“God used the Vineyard to shape my life in many ways. When I was 16 years old I was living a life that took me away from Jesus and it was through a sermon at the Vineyard that God began to rework my heart and bring me back to Him. Little did I know that three years later I would be back at the Duluth Vineyard as a student in the pioneer class of Heroic Leadership Institute. As I spent 9 months being immersed in the culture, theology, and community of the Vineyard God spoke to me in ways I had never experienced. When I began HLI one thing that God nudged at right away was my need for control, He would tell me in times of prayer and through other people that this was something I needed to release over to Him. Over the 9 months of the program I wrestled with God as I tried to hand it over to Him. This all came to a climactic moment in the winter during Unchained when I went up for prayer and in a precious moment between me and my Papa Jesus took my little box of control that I was clinging to so tightly and took it upon himself. I felt released, this release has made itself apparent in different ways in my life. One way is that my need for perfection in school has greatly decreased and no longer to I find my identity in my grades, but I know my identity is in Jesus. Do I still struggle with control? Yes, but in a different way; now control does not have a power over my life because I know who I belong to, and I can claim the truth and promise of Jesus over me.

-Kylie Erickson