it's a beautiful thing

to fellowship and worship with brothers and sisters that all share the same purpose and passion!!

whenever i reflect back on Urbana and how we were sent a video message from IHOP of how they were all praying for us and wanted to say hi, i can't help but smile. i just remember seeing all those faces, some people jumping up and down out of excitement, and smiles all around when they were waving hi on the webcam.
it's so precious to know how extensive our spiritual family really is, i absolutely adore big families. the diversity represented is always astounding and so awesome to see how God has gifted us differently.
mini example:some of us FECG kids hung out and couldn't decide on what movie to watch because we all had different tastes. it took forever to decide and we finally all agreed to Star Trek. but it was just interesting how we all are so different!!

tonight, we celebrated the FEC [First Evangelical Church] family. we had a joint praise night. i looooooove how God has placed all of us in SO many different college campuses!!! we range from community colleges to universities and to private schools!! i feel like we are all spread out in so many different places and it's so awesome to reconnect when given the opportunity.
networking is like one of my faaaav things to do. :OD

but tonight was focused on God and giving Him the glory for placing us on the campuses we attend and for providing us with many opportunities, to embrace our calling. it was also a time to meet other people who used to or currently attend the same campus as us but who go to different churches. we wanted to be more connected and bridge gaps. :O) i feel tonight accomplished that goal and was a new beginning to great things.

the prayer time was my favorite where there was a representative for each school and they stood up to pray for their campus. it was really interesting hearing what each campus struggled with and yet what each campus was strengthened by. Dan [our pastor from Glendale] brought up how he and the other pastors noticed there was a negative spirit/power that was dragging each of our schools down in different ways. here are the prayer requests so you can know what to pray for [i can't remember all the campuses so i will only list the ones i remember. oh & some of the prayer requests can apply to all campuses]:

-UC Riverside: pray over the spirit of being underestimated&viewed as not academically prestigious to be broken. pray that clubs will not be the replacement for church for some attendees, pray for the clubs that outreach&evangelize on campus to be able to make an impact and a lasting one where they follow up with the ones they reach/talk to, pray for the freshmen to give Riverside a chance&to find out why God has placed them there&to realize their blessings there, pray for all the Christian clubs to come together and be united, and pray for the ministry that God is starting with the LGBT community.

-UC Irvine: pray over the spirit of feeling one can do it all without relying on God. pray that the campus fellowships [and other ministries such as dance groups] will be able to find common identity with one another through the pursuing of Christ, pray that the students will be motivated to follow Jesus and go out and evangelize, pray that differences will not get in the way of allowing God's work to prevail.

-UC LA: pray over the spirit of prestigious pressure to do well&competitiveness. pray for God to work through the many campus fellowships God has blessed them with, that He would grow and work in the lives of those who attend and those who are reached out to.

-USC: pray over the spirit of rivalry as well and how it's a dark place surrounded by an even darker place [the bad part of LA]. pray for the students there to be able to put God as their number one priority and then school, pray that academic pressure will not overtake the student's lives, pray that the fellowships will be able to reach many lost ones.

-Westmont: pray over the spirit of being stuck in their own little bubble. pray that the students will not be only going to church or chapel because of routine or cause it's the cool thing to do but because they feel called by God, pray that the students will go out of their comfort zones and achieve goals outside of their campus instead of feeling like they are trapped by the campus walls, and pray for all the social justice groups that take place on campus.

-BIOLA: pray over the spirit of attack by the enemy. pray that God would continue to do His work and bless the students who attend to obtain growth, knowledge, and experience.

-Wellesley: pray over the spirit of feminism and the pure goal of success. pray for the girls who attend [since it's an all girls school] to be able to find their identity in Christ instead of other things, pray for the women who feel lonely to find a partner in Jesus, and pray for the women to not solely pursue female success in the workplace and society but to remember or discover who they should be pursuing first.

-all the community colleges: pray over the spirit of feelings of rejection or underachievement. pray for the students to continue to strive for high goals&to not feel inadequate, pray for the students who have scheduling conflicts so its hard for them to get connected with a fellowship, and pray for the students who do have a church to invest in getting involved with their church especially if they do not have the opportunity of joining a campus fellowship, and pray for all the people who preach without love and misrepresent God on campus [the hate preachers].

i know i missed other campuses but those are just a few of the many campuses we cover!! God is so AWESOME and He really is worthy of ALL our praise. thanks for your prayers :O]