Cassie, a leader at Palatine, making a poster

Palatine and Fremd students gathered at Grace Community Church yesterday to decorate posters and kick off the rally week with dinner and encouragement from the Biola team and each other. 40 students listened attentively as the team from Biola and other volunteers encouraged them in the power of witnessing, prayer, and in the potential for God to move in big ways this week on their campuses!

Fremd and Palatine students listening as Lainey and Ariel interview 3 of the 4 leaders. Cassie, Katie, and Abby (left to right).

The speakers inspired students with ideas of immersing their campus in the gospel and making the name of Jesus heard more than anyone’s name has ever been heard before this week. ”I’m starting to get really excited about this,” said Meredith, a senior at Fremd.

After a wonderful lasagna dinner (many thanks to Ms. Ingrid Henderlight!), Mrs. Pam Cray shared her personal testimony with the group. She came to know the Lord through a similar rally in Tennesse and acted as living proof of how God can use willing students at a time like this. Mr. Tom Atchison volunteered to give pointers on how to have a grace-centered conversation, and the CSP team told stories of how God has moved in the past on other high school campuses.

“How can I get my friends to stop being afraid of what everyone thinks of them?” asked Rob, a student athlete at Palatine. The reality that God is really involved with his people and hears us when we pray inspired Rob to push his pre-game prayer meetings to a whole new level.

“I liked how much passion there was in the high school students wanting to make a difference for Jesus on their campus” said Justin after the event was over.

At the end of the kick-off, the group spent some time in prayer for the week and each student committed to praying for two specific non-Christians every day this week, that they might get to hear about the love of our Lord in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Cassie