BRAVING THE WILD | RECESS LARGE GROUP | DENVER, CO - Spring 2017

“Going into RECESS, I had just come out of a season of darkness in my life. I had a 15-month-old and the postpartum depression had finally faded away. My life was still flipped on it’s head, though. I felt like everything wasn’t going according to MY plan. I knew this wasn’t a healthy state-of-mind. I wasn’t necessarily unhappy, I just knew that there was more to life and I wanted it. And I wanted a community to do it with. I didn’t know how to get there on my own. But then the RECESS opportunity presented itself, which was exactly the answer I had been looking and praying for.

Through this journey, God has truly changed me. I used to struggle with self-worth, but now I’m starting to see myself the way that God sees me. I know that I am a truly loved daughter of God. It’s not just something that I say, but it’s something that I can say in truth and genuinely accept for myself. As a result, I also don’t fear for my future like I used to. I’m not trying to make my own plan. I’m really okay with whatever He wants it to look like because I know I can trust Him.

These truths and revelations all came to me when I asked ​AND listened, rather than just asking and brushing off what He had to say. I decided to stop saying “no” to Him and allowed myself to go deeper with Him — into the places in me and in Him I had never been before.

I’m now in a much healthier place and am excited to see where He takes me. I don’t know exactly what the future holds. I keep being told that I’m going to be a great leader, but I am not going to dwell on all of the “what ifs” of what that could mean. I am choosing to soak in Love and taking the time to rest and not live such a hurried, frantic, unfulfilling life. I’m living the life He gave me, according to His plan, and giving my all to simply loving and be loved by Him.” – Katie, 23

“When RECESS started in January, I was in a place of desperation. I felt like this dark cloud full of inexplicable anger, depression and fear was surrounding me. For over a year, I had all of this anger and hatred towards myself. I had no idea why, but I could barely look myself in the mirror. The lies of the enemy were so loud that I had forgotten and stopped believing Truth.

Everyday I did my best to pretend I was okay. I didn’t want anybody to know what I was feeling, and I thought I could manage it by myself. I felt abandoned by God and if I’m being honest, I didn’t want to do RECESS because I knew it was going to be hard, painful and I knew God would show up.

The last five months have been a beautiful process of God softening my heart and gently asking me to let Him in. He worked daily to show me that I could trust him, that I needed Him. Halfway through RECESS, through His faithfulness and prayer, God delivered me from this anger, and I can honestly say that I've been living in freedom for several months now! He has continued to soften me and peel back my layers, revealing to me some of the deeper and more hidden parts of who I am to Him.

What I love about RECESS is that it’s given me the tools to continue to walk in freedom with God. It has been a vessel for his love to flow through and reach the deepest corners of my life, and for that, I am eternally grateful.” – Rachel, 22

“I like to think that I found RECESS when I wasn’t looking and that somehow this ministry found me back. It was one night and a one-time scroll through the “explore” section on Instagram over a year and a half ago. That was it. Somehow, I stumbled upon a post of a girl sharing her testimony from RECESS, and it resonated with me. I could sense that God was in that story, and I was completely drawn in.

I hit follow, which at that time was rare considering I almost exclusively followed people I knew, but there was something about those stories, about the freedom that was echoing, about the love and the truth that were shining through. God works through testimony. Powerfully. I felt the Lord drawing me to Himself, back…closer. He wanted to be close and yet I felt He was far off. So I commented once on a post without any expectation. And then to my surprise, a couple of the women from this group unexpectedly reached back to me. To me? Reached out from Texas to a complete stranger in Colorado? Meanwhile, God was doing a deep work in my heart, and I felt their support and love.

Fast forward two seasons to the present. I’ve just walked through RECESS for the first time with a group of women, and what comes to mind are these sweet things that God has done for me. He has brought greater freedom. He has shown and provided me with a close community of sisters. He has given me a desire to go deeper with Him — no holding back. I feel at home with Him, not striving, but entering more into His rest and provisions! I’m learning to trust Him more without reservation!

In my season before RECESS, He was redeeming and restoring and teaching me so much. He was teaching me things that RECESS actually expanded on and gave me the community to walk it out in! I’m so thankful to have tasted and seen His goodness and faithfulness to me through this experience. It was a risk worth taking…stretching and causing me to depend on Him, and deepening His work in my life!” – Bri, 37

“When RECESS first started, I knew and believed that God had more for me in my life, but I didn’t know how to access it. I was a sad and bitter person. I wasn’t content with my life. I knew there was a deep well of life in me, but it was so weighed down and covered up with hard circumstances that I couldn’t spring open.

This RECESS journey has allowed me to access the deep well despite the circumstances. As I’ve entered God’s presence, He has consumed me and made me whole. I know that nothing else can bring me the peace and joy I was seeking – just intimacy with Him and realization of His love for me. Presently, my circumstances are the same, but I am a totally different person. I feel the Lord carrying me as His daughter and giving me a light load for my heaviness. Everyday I feel so thankful for the depth of His love.