April Update
Hi friends and family! I hope you are all having a great spring! About a week and a half ago, I returned from my two-month tour through the Rockies region in the US. The last week and a half, I have been resting before returning to work next week to follow up with students who attended all of our events.
This tour was so amazing, stretching, and taught me so much about the Lord’s faithfulness. Overall, from all our 24 teams that were out for the last two months, we saw 37,498 people gathered, 4,767 people gave their lives to the Lord, 172 people healed, and 41 people baptized!
Here are some stories of personal highlights from my tour:
We hosted our largest event at Washington State University, with around 200 people attending. While I was visiting Pullman, I got to visit my cousin Brooke, who goes to WSU, and my sister, her husband, and baby drove down from Idaho and were able to attend our day-one event! This was also my first time preaching on this tour, so it was such a fun opportunity to get to have some family there for it.
At this event, one of my personal favorite testimonies was from a girl who gave her life to the Lord. She had been attending a campus ministry for months but had not yet decided to go all in for her faith, until this night! Then the next day, she ended up attending our evangelism training and going out and evangelising on her campus, telling her testimony about what the Lord had done in her life, only the night before!
Another one of my favorite stories is from when we were at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. We hosted a youth event with a church in the area, and were able to connect with so many of the kids in the area on the reservation. Here we saw two young girls, who were friends, probably elementary school age, decide to give their lives to the Lord! It was such a sweet and tender moment to see how the Lord can meet people despite their young age.
Colorado was probably one of my favorite states that we visited. One of my favorite stops was Colorado State University. God’s sovereign hand was so evident in the planning process with this school. In the fall, I found myself filled with so much faith for what the Lord wanted to do with our partnership with this campus. We didn’t have any active contacts with the school, though, so after lots of cold-calling and reaching out, I found a student team of three roommates who were best friends. All the planning through the fall went great, and the student hosts even started a monthly evangelism outreach on their campus during the fall. In the days leading up to the event, a bunch came up with finding a venue, to the point where we were about to have to cancel the event the night before. Then, last minute, the host home we were staying at offered that we gather in their living room, which was 40 minutes away from the campus. So at 11 pm the night before the event, I updated the venue. Around 60 people ended up coming the next night and cramming into this living room. The Holy Spirit was so evident in the room, worship broke out, and it ended up being my favorite night of preaching. The group of students we got to work with quickly felt like family, and the Lord created a true atmosphere of family in Fort Collins.
We also went to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Colorado College, which are in the Springs area. Both of these schools were so incredibly fun, and there were so many students who went to all of our stops in the Springs/Denver area, so we got to spend almost two weeks with them! This ended up being so impactful, as normally we only get to be with people for two days or so.
At Colorado College, we gathered for our event in their chapel on campus. This event was the first time the chapel had had a Christian event in it. Previously, other religious groups, drag groups, and others had gathered in the chapel, so this was a big moment for the students at the school to finally get to host a Christian event.
One of our student connects in Colorado Springs also started an evangelism outreach in the past year, which is now gathering around 60 people per month to go out and evangelize in the Springs. The Lord is moving in Colorado, and young people are stepping out in boldness in their faith!
These are just a few stories and moments from tour that impacted me personally. The Lord continued to show up and do more abundantly than I expected over and over again, and was so faithful in all the details. This summer will entail doing follow-up, summer schools, and helping with our high school summer camp that we run. Then next fall onto another tour!
As for the rest of life, it has been quite busy! My niece was born, and I was able to fly home the day of to get to meet her! I have also been doing lots of wedding/bachelorette prep because my roommate is getting married this upcoming month! So lots of exciting things coming up the pipeline.
I am so extremely grateful for all your support, and your continued prayers that give me the ability to do continued outreaches like this!
Winter Update
Hi family and friends!!
I am a little over a month out from going on my third tour with Circuit Riders. This year in the Rockies region of America! This includes Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. This year, different from last, I am planning a tour, visiting majority Universities and some high schools. Over the last few months I have been contacting students and local churches in all of these states, building connections, and planning our visits with each university. We will be hosting worship events on campuses and holding evangelism trainings and outreaches. About a month ago, we went out for two weeks on what we call a pre-tour, visiting each campus that we will be partnering with and meeting with the student hosts! It was a crazy busy two weeks as we road-tripped over 3000 Miles to visit the 14 universities that we are working with! We met with student teams, pastors, and held evangelism trainings and outreaches on almost every campus. I personally am working with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado College, Colorado State University, the University of Wyoming, Utah Tech, and the University of Utah! It has been such a joy to get to work alongside students on these campuses these last few months, and I am so expectant to visit their campuses in the coming spring semester.
In these last few weeks of preparing to go on tour, we have also been preparing messages to speak on tour, helping to facilitate the students on my team who will be leading worship, and locking in details like housing and vehicles for those two months on the road!
In addition to this, in the Fall I worked a part-time job for a few months, working as a receptionist at a yacht club in Balboa! It was such a blessing as I got to spend my shifts just getting to help out and meet members! As many of you know, I grew up in this environment at home, so it felt almost like a little piece of home here with me.
As of lately, I also got to help plan one of my closest friends' engagements, and life has just been so full of so many joyful celebrations and things! Between both of these jobs and other things going on, this fall/winter has probably been one of the busiest seasons of my life! At the end of this week, I am heading home for a Winter break to spend time with my family and new baby Nephew!!
I want to express my gratitude to each and every one of you again for following along and for your generosity that is sowing into how the Lord is moving on each of these university and high school campuses!
I pray that you all have the most peaceful and joyful holiday season!
Summer Update
Hi friends and family!
Thank you for your continual prayers and support! I hope you have all had a beautiful and joyful spring and summer! I am hopping on here to update you on what I have been up to the last few months, and what this summer will look like for me!
The last two months have been full of responding to texts and making calls for our tour follow up! I have been calling attendees from my tour stops and two other teams' stops to check up on how their experience at the event was and encouraging them in their walk with the Lord. These calls are so encouraging and I feel so privileged to get to hear how the Lord is moving on so many high school and college campuses around the country. I also helped with a weekly bible study that circuit riders was running for high schoolers in the Huntington area.This ended a few weeks ago but now I have been helping to run another weekly bible study on monday nights for people that attend our large monday night gatherings that happen during the school year. The vision for this bible study is to get better connected with the students who attend our monday night gatherings, in a smaller setting. Hundreds of people from around Orange County attend our Monday nights, and so these bible studies have been so special to get to actually know who attends these nights, and connect them with one another! I am helping to run and speak at a group for the high schoolers in the area. It has been such a fun and sweet experience!
Along with this, the majority of my summer is being spent continuing to fundraise and build my monthly support team! In order to prepare for the busyness of the fall and the travel that I will be doing for our tour season, I am using this time to prepare and build my support team!
In addition we also have our high school summer camp in LA this upcoming week for students all around the country that we are hosting, called Riders Camp! At the same time we have a school running the same week, training students in media, music and speaking! Unfortunately I will not be able to help out during the actual week of either of these, as I am visiting home.
On a more personal note, my roommates and I have been hosting lots of people in our apartment! We have people often staying here who are visiting in town and need a free place to stay. We have also been hosting dinner parties, and lots of hang-outs for friends and as a way to connect and build community with others we don't know as well. This is one of my personal favorite things to do, and has brought me so so much joy, creating a safe and peaceful place for people to come to. Fostering this hospitality has been such an important part of renting this apartment for my roommates and I! Other than this, and on a more sad note, I am visiting home in Issaquah, for a few days this upcoming week for a memorial. As many of you probably know, my grandpa passed away in December, so I will be going home for his celebration of life. Later this month I will also be visiting Idaho for two weeks, joining the rest of my family on our annual family vacation to the lake! Lastly, I also have many weddings I will be attending in the next few months, because so many of my friends are getting married! It is so exciting getting to watch so many of my friends entering into this new season!!
Youth West Tour Update
Hi family and friends! I hope you are all having a great spring and I want to thank you for your continued support and prayers as I continue to work with Circuit Riders to reach students in high schools with the gospel!
From mid-January to mid-March, I was on a two month tour through the west of America with Circuit Rider Youth. We had a team of 10 people, including me and two co-leaders, and seven students from the fall Circuit Riders discipleship training school. We visited around 30 high schools, doing after-school evangelism, visiting their student-run Jesus clubs, and doing youth rally events with many of them on their public school campuses. Along with this, we visited many youth groups and helped out with some community outreaches. Our weekly schedule would look like going to the clubs during or after the school day and sharing the gospel and student testimonies, doing after-school evangelism on high school campuses, and then at night hosting youth rally events at the high schools. The youth rallies at the schools consisted of worship, a message on Matthew 5: Salt and Light, and then time to pray for the students.
Leading this tour was definitely so stretching and pushed me out of my comfort zone each and every day, whether it was from leading a whole team, to meeting and praying for strangers, and speaking in front of hundreds of students. Even though it was so stretching, it gave me so so much life and joy each day, and the Lord equipped me for every situation. I’ve realized that on these tours, devoting each and every day to the Lord is definitely the most alive I feel, and I love it so so much! It is such an honor to get to see the Lord move firsthand in students’ lives and schools as a whole. While schools tend to be described right now as places marked by anxiety and depression and a lack of hope, I have so much faith and already see the Lord turning this around. I have faith that schools will be defined as places filled with hope and life, and joy!
Testimonies:
One of my favorite testimonies from the tour is from a school in Washington called Stanwood high. We attended the Jesus club at their school during the day, and shared the gospel and a testimony from one of the students on my tour team. During the club we met many of the students who helped to run the club, two of whom were girls who were close friends with the main student host. We then had an event with their school that night. During this event after the message, we had time to pray for the students. One of my co-leaders went to pray for one of the girls who helped to run the club. She learned that this girl helped to run the club, but did not actually follow or believe in Jesus. By the end of the conversation, she gave her life to the Lord!! It was such a special and joyful moment for her and her friends, who had been praying for her for years!
Another one of my favorite days from the tour was when we were in Walla Walla, Washington. We got to go to a community outreach across from a local high school. In this outreach, every week, a team from a local church makes burgers and hosts a bible study for students from the high school across the street. Probably around 200 kids come to the community center/church each week. So we got to spend a few hours helping around and talking to the students who came. Some of my team saw multiple people give their lives to the Lord, and we got to pray for multiple people. It was also so incredibly encouraging to see these families and team who take time out of every week to serve these students, form connections with them, and encourage them. It was the sweetest time and just such an encouraging example of serving and investing in your community around you.
Another one of my favorite moments from tour was when me and two students from my team went to the Jesus club at Rogers High School in Tacoma, Washington. We went to their club at lunch and I spoke on the prodigal son from Luke 15, encouraging students that no matter if they feel far from God or stuck in things in their life, they are never too damaged or far for the Lord’s redemption and saving power. I spoke on this and the gospel. After the first club, the students informed us that they had a second lunch with a second Jesus club. I was not aware of this, so last minute we were able to go to their second club which had probably 50 students all in one little classroom. Before the club began, I was going around talking to students and met one girl who told me she had recently transferred from another school. I asked her and found out that she had just moved and transferred from Liberty High School, which was my high school! I spoke the same message for this club meeting, and at the end of sharing the gospel, I gave an opportunity for people to give their lives to the Lord. The girl I had met ended up being one of the students who gave her life to the Lord! It was so sweet to see someone from my home high school give their life to the Lord.
These are just a few testimonies from our tour among so many more! I just want to thank you all again, because without your prayer and support, I would not have been able to go on this tour! You are all partnering in a bigger move of God within high schools and universities!
Tour Stats
From all of Circuit Riders’ outreaches from January to March of this year (America, Europe, South Africa, Kenya):
Total Gathered: 47,538
Total # Salvations/Rededications: 6,941
Total # Healings: 276
Total # Baptisms: 57
From My Youth West Outreach:
Total Gathered: 2,111
Total # Salvations/Rededications: 324
Total # Healings: 4
I Moved To Huntington Beach!
Hi friends and family! It has officially been about 3 weeks since I moved to Huntington Beach, and two weeks since I started my full-time position with Circuit Riders. I want to thank all of you who have gotten me here with your continual prayers and support. I appreciate you all so much and am so excited to share with you the ways the Lord has already been moving since I arrived here!
Since being here, I have been able to get back in the swing of things by going to our local Monday night gatherings, and prayer rooms on Thursday, and the Lord has been moving!! Just this last Monday night, over 30 people gave their lives to the Lord and our team was able to pray with each one of them to encourage them. I also have gotten to return to my local church here in Huntington Beach, and plan to get involved by serving there!
In addition, I am also living with three of my friends in an apartment. Before moving in, we collectively decided that we wanted our apartment to be a place that fostered hospitality and community! So far we have had the privilege to host so many people at our home! We have also been able to provide hosuing for people visiting from all over the country! It has been such a joyful part of living here!
I am also so thrilled to share with you all that I am working as a tour leader on the Circuit Riders Youth West Team. This means for the next 3 months I will be working with two other staff members to plan an outreach to different high schools in the West. We will be planning to go to high schools with Jesus Clubs in the states of; Washington (This means I will be stopping by home for a bit!!!), Oregon, Northern California, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. As a youth team, we partner with Jesus Clubs which are student-run after-school clubs in high schools. We work with these clubs to help catalyze their leaders into action and leadership with evangelism training, helping them in their Jesus clubs wherever they are in need, and hosting youth rallies for students around their area. We do this because so many high school students are on fire for the Lord but do not know what to do with this passion practically. Thus, we are working to equip these students with practical outlets to live out this passion and the great commission as leaders in their schools. Already with the students we have been in contact with, we have seen some Jesus clubs gathering hundreds of students on a weekly basis!
In the planning process of building a tour, I will be calling students who run Jesus Clubs at their school in addition to finding transportation and housing for our team. In January, around 7-10 students from the Circuit Riders training school will join my team for the two-month tour.
As I have been praying about this current assignment the Lord has placed in my path, I have felt such joy about getting to connect and reach the high schoolers of our nation. In seeking a clearer vision of the importance behind what it is that I am doing, this is what I felt the Lord lead me to be expectant for in the next few months:
I am expectant to see the restorative work of God in students' lives and within schools as a whole. I want to see the Lord open up students' eyes to see their true identity in Christ. My dream would be that students would know that they don't have to be chasing after the world and their peers to find their value, but that they have a father who has created them with an identity and value that no one and nothing can diminish or steal from them; That students would know the hope that no matter where they are at in life, no matter what they have done, they have a father and creator who is joyfully and expectantly waiting to welcome them home in a big embrace full of joy and unfailing love.