wilder project prayer team…

This last week we had a team from Chi Alpha at the University of Arizona come to pray at UCSD. They are hooked into what is called the Wilder Project. Long story short: a student in the 1800’s (Robert Wilder) helped to usher in one of the largest student volunteer movements through sending teams to pray on universities around the nation. Some good friends of mine have started this grassroots student-led movement that is spreading…good stuff. So, these guys came for a couple of days to do that on our campus, which was very cool. After they got back to AZ, they sent an email with some details on what God did during their time. It is awesome. I met briefly with the team to give them a panoramic view of the campus, spiritual environment, and where we sensed God moving. One of those places being the LGBT. Here’s the email:

I wanted to share two incredible stories with you and if you that leaves you wanting for more, just ask!  On Thursday morning we made our way to UC San Diego to engage people in conversation about Jesus. There were six of us, 3guys and 3gals, so we paired off and set out to talk with any student that was willing to chat. By lunch time we met some really cool people that shared their battles with depression, fear of total commitment to Jesus, family needs and many of them let us pray for them. We met up with Brian Orme and left encouraged by all that God had already been conspiring on that campus. He shared with us some specific communities that we could pray for and shared stories of miracles and my team was inspired and ready to go back out. We prayed together then paired off again and this is where it gets real good!

Brian had asked us to be in prayer for the homosexual community on campus so we headed over to the LGBTC Resource Center on campus. I have to be honest, I didn’t want to go in there. What you have to know about me is that God has really given me a heart for this community so my weird reaction was humbling and confusing but I knew it wasn’t from Jesus. So I grabbed a coffee and waited hoping the Holy Spirit would give me an out but all it took was for Scott, a student to say, “let’s go in there,” and we did.

We walked into the Resource Center and immediately were greeted and offered a tour by the center’s director. It’s the kind of room where you can hear every word that’s being said so when the director asked us where we were from and what we were doing, we explained that we were on his campus to engage people in spiritual dialogue and share the love of Jesus. He looked at us somewhat perplexed and continued with the tour. Once we were done with the tour Scott and I were standing near some students and he began talking with them about being from San Francisco and an hour and a half later we were amazed at the conversation we had had. They asked us why we were there then looked at us amazed and said things like “I can”t believe you would come in here, that’s so brave.” They said that most “religious” people would never think to set foot in the center and they all agreed with sadness in their eyes that they “religion” offered them little. There were four students that openly shared about their spiritual background and gave Scott and I the opportunity to share how Jesus transformed our lives.One student shared that he was on a spiritual search since almost losing his life in Australia in a surfing accident. One of the guys shared that he was a Christian and kept saying  “I just can’t believe you guys are here, this is just so awesome.” After about an hour, we walked out of the center with two of the guys and asked if we could pray for them. The student that almost died in Australia asked if  we pray for his upcoming surfing tour. He said he believed that if anything were to happen to him he would be reincarnated again and again until he paid off his debt. It was here that we shared the hope that is Jesus and the redemptive character of God to change the past, present and future if we put our faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. He said that he would have to think about it more and we then we prayed for them both. Before we parted ways, the other student said that he wants to do what we did on a regular basis and even start a Bible study in the LGBTC Center!

Jump ahead to the next day and you’ll find our story taking place in the parking garage. We had stayed on campus longer than planned but like I said, God’s always conspiring. Two spaces over from us there was a little sports car with it’s keys sticking out of the trunk. In the car was a huge bag and a guitar hero set and other valuables in plan side. Since a joy ride was out of the question we decided that we would take the keys to the campus police and leave a note for the driver so he wouldn’t freak out. We were calling the police when the owner of the car appeared out of no where looking really frustrated. He described the keys we found and he thanked us for our help. This was clearly a divine moment so we asked him if we could pray for him and he said that he would love prayer for strength after a pretty horrific breakup. He was driving back down to Guatemala for the break and knew it would be hard. So we prayed and when we were through we noticed he was crying. We waited for him and he said that he felt like God was trying to get his attention because his roommate had been praying for him and he had felt compelled to read the Bible. He said he was a Christian but hadn’t really been close to Jesus for a while. You could tell God was really present and Chris (that was his name) was confronted with the nearness of God in that moment.  Before we left we encouraged him and told him that anytime he lacked strength he should remember that God brought 6 strangers from Arizona to find his keys as a display of his relentless love.

We were able to tell all these students about Origins (Brian’s group) as well as get their contact info so I look forward to what will come in time.

~ by ibrianorme on March 28, 2009.