My testimony of the events our mission trip really started back in November. John Burton came out as the guest speaker for our annual Reality? Retreat. The night before the leadership team met with John for what I thought would be a nice dinner and the assignment of people in the cabins………God obviously had a different agenda. John wanted to pray for each of the leaders, starting with me! Through John’s prayers, God began to strip away the years of ugliness and rejection that I had been deceived into believing. I knew God loved me but after years of my dad and others turning their backs on me and saying mean, derogatory things, (things that I had actually begun to believe as truth) had taken its toll and I had become so bitter and hurt. My heart ached. I could have written a book on the emptiness I had felt. As John, Dave (my pastor) and my friends continued to pray over me, the bitterness, hate and depression began to fall off like a heavy weight. God showed me that night that he has seen every tear that has hit my pillow at night when cry myself to sleep and that he knows and understands all of my hurt. Later in the evening during prayer for another young lady in our group God drew John to me again and began to speak of my innocence (like that of a child) and God knew my desire to married one day and that would be fulfilled. God knows me best and He’s shaping somebody just for me to pour out my love and affection. What an amazing God to serve that shows so much care and concern for my heart. I am one person, special and unique to God and he desires time alone with just me as I am. Amazing, how God used someone that I had just met, that read me like an open book, was obedient to what God was saying and brought back part of my life. Since November, it has been a process of mending my heart. God is taking his time and showing me his love in sweet ways. My pastor (Dave) once told me that everyone has wounds. When left unattended, they can become infected and sometimes even become deadly but with proper attention and treatment (like the pouring out of God’s love and attention) the wounds begin to heal and eventually turn into scars. Those scars serve as a reminder of the wounds we once carried. A reminder that God brought me from a place where I was hurt, broken, ashamed and rejected to a place where I feel unconditional love, peace, joy and comfort and the blessings of my heavenly Father. Today, God still is working on my heart. He has torn down the old and is constructing a new heart in me. The mission trip to Manitou was one more step in my healing process. God is showing me even more how much in love with me he is and how he desires to spend quality alone time with just me! He has a jealous heart for me and that is so astonishing to me to think that He would have so much adoration for me.