Illuminate

My husband and I serve at a church in Anaheim called Knott Avenue Christian Church.  Dan is the Young Adults Pastor there and we are just so blessed and humbled to be able to serve amongst these students in Orange County. 

Our group is named Illuminate and this past Sunday we kicked off a brand new series titled "Graceland".  For the past 6 weeks we have been holding vision desserts, laying down the ground work for the series and getting everyone pumped up for what I believe is going to be one of the most inspiring series we have had at Knott.  Our group was super excited to hear about the plans and learn ways that they could be apart of serving their communities and growing as a group.  They desire to be apart of something and our prayer was that they would take the challenge upon themselves to share the WHOLE Gospel of Christ to everyone they knew.  Everyone. 

On September 6, 2009 we kicked off Generate and had well over 70 students show up.  What was even more amazing was that we had 80% of them commit to being in a life group (which is our name for a small group.)  We were praying for just 60%....and we believed that was a really high goal!  So praise God that He exceeded our expectations and placed in the hearts of those students the desire for discipleship. To want to learn more about Him and His never-ending, all sufficient grace.  Amazing Grace.  I absolutely adore my group of ladies as I know that they desire to grow and become more like Christ each passing day.  I am constantly praying for them. 

This weekend is week 2 and I am just as excited.  I really can't wait to see what God does this time.  I pray that Illuminate only serves to glorify Him and expand His Kingdom.  I pray that it never just becomes a place to come to because it is "cool".  I pray it becomes a community of believers who want to change the world.  To share Christ with the world.  To become more like Him. To worship Him in the presence of other believers and in their personal lives.  I never want to just become the hip ministry on the block.  I want Illuminate to always glorify God in EVERYTHING!  Because Dan and I would not be here serving Him if it weren't for Him. 

Will you be in prayer for us? Pray that Dan stays encouraged and inspired to teach God's word.  That he is protected from any distractions that could possibly come his way.  That when attacks from our enemy appear, that we are strengthened for battle.  That we remember to put on our armor and be ready to fight in the name of Christ. 

I will post more on Monday about what happened week 2. 

Tiff~