Students come together for time of worship, prayer

Last Thursday was National Day of Prayer, May 3, and the Fresno Christian Schools community met in the Peoples Church auditorium to pray for the nation, state, city and school leadership as well as students and staff.

Songs and praises filled the morning air as dozens of students gathered in the courtyard near the Student Ministry Center for the first prayer opportunity of the day.

Sophomore Richie Cortez decided to take part in the early morning worship after attending last year and loving it. Cortez is thankful for the opportunity to pray and grow his faith with friends.

“What I enjoyed most about National Day of Prayer was coming together as one and lift up the name of Jesus,” Cortez said. “It’s amazing but honestly, every day should be national prayer day. It’s important to come together as an FC community because we’re like a big family. All brothers and sisters in Christ. Even though the hardest of times, we can come together and just worship which strengthens our faith.

“I did come to the early morning prayer and it was amazing, I loved it,” Cortez continued. “It’s a great way to start off the morning with worship. Throughout my day I listened to the same songs we sang in the morning and coming together with some of my closest friends and strengthening our faith together is so amazing.”

Student Body President and senior Roman Endicott will graduate at FCS after 13 years on campus and says he appreciates the campus community celebrating today.

“I thought it was so important to come together during the National Day of Prayer today to pray and worship together,” Endicott said. “There aren’t many times that we can gather K-12 and unify in Jesus’ name.

“It brought me so much joy joining in prayer with the elementary schoolers and listening to their words, as they are so pure,” Endicott continued. “It is a reminder of God’s command for us to remain children of Him. We were also blessed by Mrs. (Kristin) Eldridge’s class when they came up and led the first worship song. Their gentle voices filled the auditorium. It really was a great way to open up worship and it solidified the sense of community in the room.”

Students meet in the courtyard, 7:30 a.m., for worship and prayer, May 3. Join us in the Peoples Church auditorium for more worship, 9:35 a.m. @fresnochristian #TheFeather #NationalDayOfPrayer pic.twitter.com/DfaNR4IjNZ

— The Feather Online (@thefeather) May 3, 2018

Senior Maicy Luginbill attended both campus National Day of Prayer events.

“This morning, I went to the early morning prayer and worship session,” Luginbill said. “It was so amazing hearing all of us students and parents singing and praying to God, thanking him and praying for the leaders and people of our country. I believe it is very important to do this because it is something as a community that we can come together and worship as one body of Christ.” 

Much planning went into the event as there were many minute details involved. Civics and student leadership teacher Robert Foshee helped organized the National Day of Prayer events on campus.

“As a teacher at Fresno Christian and as a parent of two students, I feel blessed that we can have a day of activities to participate in the National Day of Prayer,” Foshee said. “Starting out the day with worship and prayer in the morning was so awesome. Also, having an all-school chapel service was amazing.

“One of the best parts was having such a wide range of people joining together,” Foshee continued. “Both events had elementary, junior high, high school students, teachers, parents and community pastors. I love how God can bring together such a variety of people and we can sing and pray as one.”

Senior Tyler Villines was one of the student leaders during praise time. He also leads the worship team during campus chapels.

“It is so important for people of faith throughout the nation to pray because that is remembering what this country was founded on,” Villines said. “It backs up the statement in ‘God we trust’. It’s important that as a school we come together for National Day of Prayer because, as a faith-based school, we are called to ‘shine a light’ to our school and community.”

The worship team wrapped up the event with one of Hillsong Young & Free’s hits, ‘Only Wanna Sing.’ Students of all ages sprung up and sprinted for the stage ending in a shower of praises. Superintendent Jeremy Brown sheds light on the event.

“As the event came to a close, I saw many students jumping around,” Brown said. “The worship team came down from the stage and was among the crowd. It was really neat to see. One of the purposes of National Day of Prayer is to corporately focus our nation to pray in specific directions. It is also to unify the nation and is a remembrance of what God has called us to do not just as a local church but as the body of Christ as a whole.”

Many new students take part in their first National Day of Prayer on campus. Deborah Ingerson, ‘20, feels that it is very important to set aside time for the Lord.

“National Day of prayer is a day where we can pray for our nation and really come together as one,” Ingerson said. “Prayer can unify us after we recognize just how much we need the Lord. This day is worthy of being celebrated because it shows God just how important He is to us. It also sheds light on the fact that we do need a Savior.”

Thank you to all of the students, staff and FC community for sharing praying and worshipping with us!

Check out ABC 30’s recap of the event.

The slideshow below shows the campus wide chapel:

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The author can be reached via email: Braden Bell, Instagram and Twitter.