There has been lots on my mind the last few weeks. I am currently at a point in my life where everything that I once knew is being put to question. My world is turning upside down. It's an interesting place to be in. It has truly been a humbling process, but it has allowed me to go back to simplicity of knowing Christ and being like a child in His arms again. I'm learning all over again. It's definitely a time of restoration. I'll be writing more as I sort through this season God has me in.
As of now, I wanted to share an email, our prayer team for Epic Conference 2009 wrote to the staff members and friends who are helping with Epic Conference. This email reflects a lot of things that are close to my heart and things that we can all be praying for with Epic Conference coming up in a week and for this new year in general. For more info on epic conference. Check out www.epicmovement.com.
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Hello Epic staff and friends,
This is an update of things to pray for this week with Epic Conference coming up very shortly! This is a really long email, so Nich asked us to summarize it shortly and give a list of things to pray for the next week. We'll also be updating again next week. So here's our prayer request:
Pray that people would pray!
For more explanation read on below:
______________
We are working with Nich Beebee to help plan and set up the prayer room at
Epic Conference this year. Nich asked us to introduce ourselves and share what is on our hearts for the prayer room as we have met and discussed it together. As of now, there are three of us students working on ideas for the prayer room. We all met Nich and know each other from our
Epic Summer Project in Nagoya, Japan. The three of us include Daniel Nomura, Carl Catedral, and Sara Tellio. Daniel is a 2nd year student at UC San Diego; Carl is a 3rd year student at Arizona State University; and Sara is a 2nd year student at the University of Hawaii. The three of us have had various experience in what God has been doing in the place of prayer at our different universities. God has especially placed a heart for prayer on Sara's heart. Through a series of divine appointments and openings, she was able to catch God's heart for 24-7 prayer. She then was able attend an internship this summer through Campus America, an organization a part of 24-7 prayer that mobilizes students to plant 24-7 houses of prayer on their universities. Through God's divine provision, she was able to help lead a completely student-led movement that mobilized a week of non-stop prayer this last semester at University of Hawaii. Each of us has been gripped by the transformation we have seen God do in the place of prayer in our own lives and those around us, and we eagerly desire to see God work his transforming power on the hearts of the students and staff going to
Epic Conference this year.
As we have talked about what God has been placing on our hearts, we have come up with the theme of "Restoration" to go along with the theme of this year's conference "Kingdom Come." We especially keyed on this phrase from the description of this years theme:"And the underlying theme of the Old Testament is the failure of people to bring about the Kingdom in their own strength."
As we discussed our experience in planning and preparing a prayer room, we realized that the most important part and most obvious thing to do is to PRAY. However, in our human desire to have control, we often attempt to bring about change and transformation in people's lives on our own strength rather than allowing God do it on His timing and in His way. This year, we really want to get out of God's way and allow the prayer room to be a place where we attract God and not man. We want the prayer room to be a place where people can come together and uniquely express themselves in worship and prayer in the way they were created to be. Many times we have tried to make prayer into something that we do on our own strength, but we have realized that we can only see transformation when each individual's heart is gripped by the movement of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. Thus, as we have planned and prayed about the prayer room, we desire it to be a place where people come and be themselves. We desire to create a sacred place where our hearts are corporately joined but individually expressed as we cry out for God to restore our lives, our famlies, our friends, our campuses.
So why the theme of "Restoration?" This last semester, Carl was doing a morning prayer shift at the prayer house during 35 days of 24hr prayer at Arizona State University. As he was praying, he had this day dream in which he and Sara were together at a building. The building was oddly constructed. As he looked at the floor, he noticed that part of the foundation of one side of the building was completely missing. There was carpet over the rest of the floor and it hung loosely over the part where there was no foundation. Sara asked why the building was so weird. So we looked for someone to ask about the building. We ran into a construction worker there, and we asked him why the building was so weird. The worker made a profound statement. He said, "We have been trying to do renovations to the building, but it is really in need of
restoration."
As Carl pondered over the significance of this vision and talked to others about it, he realized that the building represented our ministries. We have been trying to renovate and build things on our own strength, but we have failed to realize that what we need is complete restoration. We have been missing a vital piece of the foundation - the very cornerstone of what God has called us to do. We have left Jesus out of the equation because we have failed to invite Him through our prayers.
God has placed on our hearts to call Campus Crusade back to the place of prayer. We desire to see restoration in our lives and in our campuses as we see the restoration of what God did in Campus Crusade many years ago when it first started. Many students don't realize that Campus Crusade was started when Bill Bright initiated a day of 24 hour prayer. Through 24hr prayer, God used Bill Bright to launch a movement that has touched the hearts of people all over the globe. Consider this statement on Campus Church Networks' website:
Campus Crusade the world largest Christian organization was started by a 24-hour prayer vigil on the UCLA campus. Founder Bill Bright decided before he would try to plan, strategize or reach out to the students, he would first pray for them. He formed a 24-hour prayer chain with college students from his local church asking God to open a door at UCLA to preach the Gospel. A short while after this prayer vigil God opened a door for Bill to preach to a sorority house where half the students gave their life to Jesus and in the following weeks 250 students on campus were saved including the Student Body President, Top Athletes, and Yearbook Editor!
So a big part of our heart for the prayer room this year is to see students in
Epic restore the vision of what God established as the very DNA of Campus Crusade years ago when it first started. We desire students to come to the prayer room, experience God, be transformed by His presence, and run with the vision that God gives to them. That's how each of our lives have been transformed and empowered. We have so many more stories to tell, and we desire to see a whole generation of Asian Americans be empowered to tell their own stories. As one person so aptly put it, "History belongs to the story-tellers and connectors." We truly do believe that God has something special in store for this generation of Asian Americans, but with that, we strongly desire to see our foundation restored through day and night prayer fueled by inimacy with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Practially speaking, we will be planning a prayer room that will be open 24 hours a day for people to come at any point of the day. We are planning different stations that will help guide people to express themselves uniquely in prayer. Also, we have been asked to help Nich plan daily morning sessions for the staff, interns, and students. Every morning at 7:30am, we will be having a prayer session before the staff and intern meeting that goes from 8 to 9am. From 8 to 9am, we are also planning on doing a prayer and worship set. We have already contacted some students from different universities to help lead these one hour prayer and worship sets each morning. Our prayer is that God will draw people's hearts to these prayer sessions each morning. We realize that for many people this is very early in the morning especially after long nights after planning and preparation, but we want to recognize that these early morning prayer sessions will be the very foundation for the rest of the day.
Sorry for the length of this email. Our group is just very excited to see what God will do this year at
Epic Conference. We just have one prayer request as we prepare for
Epic Conference. We ask that you pray that students, staff, and interns would PRAY! That is really all we have to do! We'll leave the rest up to God!
Together in Christ,
Daniel, Carl, and Sara
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
