After watching the Great Awaking last year, my mom heard about the scholarship give away

to come to RBI in August 2011-2012. I prayed and asked the Lord about it and I heard his voice saying I want you to go RBI.  I called the prayer line for an application. After a few weeks, on July 22, 2001, I got a message on my cell; I just wanted to congratulate you on your scholarship.

God has been so good! I had no ride to get back and forth to school.  I had been praying and trusting him and going to prayer on Tuesdays. On July 26, 2011 when we finished praying, my case manager said that she would take me three days a week starting August 22. My mom and she agreed. Several weeks went by. On September 26, God provided a stable ride to get to school.

Through the Great Awaking I learned how to come back to my first love and let him change my heart, grow in my faith and discover the purpose why God has me on earth.  He brought me from not knowing my purpose to showing what my purpose is.  Now he is using me in so many ways I could never imagine.

Since being at the River I have relearned things I once knew but in a new way. Three weeks ago after asking the Lord what to give in the offering, Pastor Rodney announced about writing down ten things we needed to pray about, I asked the Lord if I should attend the next night and he said “I have your whole life in my hands do not worry about anything”. Two weeks later I received a tax form from my student loan saying it had been written off. Then I did my taxes and I did not owe anything in taxes. I am getting back to where I once was years ago, before life happened. I have learned a lot of things I have not heard anyplace else.

When I have my heart opened, I feel I hear the Lord better and feel his presence more than when I don’t.

Sometimes the Lord will touch me in spite of the fact I am not open to the message that is being preached. When I come into the presence of God, I never know what to expect. A message can make me laugh when I want to cry, cry when I want to laugh or make me just sit motionless.

Each meeting is different, just like each message is different Sometimes good sometimes not so good, but each time is unique, and special in its own way.  I may come and it may or may not be my night whether or not it is my night for a miracle of healing it is always my time with God.

What is God doing in my life? That truly is a loaded question. This has been a life-changing conference. We are not to conform to the world’s system but to God’s system.  Pastor Corey spoke about the money changers that Jesus was angry toward in the temple. Reading over these scriptures brought a righteous anger in me as I did not know about the evilness of this. The religious leaders loved money and wanted to do anything to protect it, as now in the present time.  God is doing so much to increase my faith.  He has taught me not to rely on my paycheck but on Him as my source.  I am grateful for my internship in the Pastoral and Outreach department.  This has been an unforgettable experience and I am just getting started.

–Shani