CLC Youth Encounter

“I felt as if the shackles of my sins were being broken off”

I have no father in my life. I have never met my biological father. All my life it’s just been my mom and I together. Ever since I was little, I always wondered where he was, or why he wasn’t in my life. As I got older, I started to forget about him and I carried on with my life. But recently, at random moments, I would be reminded of my dad. I remember looking at the pictures we had of him and I would just cry. I felt so much bitterness towards him. I secretly hated him, yet I was longing to see him. Just to see where he was now, how he was doing.

Because I didn’t have a father-figure in my life, I felt as if there was something missing. Some kind of love that I wasn’t experiencing. This led me to search for love in all the wrong places, with all the wrong people. All I wanted to do was to feel loved, cared for, and noticed. I didn’t care who it was, I didn’t care what gender they were. I just wanted love.

I became involved in an inappropriate friendship. Inappropriate because I knew the truth, inappropriate because it was with the same gender. During that time, I was already a Christian, so I had the Holy Spirit in me. Throughout this relationship, He (the Holy Spirit) was convicting me. He kept reminding me about how wrong it was. How what I was doing was a sin.

After I stopped talking to this person, I was convinced that I stopped having feelings towards the same gender. But I was wrong. No matter how hard I tried to resist my flesh, I was just so powerless. I was trying to remove the problem without dealing with the root. I couldn’t do it on my own.

I needed God.

I needed His help.

During the encounter, we had a session about purity. This was the session that hurt the most for me. I had to dig deep into the parts of my life that I buried away. This was the time that I confessed to God the sins that I have committed against Him. I cried out to Him and asked for forgiveness because my sin was not just hurting me, it was also hurting Him. I asked Him to forgive me for my unforgiveness towards myself, and my father.

Praise God! And glory to Him!

After I had finished confessing and asking for forgiveness, I felt as if the shackles of my sins were being broken off. I could feel God Himself releasing forgiveness and love unto me. I felt all the hate, and bitterness leaving me. I was forgiven. I was freed.

John 8:36

If the Son (Jesus) sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

Love came down and rescued me. Love came down and set me free.

Glory to God!

Whoever is reading this and can relate to what I’ve gone through, id just like to say that there is hope! Don’t ever feel that this sin is too big of a problem because we serve and almighty God! Have you ever felt that there was something missing in your life, that something just wasn’t right? Well, what you need is Jesus. I’m not trying to sound corny, but you need Him. He’s the only one that can take away your pain. His love never fails, and His love satisfies. He never leaves you feeling empty, but He always fills. Legit. If ever you feel alone, He has promised us that He would NEVER leave us or forsake us. He is always with us.

Ps. listen to “Love Came Down” – Brian Johnson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifeJRC5lvhs) *** which is also playing on the encounter playlist

-Kate Minguez, 16 years old

“forever be free from this disease that was slowly killing my spirit”

  If only there were words to describe what this encounter was like. Because every word in this testimony will only be an understatement to what God really did because He really did BIG things that are just mind-blowing and I just can’t find words to describe it sometimes!
    First of all, before the youth encounter, my life was honestly a mess. The things that I did and the things that I thought were just not right with God. And I hated that but I kept on getting back into it. And I can honestly say that this was an addiction. I was addicted to sin. There were times where I would feel so bad about doing these things that constantly, after each time, I would ask for forgiveness and everything, and sometimes cry really hard about it by myself, but it would always just come back.
    Again, before the youth encounter, there was a mens encounter. I went really expecting to get rid of this secret sin (when I say secret sin, I really mean that because absolutely no one [except for God of course] knew about this sin). After that mens encounter, I really thought that it was gone for sure. I was like, “FINALLY!” But when I got home, there was really a spiritual battle in my room, and like the sin did before, it came back again. My guard was so weak that I just allowed it to happen to me. It was honestly like someone was controlling me. I went from saying, “FINALLY!” to, “Really? Again?”
    Before the youth encounter, I was really asking God that this time, I would forever be free from this disease that was slowly killing my spirit. And this prayer was genuine. Because, soon I really started to feel the freedom coming, even before the encounter!
    I came to the encounter with a broken but expecting heart. Friday night, after the sessions, were ‘suppose’ to go to sleep, but I didn’t. I mean, there were those people who can just stay up late and wake up early with some energy but me, I need my sleep! But I didn’t get any! I mean like all-nighter no sleep! And trust me, I was soo sleepy but I realized that God (that guy who created everything) wanted to just chill with me *heartmelt. He would not let me go to sleep! So I just sat there on my bed in the silence. Suddenly, God spoke to me! He told me about stuff that was going to happen the next day. They weren’t pin pointed like, “Erica will not be able to speak English.” But it was like he was reading the bible to me saying that people will do this and others will do that. Something that hit me was that He said that people would never be the same! And I was like, “YES! THIS IS MY TIME! And everything that He said, ACTUALLY happened on Saturday! So when some of the boys woke up, I couldn’t help myself but to tell some of them what would happen.
    God= Amazing cause I didn’t really feel that sleepy. I mean there were those times when I was reallly drowsy but God really kept me up! And thats how I know that this all nighter wasn’t fake.
    So on Saturday, (the big craze For everyone lol) was the best thing ever!!! There was a session that really hit me and pin pointed my life and at the ministry time,  I layed everything down and I was truly free. Not the free that only lasted a few days, but the free that would last forever! I was now pure!
So at night, it was so great to just be in God’s presence because it was there where I started to speak in tongues. It was there where gifts were activated. It was there were everybody had a word for everybody. It was there where I was glowing in front of people! It was there where people saw demons. It was there where we conquered them! It was there where I felt true joy! It was there where I couldn’t stay still. An it was there where I truly felt free from that secret sin. And I still feel that freedom today!
    Then on Sunday, the spirit didn’t stop and I was just amazed by that!

    To the people who are reading this, I just want to say that this stuff is real! I was really set free from an addiction that I thought I could never get rid of! And I was actually filled with the spirit! Soooo many things happened only in those 3 days and it still amazes me today! And I can tell you today, right now, that I am set free from this bondage and I plan to stay that way! The enemy can no longer take this away from me!
Honestly, whoever the Son sets free, is free indeed! And I am just living proof that that is true! g2G!! I encourage everybody, that if you are set free, act free! Don’t get back into it like I did with the mens encounter. Yes, the enemy will try really hard to put it back in your face but, remember that you are free! After the youth encounter, I have experienced too many battles to count and I am conquering each one! Never will the enemy let my past walk back into my life! I’m on God’s side, nuff said!

-John Looy, 16 years old

“Mind… BLOWN!”

     Coming to the Youth Encounter 2011, I came with a heart wanting something really big. Something that would change my whole outlook on everything I knew about being a “believer”. I wanted something from God that I had never seen, heard or felt from Him before. During the course of the encounter, the process of breaking the chains, pains and bondages took me steps closer of making myself a little more “worthy” of receiving more from God. Now, bondage-free on the Saturday evening is when God began to pour and pour out onto the youth of Living Proof. As the spirit did the will of God among us, He began to instil in my spirit-man something so new, so powerful. The gift of INTERPRETATION! Right in that moment, God anointed me with the power to interpret the language of the spirit. God activated the gift into me because he had a sacred and powerful message for the youth. And as the Word of God was received, an act so symbolic was called upon the youth. A shout unto God, a shout that God himself would hear. A shout for God to change us like no other generation has experienced before. With all this in mind, it can TRULY be said that THIS GENERATION. This BOLD, FEARLESS AND UNASHAMED generation will become the REVIVAL that this was world has NEVER seen or experience in the history of man-kind!  

- Joshua Victoria, 17 years old

“His love covers me”

I can’t begin to tell you how my life changed after the Encounter. For so long I have been trapped in pain, un forgiveness and doubt. At the encounter, we had sessions which talked about different topics that really pierced through my heart. While I was sitting there, God had revealed to me so many sins that hindered me for quite a long time. These sins have stopped me from having a deeper relationship with Him. So at that moment, God spoke to me through a verse in Proverbs 28:13 which says: “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, BUT whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy”. To me it was such a powerful verse because it made SO MUCH SENSE for everything that was happening in MY LIFE. I wanted the bitterness, unforgiveness and selfishness to go out of my life and the ONLY way that could happen is when I confess everything to God. So in every “ministry time” (a one on one with God) I began confessing my sins with my mouth and IMMEDIEATLY I felt layers of pain and hurt DISSAPPEAR- JUST LIKE THAT. There was this warmth feeling in my heart and I knew God’s love was covering me. I knew that when I started confessing and sincerely asked for forgiveness, God instantly poured out His love and mercy on ME. I felt so unworthy from my past BUT God’s love had made me feel so WORTHY AND FREE.

On Saturday night, we had a great praise and worship and God was still doing great things to everyone ‘cause He wasn’t done yet! So everyone lined up and began to worship, pray, scream, cry, jump and just let the Holy Spirit work. I remember there was a time when the devil was really working extra hard to bring me down again. The devil was trying to make me think about my past sins and making me feel so unworthy all over again. BUT GLORY TO GOD because He gave me the AUTHORITY and POWER to rebuke the devil. Soon after, a person came up to me and had a word for me. I started to cry soooooo much because I specifically asked God for that “word” to show me that He is listening to me and His there by my side. I was so amazed that God used someone to make sure that I know that HE IS BY MY SIDE AND HE IS LISTENING TO ME AND THAT HE HAS FREED ME FROM MY SIN! Right after the person told me my “word” the Holy Spirit began to fill me up and gave me JOY, FREEDOM, & LOVE .  

Honestly, words are not enough to describe how God worked in my life. I can truly say that I will never go back to my old life because God showed me that I cannot be stuck there for He had forgiven me and want to do greater things in MY LIFE. I feel so blessed that God had called me to be pure and walk in righteousness so that I could Glorify and serve HIM.

I DON’T EVER WANT TO HURT GOD EVER AGAIN.
I DON’T EVER WANT TO DISSPPOINT HIM. I DON’T EVER WANT TO MAKE HIM FEEL THAT I DON’T RECOGNIZE THE FACT THAT HE DIED ON THE CROSS TO SET ME FREE.  ALL I WANT TO DO IS REALLY PRAISE HIM WITH EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE.

I know that the devil will try really hard to take our freedom away BUT because we know where we stand with God, the devil will not succeeded!!  The battles will not be easy but I KNOW THAT GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE ME/ US.

FREEEEEDOOOOOOM FEEEEEELS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will never be satisfied,

I will always be hungry for more of you God.

- Katrina Ysabelle Imson, 17 years old 

“God obviously went above my expectations”

To be honest I actually had no idea what else I’d gain from this encounter that I haven’t already experienced. The first week of July our church had a Destiny Conference and on the Saturday a bunch of people and I experienced God like NEVER BEFORE. I was honestly drowning in God’s presence and hearing Him speak to my heart. Every week after that LP Fridays were just ON FIRE! I cried like EVERY WEEK (but a good kind of cry lol). Sure, I knew that God would do something great for the people coming from Toronto and Scarborough but I didn’t know what God had in store for me. He would probably fill the with the Holy Spirit and stuff but nothing that I’ve never seen or felt before. I would probably learn a lot of things but nothing that would’ve compared to the night at the Destiny Conference.

God obviously went above my expectations lol. I don’t even know where to begin! AJKLFDSJAKLNFUSDAINFJADKLNUDFSAIN. Alright so first of all, the speakers at the Encounter are SUPER ANOINTED. I learned so much and every word they spoke was truly God inspired. And on Saturday and Sunday you could see what God was doing! There was interpretation of tongues, people having visions, and there was the Holy Spirit giving people the word to share to others! IT WAS CRAAAAAAAAAZY. But what I want to share is what God did to my heart.

The first night was already a struggle for me because just like how God knows my weaknesses so does the Devil. I’m a very outgoing person if I’m with the right people, I love God SO MUCH, I’ve never done drugs or drank, I’m still a virgin, I have someone waiting for me, I’m generally a happy person, my friends and family are the best but deep in my heart there are broken pieces. I can even say my walk with God has been good. Nothing super depressing happened in my life like someone being kidnapped or raped or murdered. My parents are still together so the Devil made it seem like my brokeness didn’t matter and I should just ignore it because no one would ever think my problem was important. 

The parts of my heart that felt ashamed and unforgiving were never opened because if I opened that part of my heart it would just hurt. Glory to God I’ve never been anorexic or bulimic (I could never imagine that anyway because I’m like fat lol), but I had a really low self-esteem for some reason. I could often look in the mirror and just point out what I didn’t like about myself. When people talked about the way I looked (in a bad way). I could honestly cry on the spot but I learned how to keep it inside. People would say to ignore them but it’s so hard for me because half the time it’s from the people I care about. I’m not one to tell people, “stop saying that, it hurts me” so I just took their comments and just kept them inside. Sometimes I didn’t even want to go outside because I hated how I looked. I would have “ugly days” where I would just sit down by myself and just try to make myself feel better. If I thought about what people said to me in the past I could start crying. I try losing weight or buying things but it’s like the weight of hurt was too much for me to burn off.

All these areas of my heart were tapped into on the Friday night. I thought I could hide what I felt from God though I always knew He could see the hurt. On Friday I honestly opened every part of me to God, I let Him into the parts of my heart I wanted to remain closed. But it was if He didn’t come in with a gun or a sword to fight off my hurt but He came in with genuine love and sincerity. It was like the things that made me cry made Him cry too but the difference was His tears were like living water and made what was dead alive. Although this may seem so small to people this is really big for me. I didn’t all of the sudden have a boost of confidence but everyday I walk with Him is just another step to being where I want to be : )

God sees every single problem and whatever matters to you matters to Him as well. There is never a problem to big or too small not to bring to God so don’t be afraid of bringing Him your problems. You don’t need to hide because He can see everything anyways : P He just wants you to trust Him enough to let Him know personally what’s going on with you.. He’s a holy and almighty God yes, but He’s also a friend : )

-K.V 17 years old

“all I could think of was how indescribably beautiful GOD is!!”

The Youth Encounter was an incredibly wonderful time to just get away from this world and get lost in the presence of God.I’ve been to about 2 other encounters before, but the Youth Encounter was different in that it was led BY the youth and prepared specificallyFOR the youth. It was really encouraging to see young people lead all the sessions! Despite having previously attended other encounters,I felt that we all need to have a regular check-up of our spiritual lives. We need to regularly go before the Lord and just lay it all down before the Cross and ask for forgiveness and FREEDOM from the bondage of sin.
The Holy Spirit made a special visitation on our last night, and I was just sooooo filled that I couldn’t stop laughing!!!:) I was filled with JOY JOY JOY! I knew it was the kind of JOY that nothing in this world could ever give - the kind of JOY that you could only experience in the presence of the Lord!It was an awesome reminder for me of how one-of-a-kind our God is! He loves us in a way that nobody on this earth ever can, and He fills this special void inour hearts that was made only for HIM! I am just so so so grateful to be loved like that by the King of Kings!
That night, I was just filled with desperation for the Lord. All I could think of was how indescribably beautiful GOD is!! The encounter has really changed the way I see things and the way I react to things. It has taken me to much deeper level in my relationship with my Saviour!
I am hoping to attend the next YOUTH ENCOUNTER!!!!

THERE IS NO GOD LIKE OUR GOD!!! <3
-Hannah Belleza, 23 years old