Libby shared the following audio testimony with this last girls Journey right before they headed up to the Northwoods to seek the Lord.

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~ Libby
November 2007 Journey

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~ Trina
May 2010 Journey

Riane actually did not want to come on this Journey because she knew there were things in her life that were blocking her relationship with the Lord. On this Journey, God showed her a truth that brought her to the point of complete surrender.

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~ Riane
May 2010 Journey

During my personal interview with Mr. Gothard at the start of the Journey, he asked me, “On a scale 1 -10 (10 being the strongest) how would you rate your relationship with God?”

I replied, “It would be a 1.”

On the outside, I looked like a pretty nice Christian young man who had a fairly good life. On the inside, I was headed down a path leading to destruction. My life was a total mess. I had a lot of bitterness towards my parents and I was filled with anger, malice, rage, hatred, lust, immorality, and moral perversions. I believed the lie from Satan that I didn’t need anyone else . . . God or parents.  So it’s safe to say that even though I had said the “sinners prayer” before, my relationship with God was pretty much nonexistent.

To be perfectly honest with you, I really didn’t want to go on the Journey to the Heart. However, it was my dad’s desire that I go, so I submitted and decided to go with an open heart. I also determined that I wanted to find God on this Journey.

Fast forward . . . to Tuesday morning – March 31^st

This was the first day at the Northwoods, up in Michigan.  I was lying in my bed doing my quiet time and wrote a simple prayer in my journal.  The prayer went like this:

Dear God,

I want to find you!  Help me to forgive my parents, Lord.  Help me, give me the courage to confess my sins and competing affections out loud to you on this Journey!  Thank you Jesus for making it possible for me to come on this Journey.  Bless the rest of my family today Lord.  In Jesus name I pray.  Amen

I want to share a verse with you that is found in Jeremiah 29:13: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” This verse is so true. Literally one hour later the Holy Spirit came upon me in a way that I have never experienced before and I just broke.  I was on my knees/face weeping before the Lord confessing every sin that I could think of out loud to God and to my other teammates. I confessed my pride, my bitterness, my anger, my lust, my immorality, everything I could think of I confessed to God.  I told God that I forgave my parents for the hurts they caused me.

I began rebuking Satan.  I told him that I didn’t want him in my life anymore and commanded him to flee.  Then I asked God to fill me with His Spirit.  Our team spent two hours of praying and confessing hidden sins to God and to one another.  I can tell you I felt a lot better after praying this prayer.  This all happened on Tuesday and it took me until Wednesday sometime to realize that God had answered every single line of that prayer that I had written down in my journal that morning.

Wednesday – April 1^st

Wednesday was a day of discussing how to get rid of the hidden sins and secret lusts (competing affections) that hinder us from fully loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Earlier in the week we had heard the phrase:  “The power of sin is in its secrecy.”  This means that once a sin is exposed, confessed, and repented of, the sin has no more power over you.  This is why it is crucial when we confess our sins that we confess every detail of the particular sin so that Satan has nothing to fall back on. It is like when someone goes into surgery for cancer and the doctors performing the surgery must make sure they cut off every part of that tumor. Otherwise, what happens?  The tumor grows back.

Our leader, Chad, told us if there was anything we needed to confess to our parents that would be hindering our walk with the Lord, and hindering the one accord between the group, he would make it possible for us to use the phones over at the main lodge.  God had convicted me of a particular sin that I had been struggling with that I needed to confess and ask for forgiveness.

After dinner, we went over to the main lodge and I called my dad.  He wasn’t there.  I left him a message saying I had accepted Christ as my Savior and that I needed to talk to him so I would either call them back later or to just keep me accountable and ask me when I get home.  Later that night, I called again and this time I got a chance to talk with my dad and my mom.  At first I only confessed it to my dad, but I eventually decided that I needed to confess it to my mom as well.  After confessing it to both my parents and asking for their forgiveness they both said they forgave me. I am on a quest of desiring to fully confess everything to my parents and cleanse my heart of all impurities.

Before I left, I sent out a massive email asking for prayer that I would:

1. Go with an open heart
2. Meet God in supernatural way
3. Come home loving God more then I ever have before

God answered every single one of those requests! It just goes to show that if we seek God with all our hearts, we will indeed find Him.  If we seek Him, He will make Himself known to us in ways we could have never imagined.

~ Kyle
March 2009 Journey

When I was younger, there had also been a struggle between my parents in their marriage, which had caused me to cut off my spirit from them, to build up walls of defense, and to suffer asthma and nightmares from my fears. I had sought acceptance in other people and possessions, which had caused me to not only lack the trust I needed for my parents, but to hold back from fully trusting God.

The Breaking Point

As this realization dawned upon me, I broke down and wept on the floor where we had all knelt to pray in groups of 3 or 4. My team leader, sensing that God was doing a work in my heart, led me away to talk in private. Over the course of the next 2 hours, she helped me identify 30 lies I believed, 20 painful memories I was suffering from, and 5 different fears that were affecting my health.

That day my eyes were opened to the bondage that I had been in for so many years. I experienced a new freedom as I prayed asking God to take back the ground I had surrendered. I was able to fully forgive my offenders and to develop a new love for them, and a desire to serve and bless them!

Dying Leaves are More Beautiful

This amazing event set the stage for the rest of my Journey! I found that my heart was open to examination as I studied the different heart conditions. I was able to pray for others with a whole new love for them! I saw God use me to encourage and disciple many other girls throughout the time there, and to cry out to Him without fear of what others would think. There was a whole new awareness of His promptings, and the ability to hear His voice like never before! Most of all, I learned to understand the pain of others who were in similar bondage to what I had been in.

God showed me how to understand the hurts of another and to care for them! He broke me one night as I was spending time alone with Him under the stars. I wept for a girl I had known who was experiencing much more than I had ever experienced, but was held by the chains I had been in.

Throughout the week, as I observed the beauty of the colorful leaves on the trees, I was reminded continually by our team leader that the leaves were beautiful, yet they were dying! I saw that just as dying leaves are more beautiful than those that are alive, so we as believers are required to die to self and to be on fire for the Lord, in order to achieve the greatest beauty.

Just Three Days

As we prepared to leave journey and come back home, I was encouraged to go back and make disciples, to grow in the Lord, and to do great works for His kingdom. I could never have imagined just what awesome things God would do in so short a time!

The first full day back home, God brought a young lady across our path to meet with us regularly for discipleship. That same day, my sister and I decided that God would have us bring a team of girls we were discipling back to a journey next year. He has already provided several who are interested!

The second day proved to be a little more challenging. Mr. Garvin had taught us a valuable lesson on sharing the gospel with lost souls, shortly before the journey ended. We were at the park with some friends, when I decided to put to practice a little of what he had placed before us. In the past, I had always handed out tracts, and had actually shared the gospel with four little children and an older woman. Yet each time my conversation had never been more than just a few minutes long and I had always been so fearful during the whole presentation.

This time, however, I felt led to give a tract I had with me to a young man who was up on the hill smoking and texting on his cell phone. I was a little nervous, but I felt very strongly that God wanted me to do this. To my surprise, he was friendly and after handing him the tract and asking a few questions, we started a rather lengthy conversation. About 20 minutes later he started opening up and sharing about his life. He professed to be saved, but didn’t know much about the Bible at all, even to know if he was saved by works or by faith. I was able to share with him a lot about the Word, and to present 49 Commands of Christ to him. He became so interested that He wrote down the IBLP website so that he could check out some of the materials and learn more about the commands of Christ. He also showed much interest in attending our church!

I keep wondering what would have happened if I had disobeyed God’s voice and had failed to be a vessel through which His love could shine to someone so spiritually hungry.

The third day God impressed upon me this question: “If I don’t know the 49 commands of Christ and if I am not living them all out in obedience to Him, then how can I effectively teach them to those whom I am discipling?” That night I began to work on the first command and to apply it to my life.

As I went to bed, I prepared a passage of Scripture from Philippians 2 to quote and meditate upon. God gave me so many significant insights even as I was falling asleep that I could write down the next morning. He also showed me two books He wanted me to write concerning two areas of bondage that I have found freedom in.

As I went to sleep, I dreamed about a man of God who was competing in a race. And as he sought to do his best, God faithfully rewarded him by allowing him to win! When I woke up, there was a post on the Living the Journey website, about running our race successfully as a champion runner. It was like God reaffirmed to me that He has set the narrow way before me, and that now there is nothing holding me back from trusting Him fully and from running with all my strength to win!

When I was in bondage to bitterness, and when I chose to believe Satan’s lies, the chains kept me from running to win. But now I have been offered another chance to run without anything holding me back. God is so gracious and merciful! Even now He has already given me such a new heart for Him, so that when temptation comes (and it has been so less frequent) I can easily and victoriously overcome it by the strength of Jesus Christ!

Each person must come to a place where Jesus is everything to them. For me, this is just beginning!

~ Sarah
September 2009 Girls Journey

During the hour of prayer on Thursday evening of the Mother’s Journey to the Heart, she discovered a cause—a root of bitterness toward her husband. She confessed it to God and her husband and asked God to deliver her from all of its consequences.

The next morning she woke up without a headache. This was incredible! She felt her head to see if it was really true. All that day there was no headache. However, she was afraid to tell anyone, because she thought it might return. Sunday morning she again woke up with no headache! She realized that God had healed her. Her joy was inexpressible!

Rachel’s enthusiasm and excitement grew as she told everyone about her healing. A week later her husband affirmed that no headache had occurred since that day!

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I came to the Journey knowing that there were struggles in my life that needed to be resolved. At the top of the list was my bitterness towards my father.

Before we left Headquarters for the Northwoods, I was challenged to give the expectations I had of my father to the Lord. I was also encouraged to find ten benefits from my situation . . . then a few more . . . and I needed to ask the Lord to bless my father with the character qualities he was lacking.

I wasn’t too sure I could think of that many benefits, but as I went outside to spend some time alone, one benefit in particular kept taking over my thoughts. The Lord God Almighty—the Creator of heaven and earth and my Heavenly Father—was teaching me to fully rely on Him for the security, comfort, acceptance, love, and everything else that my heart desired so greatly. He was the only one who could fulfill those roles completely. As I began to ask the Lord to bless my father, a huge weight left me.

On Tuesday, our team spent the morning outside enjoying the beauty of God’s creation and studying about the murmuring heart. I was very convicted and later called home to ask my father’s forgiveness.

For many years I had experienced doubts about my salvation, which were probably a result of the bitterness I had been harboring. Now that this bitterness was resolved, I had a renewed impression upon my heart to get rebaptized.

I understood that baptism is not necessary for salvation. However, I realized that if I humbled myself through this baptism and openly acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Lord of my life (no matter what others might think), then my doubts would leave.

I talked over the phone with my parents and they both said it would be fine, although my mom strongly urged me to pray for a rhema. During our day of delighting in the Lord I was seeking a really special verse, but the only verse that I felt impressed to meditate on was Proverbs 30:5. To be honest, I didn’t exactly see the relevance of this particular verse. However, my team listened to Jim Sammons share about meditating on one verse each week, so this became my verse.

When Saturday morning came and still I didn’t seem to have a rhema, or so I thought, I prayed and gave the whole request to God, since it seemed that I had run out of time. Right before the meeting that night, my team leader asked if I was getting baptized. I said that I didn’t think so . . . but God does amazing things!

During the meeting, Bob Norvell shared how to continue living what we had learned during the journey. Close to the end, he started quoting a verse. It was Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” It seemed Mr. Norvell was looking straight at me during the whole verse. Then the Lord said to me, “There you go. This is your answer. Trust me and be baptized.” Wow! I was very nervous, but He kept assuring me, “I am a shield to those who trust in Me.’”

So that night I was baptized at the lake, under the stars, and as I came up and walked out of the water the Lord took away all of those doubts and fears! Hallelujah, praise His name!!

~ Crystal
July 2009 Girls’ Journey

When Nicole heard about the Journey to the Heart, she wanted to go. However, she purposed that she would not get rid of her eating disorder, nor would she forgive the trusted family friend who had deeply offended her a year earlier and triggered her food addiction.

During the Journey orientation, she learned how to have a whole new response to the one who had offended her. This included asking God to bless that person with the qualities that he was obviously missing, such as repentance, truthfulness, self-control, genuine love, etc.

While on the July 2009 Girls’ Journey, Nicole was impacted as she learned about a fearful heart. She learned that the power of sin is in its secrecy, and she had to call home and confess to her parents what she was doing and why she was doing it.

She was fearful because she did not think that her parents would understand. However, the very next day the one who had offended her called up and confessed what he had done—a year earlier. This was an amazing evidence of God’s response to the verbal blessing of Nicole.

Since the Journey, Nicole has not only experienced great freedom in being open with her parents, but she no longer has the urge to continue her eating disorder.

A doctor interviewed Nicole and exclaimed, “To the medical world, it would be a miracle to instantly stop the kind of eating disorder that Nicole had.”

I was the youngest daughter of Joanne, the owner of those two gold necklaces.

The police were at the house questioning my two oldest sisters, Jessica and Amy. I can’t recall what my brother was doing, but I know what I was doing. I was sitting in her room, crying. My mother was gone and I didn’t know where she was. I had just turned 11 one week prior and I could not understand the chaos in my young life.

Finally, my oldest sister, Jessica, told me that I had to go to bed. Jessica was crying, but she was trying to be strong, if for only the sake of me. Everyone in the house was worried about one thing: Mom had done what she’d been threatening to do.

I cried myself to sleep, in fear of what would happen in the morning. When morning came around, I awoke to the heart-wrenching sobs of my sisters. It was true then. Mom had really done it. She’d been saying that she would do it for months, and now finally she had. My mother had committed suicide.

I didn’t believe them. It couldn’t be. It didn’t happen! It wasn’t until I saw my brother, that I believed the police’s report. He was sitting on a white lawn chair sobbing. I’d never seen my brother cry before, never. I knew then that it was true. My brother was crying and then I broke down and cried too.

A Troubled Past

My home was definitely not a good place to grow up in. There was fighting, drinking and drugs. My mother smoked marijuana and drank more often than not. I watched movies and saw magazines that no little girl should EVER lay eyes on. I picked up the language of my older siblings. At about age 10, I was cursing and saying things that I wish I’d never have said. The truth was, I hated my family. I hated my mother, and unfortunately I told her so on many occasions. I couldn’t stand how she drank and smoked. When she did, she became a different person, a stranger to me.

When I was 9, my mother took me for a walk. Deep inside, I could tell that something was wrong. My father had died of cirrhosis of the liver. I cried and cried. It was awful. Why was everything so wrong? Why? Why? Why? It was a question that I asked too many times to count.

Sadly, suicide became more tempting every day. I thought about it a lot. How I could do it, when I could do it. It’s horrible to think about it, but the thoughts floating around in my head were there and I couldn’t get rid of them. But, I didn’t want to get rid of them. I entertained them. It was horrible. I was only 10 and I was thinking about suicide nearly every day!

However, I was afraid. I was so afraid of dying. At the same time, I wanted to die, yet, I didn’t want to die. I didn’t know where I would go when I did. Yes, there was always the pleading thought to end my life, but I never followed through. In the back of my mind, it would creep upon me every once in a while.

A Turn Toward Christ

I moved in with my Uncle, Aunt and their four children. Their home was the complete opposite of my former home. Like a breath of fresh air after going through a fire. They’re Christians.

I was extremely introverted during those first few weeks. I didn’t want to talk about anything that had to do with my past. My Uncle and Aunt would often talk with me and ask me questions, but I would only clam up.

I knew who Christ was and how He died on the cross for my sins, but I wasn’t ready to accept Him as my Lord and Savior. I didn’t understand why God would do this to me. I was so angry, that I didn’t want anything that had to do with Him.

One day, we went to our pastor’s house and we watched a moving film about eternity. It scared me. I knew where I was going. I was going to Hell and it terrified me. Well, shortly after that, I asked my Uncle and Aunt to pray with me. I prayed to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior!

A Transformed Heart

However, I didn’t realize that bitterness was still on the throne of my life and it was growing within me. I had a boiling cup of anger within me, aimed toward God and my family. How could He let this happen to me? I tried to ignore it for the most part while continuing my Christian walk. Actually, it was more like a struggle. I didn’t want to talk about my past. I was still a closed person.

In 2007, I had the opportunity to go to Journey to the Heart. It’s a journey to discover what’s in your heart and what the genuine heart of God is. It was there that I broke. I had so much bitterness by this time that I couldn’t stand it. I fell to my knees and begged for God’s forgiveness. I was so grieved for holding all this anger toward God; the God that created me and gave me life.

The weight that was lifted off my shoulders was incredible. I now had a desire to follow God and to do His will. It was no longer the fear of Hell that prompted me to follow Him. I had come to realize the depth of my own sin and how much He loved me.

I was free! I was no longer in bondage to the chains of sin that held me. I don’t know what God has planned for my future, but I can now thank Him for the fires he took me through. I now realize if I hadn’t gone through all of it, I would still be on the path to Hell.

Wrong Responses

Ben responded with anger and bitterness, along with closing people off and not trusting anyone. He built up skills in fighting so that he could fight back.

Then came the lies: “I am a failure. God hates me. I am worthless. Life is not worth living.”

Deepening Stresses

At fifteen, Ben began to have a problem with lust. Because it was left unchecked, this led to secretly listening to rock music. He then got caught up in pornography.

Depression set in and he struggled with thoughts of suicide. One day when he was twenty, he loaded a gun and walked out to the back pasture to end it all. His father stopped him, but he continued to listen to rock music whenever he could.

Ben’s desire was to be free, and he tried many things in his own flesh. However, he could not find freedom, because he was too proud to tell his father everything about his past failures. Soon things started going wrong again and even got worse.

How the Truth Set Him Free

When Ben arrived at his Journey, he had two goals: to conquer lust and to deepen his walk with God.

He writes: “The very first day, some of the fellows from a previous Journey shared how sin’s strength was in its secrecy. God really spoke to me through these guys and their willingness to confess secret sins to their parents. Finally, I called my dad and told him everything. At that point, I was free!

“I then realized that I had to take away the things that were influencing me toward the world. I thought my music was OK and the movies that I watched were OK. I was so wrong!

“Now, as I’m home, I am able to flee when temptations come. God has given me His grace. I’ve had a new boldness to witness. I also made a vow to remain pure until marriage and to never look at pornography in any form. It has been amazing to be so free!”

~ Ben
March 2009 Guys Journey