What changed? Listen as she shares her story of what God did on her Journey and the change He brought to her life.

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~ Jenna
August 2011 Journey

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~ Barak
October 2011 Journey

My dad told me about the Journey and asked if I wanted to go. I agreed to go because I knew that if I didn’t, he would wonder why I didn’t want to get to know God better. I don’t know how I avoided God for so long, but I guess I just acted like He wasn’t really there. When the plane took off and we were airborne, I thought, “What would happen to me if this plane ran into the ground right now?” I was genuinely concerned about my life at that point.

When I got to the Headquarters, I started thinking, “Whoa, this is actually real, God is really here.” I was very, very unsure about my salvation, and this was one of the few times that I had really taken some time to think about it. On Monday we got to the Northwoods, and God immediately started to burden my heart. I was pretty miserable the whole day until Monday night, when I became so miserable of my depraved state that I called my parents and told them that I was undoubtedly unsaved and that I needed to be saved. I cried to the Lord Monday night, May 16, 2011 and He saved me…a new creature in Christ. I am forever changed and destined to be with my Savior Jesus Christ.

The Lord started convicting me about past offenses to others and about my rebellion against my parents, and I started confessing. But on Tuesday (the next day), I still was holding on to one thing that I just wouldn’t confess to my parents. I was believing Satan’s lie that I didn’t have to tell anyone about it because “what harm would it do?” In reality, it was greatly affecting the Holy Spirit, and I knew it so I told my parents that afternoon. After I got it out of my hands and into the hands of Christ, I was overflowing with joy in my heart. That night at around seven, I think, we (my team) started praying in our meeting room, and soon it was my turn to pray. Before I started praying I was already crying, but it was tears of joy that were flowing. I knew that my name was written in the Book of Life, and that the One who made me, made the earth, made gravity, made the air that I breath, and made my parents. He gave me the kind of parents that I needed. He cared enough about me out of billions of people and showed me His Love, and comforted me, and died for me. He bought me after I sold myself to the devil and the world, gave me His peace, showed me His power, protected me, fed me, clothed me, and gave me a Book that I can read that tells me more about Himself and who He is. He gave me the liberty to tell others about Him so that they can experience Him also. I knew that this wasn’t even the beginning too. So, after much crying and praising Him, I sat back up and looked at the clock, and if I remember right, it was ten o clock. I had prayed the longest I had ever even attempted to pray, and for the first time, I didn’t even care about how long it took.

The Lord showed me so much that week even after those two days. I was being fed by His Words all week and I couldn’t get enough. He showed me that I don’t have to rely on myself in my struggles, because He has already won the race, all I have to do is claim the victory through Him. “Lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths”, “Nay, in all things we are made more than conquerors through Him that loved us…”, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth to it, and are safe” He is my strong tower, I can call on Him and He will answer, I can run to Him and be safe, I don’t have to rely on myself because He said that He would direct me, I am more than a conqueror, but only through Him that has already conquered. “Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches, He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” I am living proof of that principle.

When I got home, I talked to one of my best friends and asked him to forgive me for being a hypocrite and not living the way Christ did. I told him what had happened to me, and he was so amazed at how much I had changed that he wanted to get saved!! I got to lead him to Christ and he is a new creature. After about a week, my other friend came to Christ! And just this week, two of my other friends got saved too! God is so good. He has shown me in my life that when I am completely sold out to him and I don’t care about what other people think, He can really use me. In truth and honesty before Him and others, there is power because the Holy Spirit can move about freely.

Other things are being revealed as I abide in Him and meditate on His gift to me, the Word. I am learning things from the wisdom and failures of others and myself, but the best way to learn is to read God’s living Word, the Bible. If I listen to what God has to say and obey, I don’t have to learn the hard way. The way of a believer is intense and hard, but made easy through obedience. It is better to obey than to sacrifice, because if I am obeying, then I will probably be sacrificing too. If there was one thing I could say to anyone for the rest of my life it would be to know God, love Him and seek Him, and see what happens.

- Josh Hoyle

To truly understand just what God has done in my life, you need to have an understanding of my past. My story begins with my Grandmother. Unlike most, my Grandmother was emotionally abusive. Satan worked through her to place some very damaging lies in my mind as a young child. I grew up believing in the back of my head that I wasn’t good or honest, and over the years these lies reinforced through some very painful and unfortunate situations. As I result, I faced many difficult challenges and made bad choice after bad choice. It’s amazing how self-destructive a person can become when they truly believe they are worthless and genuinely “bad”.

But God is faithful and His love can overcome any obstacle. Slowly but surely,

God started reintroducing me to Christian influences. First, I saw the Duggar’s television show. Their close Christian family made me miss the one I had once had too. Then, I learned of ATI and began spending time watching videos, reading articles, and even exploring ATI family blogs including the Stelzl’s. Eventually, I commented on one of Sarah Stelzl’s post and asked her about how to get closer to God again. She replied with a very helpful e-mail and we struck up a conversation via e-mail. Soon after this her father recommended that we start a Bible study on Skype in order to make better use our time and fellowship, so we began reading “Victory Over the Darkness” together. Not long after that Sarah invited me to come on a Journey to the Heart.

She didn’t know this at the time, but I had already heard and thought about coming on a Journey. But I was so ashamed of my past, and Satan managed to convince me that I wouldn’t be wanted there, that somehow I would mess up the experience for the other girls. However, when Sarah invited me I felt like maybe I could go.

It wasn’t long until I realized how little money I had though. I had just graduated with my Bachelors degree and I had all of $600 to my name with a month until Journey, and for non-members like me Journey costs $800 plus a plane ticket. I was ready to give up, but Sarah encouraged me to write to the Journey office and request a discount, so, with little hope in my heart, I did.

Sure enough a few days later I got a reply email telling me that the Journey office had approved a $300 discount! I could pay for Journey and still have a hundred dollars left over!!! After a few minutes, however, my hopes were dashed again. I’d still have to find the money to pay for a plane ticket. Since my job hunt was not coming along well I just knew I wouldn’t have the money in time.

For three days I felt like I was just wrestling with God over whether or not to send in the $500 registration fee. I felt like God was saying “trust me”, but my mind was telling me that if I couldn’t afford a plane ticket I would be losing $500! (For the record, Journey would have just returned the $500 if I couldn’t get there.) At that moment however, it felt like a huge leap of faith when I finally decided to send in the $500.

This next part is going to seem like a new topic, but I promise it ties in. You see, I sent in the money on Wednesday and my Dad was due back Thursday from his business trip. I had really been looking forward to Dad coming home because I had begun praying for my Dad and I was really trying to start fixing our relationship, which had been hard since he wasn’t home. Well, one flight after another was being cancelled, and by the time he did come home I was so annoyed with God. I felt like I was trying to be a good daughter and do a godly thing and then my Dad didn’t even come home on time. Once Dad got home, however, he pulled out a $400 dollar plane ticket voucher that Delta had given him since they had to delay his flights so many times! It was like God had just given me a little light bulb of understanding. The whole time He had been saying “trust me” because He had a plan! And I had the nerve to get upset at Him because He hadn’t followed my plan! Well, my plan would have never gotten me to Journey, I can promise you that!

Over the next few weeks I got ready and looked at the information from the mail. But I got really embarrassed when I saw the father’s blessing paper. Satan was placing doubts in my mind. What if my Dad thought it was stupid? What if he didn’t want to do it? So, I told my Mom and made it out to be no big deal, even though it was important to me. A few days later my Dad left for his next business trip and we still hadn’t done the blessing. And eventually I left for Journey and we’d still failed to get it done. I was discouraged to be honest. I thought I’d blown my shot and now Satan was placing thoughts in my head that told me that without the blessing I wouldn’t be able to have a productive Journey at all.

Well, the second day into Journey I got a phone call from my Dad. He said that even though he wasn’t sure about ATI, he was sure that he wanted to support me and he read me a blessing over the phone. That changed my whole day! I could see how God had worked in my father and encouraged him to make that phone call. It was just amazing!

Little did I know this was just the tip of the iceberg of blessings that God had for me on this trip! Once we had made our way up to Michigan, God hit me with yet another huge blessing and an incredible demonstration of His power. Being from Florida I hadn’t packed a thick enough sweatshirt for the cold Michigan weather, so I was constantly freezing. And while we were reading our Bibles I was discovering that the little, modern version I had was just not really on the same level as everyone else’s. I began to feel strongly that I was in real need of a new Bible… but I also needed to buy a sweatshirt. After talking to my leaders I learned that I had to choose. Madison thought that the Bibles were about $25 and I knew the sweatshirts were $25. So, I started to pray. I asked God to show me which I should buy. I really wanted and needed the sweatshirt, but I really felt bad about choosing a piece of clothing over a bible I knew I needed. As I prayed about the Bible though the same phrase kept popping into my head “Ask and you shall receive.” I’m not even sure if it’s a verse, but for some reason I was sure that this phrase was coming from God. So, I kept praying for a Bible. In my head though I was full of doubts. First of all, I had been asking for two days and a new Bible hadn’t popped up on my nightstand. The other doubt I was having, was that God could even provide a physical thing like a Bible. Sure he can heal people, I believed that, and sure he can provide spiritual help, but a physical Bible? I wasn’t so sure about that.

Later that night we went to a session and I put the thought of a Bible aside, deciding it probably wasn’t going to happen. That night’s speaker was Mr. Norvell. Wow. He gave his talk on being crushed and I was just in awe. That was exactly what had happened to me! Not physically, but emotionally. I was so stubborn that I had to be crushed before I turned to God. For the first time in my life I really felt that I understood why God allowed those things to happen to me, and why He had allowed me to do those things to myself. I went up to Mr. Norvell after his session and thanked him for his testimony and told him how it had really spoken to me. While I was talking to him that phrase popped into the back of my head once more: “Ask and you shall receive.”

My first response was “no way!” I was not about to ask some man I had never met before for a gift! Well, while I was in my head he had gone and spoken to another girl or two and finally as I was walking out the doors I saw he was alone again and God gave me the courage to ask him, but just barely. I couldn’t make eye contact with him for more than a few seconds and I was so out of breath by the time I finished speaking that I know I must have been talking a mile a minute. I basically said, “I’m really embarrassed to ask this and I know the answer’s probably going to be no and that’s ok I understand it’s not a big deal but I’ve been praying about a Greek/Hebrew Study Bible and I’ve only gotten back ask and you shall receive and so… Ya.” I stood there hoping he wouldn’t actually make me ask, but Mr. Norvell stood there patiently (and probably slightly confused) and just waited until I blurted out, “so can I have one?”

His first response was something like, “Yes, and you can have it now if the book store’s open.” I was in shock. Well, we walked over to the book store and… Drumroll… it was closed. We said goodbye and I thanked him again and he said that’d bring it to me in the morning. But “me of little faith” began doubting again. I thought that he’d probably forget or he just didn’t want to hurt my feelings so he’d said yes and he would let me down easy the next morning.

To my amazement, the next morning at breakfast Mr. Norvell walked over and presented me with a beautiful Greek/Hebrew Study Bible! He even wrote me a note and signed the inside cover! And God was speaking to me again, saying that I have no trust. Even when He answered a prayer I found a way to doubt Him. I could almost see Him shaking His head in disappointment up in Heaven. But from that moment on I can tell you, my faith in God had reached a whole new level. I knew I could trust Him. And not just with the spiritual stuff, but with everything.

Incredibly, that’s not even the best part of the story. Over the next few days I really started to worry about my salvation. I wasn’t sure that I had ever really let God in, not completely. I had never really given up the sins I was harboring in my heart to Christ and believed fully that they had been wiped clean. On Thursday it all came to a head, and as God would have it Thursday was our groups “hour of prayer.” (We had no idea that it would become 4 hours of prayer!) As we all sat together in the prayer tower and prayed with and for each other, I felt sort of out of place because I was still questioning my salvation. Then that same phrase popped into my head, “ask and you shall receive.” It was as though God had proven to me through the Bible that I can trust him with anything, big or small, spiritual or material. And as I prayed and gave my body, soul, and spirit to Him that day I had no doubts about my salvation. And I haven’t had any since.

From that point on I experienced a closeness with God I hadn’t felt before. I was even given the opportunity to share my testimony with a girl who was struggling with her faith and her past at the Journey conference. I thank God every day that He put her in my life because she makes me want to be a better person and a better Christian. I’m so excited to see how He plans to work in the young girl’s life and heart. I know He has big plans for her.

And while that intimate feeling dwindled slightly as I came home and returned from the mountain retreat, God had set me up with blessings to remind me of His power and grace. On the plane rides home I was able to serve, witness, and pray with a total of 6 enthusiastic listeners. And once I got back home my parents turned on the DVDs the Journey office had sent them and began listening to Tom Harmon speak. My Dad got a lot of encouragement from that video, and both of my parents have started to appreciate the power of prayer. We now have nightly prayer time before we all head to bed and it’s just incredible the changes and healing that has resulted from this simple first step. My parents have even subscribed to Embassy Institute so we can start watching the sermons and the seminars as a family. I really can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for our family as we grow in Him.

Our God is an incredible God with incredible power. And despite the fact that He is the universe builder and the creator of all things, (a pretty busy guy I think you’ll agree) our little lives are still important to Him. He sent His only son to die in our place to redeem us and to free us from the foothold that Satan has in our lives. When we turn to Him no challenge is too large and no problem is too great. He can hold us in his hands and he is with us always in our perfect spirits.

So… “Does God really care about me?” “Does He even exist?” “Can He forgive me after everything I’ve done?” “Does God even want me back after all the things I’d done wrong in my life?”

Yes! Yes! Yes! YES!

- Kate
June 2011 Girl’s Journey

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~ Eddie
May 2011 Journey

Having been on several journeys previously, I had learned not to tell God what he needed to do in my life, but rather, to ask Him what needed to be done according to His plan for my life. However, there was one thing I wanted from God on this journey, and that was to find out what He required of me in the area of my personal standards. I am nineteen years old, and I had come to the place of realizing that in the years to come, I would be held accountable for my choices in life. What would those choices be?

We drove to the Northwoods on Monday, and Tuesday night I came down with a fever and chills. I was miserable and tired, and still emotionally drained, and I laid in bed that night asking God “why?” I had gotten sick on a journey before, but now it was just me, lying in bed, with no one to talk to but God, and I didn’t feel like we were really getting along at the moment. In the past months, I had grown by leaps and bounds in my spiritual walk, but my wrong response to living with my grandparents in the last several weeks had not helped our relationship at all. The days crawled by, and I begged God to talk to me. It didn’t seem like I was getting anywhere. I wanted to seek his face, but I didn’t feel like it. Thursday, the day of Delighting in the Lord, came and went. I cried out to God on my walk around the lake, but it seemed like He was silent. I didn’t understand.

I stayed at Headquarters for a few days after the journey, and during those days, I had some time to just seek the Lord alone. I was sitting on my bed one night, and I flipped open my Bible to I Corinthians 9. The chapter was not highlighted, but the title in my Bible read “The necessity of self-denial.” I thought to myself, “This sounds like something I don’t want to read, but need.” I skimmed through it, and when I got to verse 22, it leaped off the page: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some… Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Suddenly, it dawned on me. I had been crying out to God to answer me, but I was not ready for His answer. It was not an answer that was going to feel good, or be easy. It was one that would require self-denial.

My sister and I have a discipleship ministry and we both spend a lot of time talking to other girls about things like honoring their parents, and seeking God’s best. It was not until I read those verses that I understood what surrender was. It is not asking God to give you his best, but only if it fits your personal likes. It is totally throwing yourself on God, and telling him to do whatever it takes, no matter how hard or painful. The time in the Northwoods on the journey prepared me to trust God…to say “Yes Lord” even when it’s hard. I don’t know why God allowed me to get sick, or why He seemed so silent, but I do know what when God seems silent, He is still there. That is the beauty of the Lord. He never leaves. I chose that night to lay aside every “weight” (anything that would slow me down), even if it was contrary to my personal likes and desires. I laid down my preferences of dress, music, friends, activities, books…everything. Because can I win a race with all those things in my arms? No…but the desires that God gives us, He will fulfill. And those that are not from Him, he will take away. I can trust God…you can trust God, because He is faithful, and when it gets hard, He will hold our arms up in battle, and we will be victorious.

“I will freely sacrifice unto thee; I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good.” (Ps 54:6)

- Testimony by Hannah Stelzl (Girl’s Journey, April 9^th-19^th, 2011)

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~ Sophia
April 2011 Journey

That night I prayed and asked the Lord to give me a sincere desire to Follow Him—to make disciples of the nations. I prayed that He would give me a glimpse of His Vision and His Kingdom. Furthermore, I prayed that He would place individuals in my path during my flight home, with whom He would like me to share the Good News, and I prayed that He would give me the boldness and the words that I needed.

The Lord gave me the opportunity to share the Gospel with the young man sitting next to me on my flight back to Vancouver. His name is Elliot, and he is a self-described “professional gambler” who was just returning home from a week-long poker tournament in LA. I was able to lead him through Mr. Garvin’s basketball tract, and even had him read Romans 6:23 from my Bible. Although he did not receive Christ during the flight, I was amazed at how open he was to discussing the question of salvation, and how the Holy Spirit was slowly directing me through the whole conversation as to what the say. Now I know what is means in Psalms 48 when He says “Seek my will in all you do, and I will direct your paths!”

The Lord has directed me since then to share the Gospel with friends and strangers alike on multiple occasions. He has used a major weakness in my life (timidity in social situations, poor conversationalist) and used it for his glory. I know that nothing I do is on my own strength, but on Him who will give me the strength I need every day to have His will carried out in my life!

~ Aaron
August 2010 Journey

I got a plane ticket just ten days prior to the journey for two hundred eighteen dollars. The very next day the price had gone up to five hundred sixty-five dollars, which would have been well out of my range!

The Journey dynamically changed my life. As I dealt with the sin in my life, I felt the communication lines with God open up. I prayed to God with my whole heart and not just my intellect. Now I am guarding my heart and seeking the Lord.

I am thankful to all the men on my team, especially Eric, Nathan, and Wesley for their spiritual insights and thoughts. I would like to recommend this journey for anyone who would like to deepen their relationship with God.

~ Mark
August 2010 Journey

For three nights in a row last week, I would wake up having dreamed about being attacked by someone or something. One night, I woke up startled from one of these dreams and gripped with a fear of my future as well as a fear of pain or getting hurt. I knew that God did not want me to live in or sleep with these fears and dreams, but how could I get rid of them? I didn’t know.

The next morning, Mr. Gothard called a few of us into his office for a time of prayer. He asked around the little group to see if any of us had any prayer requests. For a moment, I didn’t want to say anything. I thought, “Hey; these people would hear what I was struggling with!” But God prompted me to go ahead and ask them to pray for me.

Mr. Gothard seized the opportunity to impart some wisdom and explained several simple truths. He first asked if I had ever dedicated my life to God, to which I answered “yes”. He then explained that because my body belonged to God, Satan could not attack me in any way that God did not allow. He also mentioned that if I ever were to be attacked, that I should just cry out to God, and He would protect me according to Psalm 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

Mr. Gothard shared how when he was younger, he purposed to die for God. He didn’t care how or when, but knew that when he died, it was going to be God’s appointed time and way. He encouraged me to do the same thing.

That night I knelt down beside my bed and rededicated my body to God. I told God that I was willing and ready to die for Him. I also prayed out loud and completely gave God my sleep. Then I prayed that if it was His Will, I would be able to rest well and wake up whenever He wanted me to. And finally, I prayed that I would be able to get something good out of my Bible time the next morning. With that, I rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up with my alarm at six ‘o-clock the next morning . . .  refreshed! And I don’t remember even waking up at all after I asked God for sleep. I got out of bed, and started reading through a part of Psalm 119. As I was reading through the verses, one stood out to me which I took for my rhema that day. It was Psalm 119:37 and says, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” My challenge now is to live out this rhema by looking continually towards the Lord instead of being distracted by anything that does not bring about an eternal impact!

When I cried out to the Lord, He answered me. It has now been over a week and none of those fears have come back!

I now know that if I am ever struggling with doubts, fears, or anything else, I can bring it to Him in prayer. The well known and deeply loved hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, expresses this so well:

“What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

~ Katie
September 2010 Girls’ Journey