Amazed by His Majesty

On Tuesday night I was on my way home from visiting friends at the college I attended this past year in Bloomington. Since I was in the area I decided to go to the Mall of America and walk around, not really finding what I was looking for, but glad for the exercise. My mom had been keeping me updated on the weather around my area. There were to be storms moving in, I assured her that I would be fine and kept walking around the mall. When I finally decided toleave around 8:00pm I looked at the sky and it was unusually dark for that time of night in the summer. I kept driving with no in climate weather until I reached highway 35E from W 7th St. All of a sudden the rain came down and didn't stop. Now I'm the kind of person who doesn'tnecessarily like storms, however if I am in a safe place I am quite fine. Rain when driving is a different story! I need to see where I am going! Even in the winter I make sure the cariswarmed up enough so I can defrost the windshield. After running into not one but TWOmailboxes as a 16 year old, I am very careful not to make that mistake again!So the rain was coming down faster than the windshield wipers had time to clear it off.

"Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh,Whoosh" they went, wiping back and forth in a feeble attempt to keep my line of sight clear. Praise the Lord for quick thinking and ingenuity (and also downtown exits)

I decided to take the back roads to my house from downtown. The rain was still coming down heavy and I said, " Jesus you have to make the rain stop! I can't see a thing!" A few minuets later, after I got to the street I needed to get back home, I noticed the rain began to stop!

As I looked to the left the sky was a unusual yellow. My first thought was,

"Oh no!! The weather is really bad I need to get home!!"

But then as I kept driving, it was as if the Lord was telling me to look again at the sky, as I did I was captivated! The sun was still shining even

though it had been raining heavily. It was illuminating the sky through the haze of the clouds. It was so beautiful. Then as I got closer and closer to my house I kept thinking.......

"I need to get a picture! I need to get to a place where I can see the sun!"

Imeaditly I changed my course and drove to Central Park, parked my car and ran to the place where I knew I could get the best shot and this is what I found....

It turns out that I wasn't the only one that wanted to capture this majestic scene. Right as I pulled into the park's parking lot I saw an older couple get out of their car and together we walked to the same spot. How faithful is the Lord! How majestic are his ways! How he amazes me!

"He paints the evening* sky with miracles in mind.

My hope will always stand,

For you hold me in your hand"

-Amazed by Lincoln Brewster

FACINATE 201

What a busy week this has been indeed! After working 25hrs for a family as a nanny, saying good by, then heading to a 3-day youth conference I am so happy to finally be back home! The Lord has given me so much grace with me. He has given me energy and a voice throughout this week which has been such a blessing!

As I mentioned before I went to a youth conference, it was called Fascinate and it was down at the International House of Prayer. It's focus is youth in high school wanting do go deeper with Christ and to grow in their knowledge of him! Let me tell you, even as a youth leader I was impacted powerfully. I have been to the OneThing conference in December with IHOP, but never a Fascinate conference. First of all the worship was powerful! The Lord poured his spirit upon all of us through each of them. We were blessed by worship leaders such as Cory Asbury, Matt Gilman, Laura Hackett, Jay Thomas, Tim Reimherr, and Misty Edwards. Not only was the worship powerful, the teaching was incredible! Praise the Lord for men and women who have taken the time to set aside time and study his word, meditate on it, and then share what revelations they have received!

In our first session Lou Engle spoke about what it means to be consecrated to the Lord; set apart for his glory, to be a Nazarite. The Nazarite vow found in Numbers 6 gives us a deeper look into what the life of a Nazarite looked like. There a few examples of such people in the bible, namely the prophet Samuel and the man Sampson. Both from birth were set aside and consecrated to the Lord. Lou spoke about how the Lord is raising up those in these latter days to be Nazarite deliverers. God wants to deliver us from the sexual revolution that has plagued America particularly since the 1960's. God wants us to break the rebellion in this current age!

Wow this teaching was intense but so awesome! The Lord was really speaking to my heart about ways I could be a forerunner for his kingdom, ways I could be set apart! Mike Bickle spoke about the life of David, how the Lord knew him as a man after his own heart! How crazy is that, to be known by the Lord as one after his own heart! There was so much I was impacted by as each speaker shared what the Lord had put upon their hearts!

Going back to the worship, two songs we sang at the conference really struck a chord in my soul. First of which was the song, "Eden" by Phil Whickham. John Thurlow sang this song and it was simply beautiful. It is a song about going back to how the way things were when God created them in the beginning. Dwelling with the Lord face to face, unashamed! I encourage you all to listen to the song. It can be found on Phil Whickham's, "Heaven & Earth" album.

The second song was called Shekinah Glory. Jay Thomas sang lead the song as Cory Asbury's team joined in. The word Shekinah is Hebrew and basically stands for the "visible manifestation of God's presence"(www.gotquestions.org). In the song it talks about waiting for the Lord's presence, how as believers, we want more of what the Father has! Declaring that we want more of his glory to rain down upon us! Ned less to say I was deeply impacted by both songs.

What a blessing it was to attend this conference! It was certainly a divine appointment! I have so much more to tell, but for now I will make you wait. Keep pressing for the Lord, he will draw near to those who are hungry for more of his presence! Off to sleep then more packing and getting ready for the big move to Kansas City, Missouri!!!

-Julia Engebretson

Summer Camp!!

A month has gone by, and how time has flown

With each passing day, and Oh! How I’ve grown!

Revelations of the Father, new each day,

Being kissed by the Word, nothing greater I can say

But this:

His words are sweeter,

Than honey from the comb

His ways are higher,

So high man could never know.

And still he came and took on flesh

Bearing our sins,

Atonement through his death.

He rose again and went to dwell,

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, together the limitless well.

And here today I drink it in

By his blood, I’ve been washed by sin.

Made clean in his sight,

I can scarcely take it in.

To be adopted, as the daughter of the King

To him I give my Love, I’ll wear his wedding ring!

This past month has been quite the season of growth. How ironic, that in this season of change I have been surrounded by God’s greenhouse!

For three and a half weeks I have been working as a camp counselor at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch in Stewartville, Minnesota. Quietly tucked amidst the woods about twenty minuets from Rochester, Ironwood is indeed a very special place.From the age of eight to nineteen years old, I have been faithfully attending camps at Ironwood every summer (with a few exceptions). Every summer, I see how much I have changed since the previous year and I am amazed! This year was no exception.I had been praying the week prior to staff training that the Lord would break in at Ironwood in a way like never before, at staff training we saw but a glimpse. Prayer was much more prevalent than in past years and my heart was filled with joy!

I also had the opportunity to help out with worship during staff training with a friend of mine; it was amazing how the Lord used the both of us throughout each song. Our program director, rather than bringing in a speaker for the staff, chose to give the messages each night. Every time he spoke God have him wisdom and authority, which in turn spurred the staff to examine our selves as to how we could be more effective in the upcoming weeks of camp.

Our camp theme this year was “Be Transformed”, taken from Romans 12:2 where Paul writes in a letter to the Romans, “ do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.

As we began our first week of camp on June 21^st had no idea what to expect. Though as the week went on the Lord blew my wildest expectations for camp out of the water. First of all, each morning I would spend at least an hour reading the Word while walking down the long drive way of the ranch or listening to worship music. I looked forward to the time I would spend every morning in the word. As the day went on we would have chapel and worship with the campers, it was powerful!

Junior ll: This week we worked with campers going into grades 6^th-8^th. I was blessed to have a wild bunch of ladies in my cabin “Sonshine”. Throughout the week I loved each of them more and more! Seeing how goofy they were for their cabin clean-up skits made me smile! Every night, along with the help of my junior counselor, I lead devotions and I saw how hungry they were to get to know the Lord better. As a cabin we read through the book of James and the girls were challenged to read their bibles at home.

One of my campers, was so excited that we had gotten through James she woke up early the nextmorning and was reading it on her own before the other girls woke up! Another sweet thing I had the opportunity to e apart of was writing skits for the campers each day. Being that I have done theater all throughout high school I was more than happy to help out! After listening to our speaker in the morning I would write a skit based off his message, which would tie into the chapel service that evening. Since our theme was, “Be Transformed” I addressed issues like music, the words we use, and the love we show and how that relates to our walk with Christ.

Finally, as the week ended, our speaker challenged us all to,” Be Transformed and … STAY TRANSFORMED!” What an awesome week! With that during our last cabin time I took my girls down to the river and washed their feet and prayed over them one by one. I felt that the Lord was prompting me to share Christ with them in a way they had never experienced before! After that we sang worship songs to Jesus and camp was over that night. I miss those middle school girls but I know that they left camp with a good foundation under them. I wait to see where the Lord leads them next.

Junior l: During the week of Junior l I had a double position at camp. Not only was I the head counselor of a cabin, I was co-leading worship for the campers with a friend of mine. Going into the week I was already a bit drained physically and spiritually from everything that the Lord did at Junior ll. I had so much fun leading worship that week, though it wasn’t perfect I felt that the Lord was so pleased with the simple offering we brought to him. As a staff we began a new tradition at camp, on the last night of camp the staff gets together for a time of worship. Even though by that Wednesday night I was so drained, I gave it my all and what an awesome night of worship it was. As camp drew to a close I once again took the girls in my cabin down to the river and washed

thier feet like Jesus did with the disciples. They thought that was pretty cool! Oh what a joy those girls were! I would sometimes come in the cabin and have a few of them running around with candy in hand having the time of their lives! What a blessing they were!

Teen Camp!! This past week was teen camp at Ironwood. I had been particularly been praying for this week of camp and I knew the Lord was going to do something big, but I didn’t know what exactly. The week prior God had spoken to me that I should lead a bible study on the book of Revelation during the camper’s free time, as well as doing a sort of prayer ministry for girls.I was so excited to start camp!! Right away the Lord had me connecting with campers and praying with them, allowing the Holy Spirit to help them through some tough issues in their lives. What an amazing transformation I saw in these campers who I had the privilege of talking and praying with! During free time I had an average of ten people a day at my bible study on Revelation. Most of the campers who came had never even read through the entire book and were hungry to learn more. I felt that in teaching on the book I learned more about the end times.

At the beginning of the week the Holy Spirit had an agenda, and the spirit was moving heavily in the campers even on the first day. That night our program staff revamped the schedule and included bible studies, discussion times, and time to experience God’s creation. With these additions to the schedule, they had to remove extra games so that the focus was clearly on the Lord. During the extra time for bible studies, I lead a session on the book of Hebrews. Over the past year I had spent quite some time in the book of Hebrews and I loved sharing with others what the Lord had shown me.

On Wednesday night we watched a movie called, “To Save A Life”. This remarkable move, written by a youth pastor in California,covered everything from underage drinking, to depression, to suicide. I was so impressed at how realistic the movie was; yet it didn’t water down the consequences or make Christianity seem mamby pamby. I encourage all those reading this blog to watch that movie when it comes out on video. Thursday night for the first time at Ironwood, we had a Baptism service. I believe six of the campers participated baptism. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life!" -Romans 6:4. Also we had a concert with our worship band for the week, Silent Substitute!! They are a band comprised up of four brothers and sisters. Their music is amazing and we all were blessed by their passion and gifts from the Lord. They had recorded songs just for camp at Ironwood, out of their new songs I was especially moved by their song Daddy. I love these words from the song, “Daddy please would you lead me to the truth”. AMEN!!

Finally during our last time as a cabin, I once again took my cabin(all of us walking barefoot) to the river to wash their feet. But this time was slightly different. I had them all blindfold themselves and hold on to each other's hand while I lead the way in front. When we had reached the river I had them take off their blindfolds, I explained that our journey from the cabin to the river represented our journey through life. Our feet were dirty because we had been walking on gravel and asphalt, this was sin. The blindfolds were an interesting twist, each of us in our walk with Christ will experence times when we feel like we are walking blind. We will face seasons in the "desert" so to speak.

Yet we can hold firm in the knowledge that Christ is always leading even when we might not feel it! This week it was especially hard to say good bye but the Lord is so good and he will see us through!All in all these past few weeks have been packed with so many things I could hardly share them all. But in these few words I hope to keep you all informed of how the Lord is changing and growing me! What a season I am in!!

Sincerely,

-Julia Christianne Engebretson