Purity Takes Precedence: Modesty Fashion Show, PTP 2011

                               (Photo Credit: JBenavides)
I'm about 3 weeks late posting this, but I got home from Polishing the Pulpit and life happened! Anyway... This year I was so blessed with to opportunity of helping organize and model in the Modesty Fashion Show at PTP! Before talking about the actual event, I'd like to rewind a few weeks and reminisce on how this opportunity even came my way.

About 3 or 4 weeks before the event, we received our PTP booklet in the mail. I was flipping through and noticed that Cindy Colley was doing a Modesty Fashion Show!
   "Why don't you send Mrs. Cindy a message and let her know you'll help out?" Moma suggested.

So that's what I did.

The basic gist of the message was, "Hey, I'd like to help out any way I can. Here's my number. Let me know what I can do." Well, Cindy and I set up a time to talk on the phone, and lo and behold, she was willing to basically hand the project over to me! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Colley family, Hannah (Glenn and Cindy's daughter) was married this summer. So of course, the Colley family had a BUSY summer! Cindy also had 16 sessions at PTP! Yes, one week, 16 sessions. Needless to say, she was one busy lady!

Back to the phone conversation... Cindy would be the final say in anything that went for the MFS, but I was the administrative assistant. Well, when she handed this honor to me, she asked, "Do you think you can handle this? Is it too much?" Well, of course when given the opportunity to help out with a fashion show, I am NOT going to say no! My answer was, "Yes, I can do this!" while the little voice inside my head was saying, "Lori Lynn, are you downright crazy? You know NOTHING about organizing a Modesty Fashion Show! And this is PTP. There are going to be a LOT of ladies there. If you mess up, you're going to make Cindy Colley look bad. You are crazy!"

Well, I told that little voice to be quite.

God uses many different opportunities to grow us. Sometimes they're thrust upon us and we have no choice but to endure, others are thrust upon us, but we have the choice to say yes or no. I am so thankful that I said yes!

The next few weeks were crazy busy! Working, babysitting on my days off, getting Rodge ready to leave for school, teaching a Wednesday night Bible class, getting ready for PTP on top of getting everything together for the MFS was very ...  interesting :-) Let's just say that those were the busiest weeks of my life! Mrs. Cindy was so great about answering my questions! I REALLY wanted to represent her well, but I didn't feel that I could do that without calling her every 5 minutes :-)

Finally, the week before PTP had arrived and it was time to put together a slide show, and I came down with a really bad I-don't-feel-like-moving sinus infection. JenBen came to my rescue! I sent Mrs. Cindy my bare bones slide show and JenBen really made it look beautiful!

Thankfully, I was well before it came time to leave for PTP. Friday night I got to meet many of the models for the first time!

                               (Photo Credit: Kara M.)

I had been keeping up with all the models on Facebook, but most of them I had never met in person. Honestly, that was probably the scariest part for me, planning something like this with people I've never met! Everyone was great! They did so much better than I could've asked!

Saturday finally came, and time was ever nearing for the MFS. We gathered in our changing station, ear to the door waiting for the runway music to begin. It was thrilling! And also a little strange. The point of the MFS was to show a "before" aka, immodest and then an "after" aka, modest. Well, my before was a too short, strapless dress. I'm not going to lie, it was very strange going up on stage in front of 300 women wearing something that covered about as much as being wrapped up in a beach towel. (**Note** There were ONLY ladies in the room while the MFS was going on). The "after" though, was much more comfortable :-)

There was so much positive response from the MFS! Here are some comments shared with me on Facebook:

Meagan (one of the models): "I really enjoy doing things that may be out of my comfort zone and that was definitely one of those things. haha. But I actually learned so much doing it.

You would think that as a model, I would always know how to dress and cover up, but the truth is that us girls are probably the worst at judging that. It really made me see that we can't always trust our judgement and sometimes the best thing to do is to ask a brother or father. The whole reason we dress modestly is to help our brothers not to stumble, so it should be THEIR opinion that matters, not ours. Girls and guys think very differently, so it makes sense that sometimes what we may think is modest may cause them to sin. That's why we have to be SO careful!"

Sharla: "I LOVED the fashion show! I learned so much! I usually cry when shopping for clothes, but not anymore! ... I now look at shopping for clothes as a fun challenge instead of punishment :) ... I was really excited about all the different things that we could make modest."

Cindy F: "I appreciate the fact that the one-piece bathing suit was shown as immodest. You wouldn't believe the number of Christian women I know who think it's modest. Anyway, loved the whole show!"

Diane: "I LOVED everything about it! And especially the finale with the wedding dress; as this is becoming an ongoing look on Facebook and an "ignorant" ?? view of thinking this is modest and appropriate for one day... I think not."

I have truly been blessed by this experience! God has helped me grow so much through this! And now, if anyone wants to put on a MFS and need help, email me, I'll gladly help you out!

After Polishing the Pulpit, I was reading in the September 2011 issue of THINK, there was a quote that really reminded me of my experience with the MFS, "General Schwarzkopf, the commander of Operation Desert Storm, was once quoted saying, 'When placed in command ... take charge!'"

When God places you in command of a situation...take charge of it!

I'd like to personally thank all the models in the MFS...

Marrisa T.

Meagan T.

Melissa C.

Marli R.

Memory R.

Mattianne S.

Miriam S.

Alyssa C.

Natalie H.

Emily A.

Holly S.

Rosa W.

Kara M.

Jessica B.

Song N.

Ya'll did a wonderful job! Thank ya'll so much for agreeing to be in the Modesty Fashion Show!

Thank you Jennifer B. for the lovely slide show! You literally rescued me!

Thank you Mattianne, Melissa, Kara, and Cindy for helping me figure out who to ask to be in the MFS.

Thank you Gratt T. for putting together the music for the MFS! It really kicked the level of greatness up a notch!

Thank you Mrs. Cindy, for overseeing and presenting the MFS! You are such a great inspiration and teacher! Thank you so much for allowing me to help out with this!

And most of all, thank you Father, for allowing us to be used by You to spread the message of the importance of modesty to any of the ladies that were able to attend the MFS.