The Biola team started off the day with prayer in the morning before parting ways and heading to both Grace Community Church and Willow Creek Community Church. We met up with some of the student leaders and distributed prayer cards to hundreds of willing people who will be praying for Fremd and Palatine students all throughout the week!

We saw prayers beginning to be answered today at Willow Creek! About a week ago, the Fremd High School administration notified the Uprising students that faculty may not speak at their rallies, which leaves them with no speaker for Friday. However, God always has a plan… When Cassie Carsrud, CSP team member, was passing out prayer cards at Willow Creek, she happened to meet a Chicago Bears player named Eric Peterman, who she asked to speak on Friday. He hasn’t committed yet, but was very enthusiastic and will come if at all possible. Either way, he will be in prayer. Praise God for divine appointments!

After visiting the churches, the team split into three groups and stopped by the Willow Creek “house groups”, small groups where high school students fellowship with other Christians from their school. We enjoyed seeing part of a Willow Creek high schooler’s Sunday and making sure they knew about the opportunities to make a difference on their campus this week.

Next, Heather (Palatine Uprising Ministry leader) requested our help to put fliers (above) on the front doors of some Palatine students’  houses to promote the rally. We were able to distribute nearly 80 fliers in only an hour!

The Johansen family hosted us for a delicious dinner, representing how caring, generous and kind our Chicago community is.  We enjoyed the opportunity to answer their questions, meet their two children, Kiersten and Zach, who are Fremd students, and play games with the family.  We are truly blessed by their concern for the rally and willingness to pray with us.

In the evening, Cassie, Michael T. (from the Biola team) and Heather announced the upcoming rallies and passed out fliers to the youth group at Orchard EV Free Church.

“My favorite thing about today was the amount that we prayed and how we kept giving every aspect over to God” says Lainey, CSP Chicago team leader. We will see much more prayer throughout the rest of the week and are trusting in God’s Word where it is written, ”draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8

Please pray:

-Kolby (CSP team member) has come down sick. Please pray he comes back into full health soon.

-Heather (Palatine Uprising ministry leader) is suffering from a shoulder injury that is causing her a lot of pain. Please pray for a miracle so that she can be able to focus on the rally and see it through to the end as well as be blessed by it.

-Katie (Fremd Uprising leader) has severe stomach pain and her family has the flu. Please pray for her health as well, as she and Heather are both feeling the pressure of the rally week.

-Please pray that God would bring a speaker for Fremd’s Friday rally, whether or not it ends up being Eric Peterman from the Chicago Bears.

-Please pray for continued safety for the team, that the rallies would go unhindered by the devil’s schemes this week and that the students at Fremd and Palatine will be open to hearing the gospel and that both campuses will experience the love of Christ!

Jessica and Cassie