It Began in the Land of Corn: The Evan Olson Story

I was born in Iowa, otherwise known as the eternal land of corn. I grew up on the grounds of drug rehab center where my dad had worked for the past ten years. Teen Challenge of the Midlands was located in central Iowa and that was my home for the first thirteen years of my life. I lived on eighty-eight acres of woods, creeks, and recovering alcoholics, and I loved it there. You’d think growing up surrounded by drug addicts would have a negative effect on ones life, but honestly it has never struck me as anything different, it was just home. Teen Challenge was in many ways an ideal place to grow up, it was all private property so I was really free to run about. I love stories and my story making started there, there in the woods of yesteryear. I fondly remember my childhood there, it was a unique place to grow up and I’m glad I had the chance to live there.

When I was thirteen we moved from Colfax (where that particular Teen Challenge was located) and moved to a suburb of Des Moines called Ankeny. It was in Ankeny that I began to hear whispers about something called the Kingdom. At first we didn’t have a name for it, but it was something tangible and we pursued it. My dad (the pastor) pinpointed a meeting with Matt Sorger as a turning point in our church. It was a Saturday night, Matt was praying for people, and suddenly in the rafters of the church we could see a mist. It goes without saying that this was a big deal and is generally thought of as a turning point in our church’s recent history. That is where things began to quicken, when healings became more routine, and the supernatural in general began increasing. Now, six years later things God is moving in power, the Kingdom is expanding in our city, and my church is becoming a family. I love seeing how our church has changed in the last five years, from a church body to a church family…it is awesome!

While many people may leave BSSD and feel that they are leaving family, I don’t have that problem. Not to say I don’t consider the people in California family, because I do. But when do I go back to Ankeny, I have a whole other family waiting there for me when I return. What I love most about the Kingdom is this whole community principle. It has shown me how life is supposed to be lived, surrounded by friends who support you on your journey and encouraging you every step of the way.

When I traveled to BSSD, I comforted myself with two thoughts, 1) that God wants me in California and 2) that anything associated with Bethel is probably going to be freakin amazing. I was disappointed when I didn’t get into BSSM, but that pretty much evaporated after a few days. I began to see that it BSSD was really tailored to suit me, the main reason being that it was smaller. God knew I was better in a smaller venue and so I became more excited as September approached. I like it here now, it isn’t home but it is slowly becoming a home away from home and I am thankful for that.

My biggest struggle thus far in California has been transitioning into this new community. I have a community back in Iowa and after a few days here I began to ask myself, “Why do I need another community, I don’t even want one…. I ALREADY have one!” So that has been difficult, getting used to the idea that I need to have a community here in California to walk with me these next nine months. This has been hard, not to mention the fact that I am hundreds and hundreds of miles from home. I’m so used to saying, “Yeah, I’m heading out to California.” So it has been hard getting used to saying, “Yeah, I’m from Iowa.” My family and church are so intertwined that I miss them both equally, thank God for Facebook…honestly, thank God ha ha.

I feel like the year that I was born to now has been phase one in my life and that I am now about to enter into phase two. What I want most as I move into “phase two” is to have my identity established in Christ and to have an honest-to-God encounter with the Father and His heart. I’ve been saved most of my life, so I have the blessing/curse of not knowing a life without Christ. Because I haven’t had a deep conversion experience, I am very much a circumstantial Christian and I want that to change this year. I don’t want my emotions to dictate who I am or who He is. I want to be rooted and established in love and from that place I will change the world.

(This paper was written while listening to Fix You Up by Tegan and Sara)

(It was edited while listening to You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse)