Harper rocked the crowd on day two with humor. The story of how she adopted her daughter Missy from Haiti, an HIV at the time and tuberculosis ridden little girl, whose birth mom died of HIV was shared. Thankfully Missy’s tuberculosis and HIV are no longer detected in her body. Lisa’s message came from Mark 9 and she reminded the crowd, “we will never be effective in the field if we don’t fix our gaze upon Jesus.”
Sy Rogers speaking on day 2 of Colour, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Sy Rogers, an American living in Auckland, New Zealand spoke with straightforward humor, pointing out that we all struggle. “It’s when we are weak He is strong, and that’s called dependency. Rogers is a pastor, international motivational and inspirational conference speaker and lecturer.
In his evening message he spoke on “what the Holy Spirit does for people. “The Holy Spirit empowers people and confronts,” he pointed out. Looking at Proverbs 3:5 he went on to say, “stop and listen to His voice to lead you, guide you and empower you.” The crowd was drawn to every word of Sy Rogers, as you could feel the Holy Spirit breaking chains and freeing women from unhealthy life patterns.
Day 3
Day 3 of the conference opened with more praise and worship. Bobbi Houston shared a treat, a video message from Donna Crouch on being found in the field. Crouch took the crowd back to how life was for women in the Judean age of Jesus’ time, and how Jesus radically engaged and empowered women. She left the crowd with one central question: “if not you then who?” She boldly stated: “When women are absent from the table- churches, societies, communities and cultures limp.” And she challenged women to be active in their spheres of influence.
Later in the morning Houston partook in a panel discussion on the refugee issue. The panel bought light on the Biblical view of refugees and through a rich discussion, offered practical life applications of what the crowd can do for the plight of refugees.
Gifts for all the women, gardening gloves, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Laura Toggs leading "The Secret Garden" letter reading, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
With such energy and a positive spirit, Bobbi Houston engaged with the crowd through humor. There were moments where it felt like she was having a conversation with all 11,000 members, but it was as if she was having a conversation with each woman individually. She did giveaways of her newest book, Stay the Path and Colour paraphernalia. And she gave every woman a gift, a pair of gardening gloves as reminder of “The Secret Garden,” an initiative that her daughter, Laura Toggs started, as a way to encourage women to go deep into the mysteries of their hearts through conversations from sex, to marriage, to feeling alone.
Colour London 2017 ended with Lisa Harper as the final speaker, where she spoke about Hosea and Gomer, from the Bible and how Jesus represents Hosea and that Hosea is a living metaphor for our Savior who saves people from their sins.
Christine Caine briefly spoke, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Praise and worship, Photo Credit- Ally Portee
Women from all across Europe came to London for 2.5 days to listen, to laugh, to meet, to be set free, to encounter the Holy Spirit, and to leave feeling full and refreshed. I didn’t meet one woman who didn’t like Colour London or who was not impacted in some way by the conference. The Host, Bobbi Houston was gracious and phenomenal, sweet but bold in her charge to women to be wise and to guard their hearts. The 4th of 4 nations, Colour 2017 will move on to Kiev, Ukraine next week to bless the women of that region and the women of Moscow.