I am officially on Thanksgiving break... HURRAY! :) After California I had 4 days of school (which ended up being 3) and then break happened. I've been home for almost 5 days now and have gotten to watch basketball games, hang out with my wonderful family and rest. It has been quite amazing and I still have 5 days left!
I've been sitting here listening to music, drinking my Pomegranete/Raspberry tea, trying to do homework but I can't seem to get away from thinking about my trip to California. It was more than I could have hoped for. Far above my expectations and prayers- but God had it all in His heart since before the foundations of the world. I'm glad He was leading :D
We left Thursday morning, November 4th from IHOPU. 5 buses and 300 students departed from Kansas City and traveled together until we got to Cali and then each bus went it's own way to the city and House of Prayer that it was assigned. My team was assigned to San Diego. There we would be working with the San Diego house of prayer- JHOP under the leadership of Eddie Brown.
After a 36 hour long bus ride, dirty, smelly and tired, we arrived in San Diego. The guys got dropped off at JHOP and then we got dropped off at Grace Fellowhip church. These 2 very gracious churches would be our home for the next week.
The next few days were filled with crazy adventure as we began to do ministry on UCSD (University of California-San Diego). Every morning we would go stand on the snake head (Rom. 16:20) and pray and sing quietly. After that we would eat lunch then go to different free speech areas on campus and play guitars and drums and sing and from there send little evangelism teams out to talk to people. Then, we came together with the other groups on library walk. All 55 of us began to sing as one group and dance around and tell people walking by about Jesus. One day during this time, a man got healing in his leg and didn't have to use his crutches anymore. People responded differently to us, but overall their response was just suprised at how happy and joyful we were!
On the last day, Eddie and Amanda (my team leader) decided that we weren't going to split up after lunch. So we all stayed together for 4 hours and did worship and ministry in the outdoor lunch court. Many people got saved and rededicated their lives to Jesus this day. If they didn't make any decisions for Christ, they at least got seeds planted in their hearts because hundreds (maybe a lot more) heard the worship and praise and also heard the open air preaching we did!
Every night after we left UCSD, we had services at JHOP- San Diego. These were all student led and our own worship teams led the time. It was amazing because the farther along the week was, more San Diego people and UCSD people came. It was cool to encourage them in this atmosphere of worship and prayer.
My heart was so impacted during this week. I learned how to rely on the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance in both serving my team, and ministering at UCSD. I fell in love with my team, and suprisingly, there were no issues between the 55 of us during the whole trip! There was an unprecedented unity amongst our team that we can credit only to the Holy Spirit!
California needs our prayers because people there are hungry for truth. Some people might go, and others might stay but everyone needs to pray. It is a state that affects the whole country, so ask the Lord how to pray for the people there because our prayers matter and make a difference! :)
In His Precious Name!
