He Is Alive

Summer of 2015

I have always been a Christian, and loved God. But I never worshiped him like I do now.

Let's start off when I started going to my current church....

I was introduced to our church by my moms boyfriend (at the time). He invited us out. So I went the following Sunday. Let's say I cried, I never really cried at a worship service before. The the music gave me chills, I was shaking, and was touched.

I went to the coming up Wednesday youth service. There was this thing called "The Encounter". It cost $75, and I wanted to go, but I couldn't afford it. So I had a fund raiser, and I got so much money, that I paid for half of my friends ticket to go!
I went to the encounter. It was so so powerful. You wouldn't believe how many times I cried. I'm going to go in detail here; The first day, we arrived at the location for the encounter at 11:00 p.m we got settled, and had our first service. I can't remember exactly what we talked about, but it really touched me.
The second day, we had breakfast, then we had another get together. They were separated by gender, and if you were in middle school or high school. We had the service with one of many of the youth leaders, and she explained prayer to us middle school girls . She said that the P stands for praise, basically we thank him for everything he has done for us. Then, she said the R stands for the raise, basically we need to raise the spirit in us. Next, the A stands for another, so we pray for other people before us. And the Y stands for You, so then you pray for the necessary things you need in life.
P.R.A.Y
r a n o
a i o u
i s t
s e h
e e
r
She asked if anyone wanted for her to pray for us, and I was the only one. I kind of soaked her shirt from crying. She told me God had a calling on my life, and at the time I didn't understand.
Later that day we had another service, but with the whole youth group, and a different youth leader talked about how we need to forgive one and another. She talked about how her dad left her when she was really young, and how her step-dad would disclude her, and when him and her mom got divorced, he would send his biological daughters and sons gifts card, birthday wishes, and not her. My heart melted, because I could really relate to that. I felt like I didn't have a true father until that summer, and his name was God. She said that I needed to forgive the men that walked out on me, especially because I always had a father with me. When I prayed with her, I could really tell that God was with us.
That night, we had a bonfire, what we did is, we had note cards, and wrote the sins we won't to get rid of on there. Next we prayed that it was rebuked and we through the note cards in the fire.
Then, the next day we hung out, and then we had a service in our little groups again. And this time, we had one of our male leaders with us. He talked about how God was a gps (Guidance, prayer system) It is very true. Once again, I was the only one who prayed with him.
Another service that I can remember was the last one that day. We had worship, I was so touched by it, I was on my knees crying out to the lord. After the worship, we went over how we did the first two baptisms that weekend, (the sinners prayer, and the water baptisms). Our youth minister asked us if we wanted to pray to get the third baptism ( fore of the holy ghost). And I was one of the first people up there, but it was weird. (Before on finish, I want you to know that, yes I'm a Christian, but being a Christian doesn't mean that I live a perfect happy life.) I felt like I was doing something wrong, like I wasn't good enough, because one after another people were on the ground, and I didn't feel anything but confusion. I felt like that I should make myself fall, and trick myself into thinking that was God's will.
When I did, it didn't feel real, it felt like I should just pretend, and so I started to pray for other people. I didn't like it at all. I never really told anyone this. So I left the encounter with only 2/3's of what I needed. Later on in this adventure I find out why this happened, just hang on tight.