Last Friday night, the night before Graduation, we had our Baccalaureate at LIFE Pacific College. Baccalaureate is a time where all the graduates gather for a commissioning message, worship, and a prayer over the graduates. It was a good time where I got to see some of the friends that I started school with and hang out with one of my roommates from this past year. The roommate who I have known since elementary school.
Needless to say, my heart was already full. I was with people I love, in a place where I started my ministry education, a place of history. While preparing to go into the baccalaureate we had to fill out prayer cards that we would give to the people who were to pray over us. We were going to be assigned a group of leaders at the school, the denomination and pastors from the local area. I was a little reticent about this aspect because though for the sake of time, writing down ministry plans for prayer is better it seems less personal, but, as I would find out, God can work in our extreme planning.
Worship was fantastic and it was amazing seeing our classmates leading us all in this time of praise. As I was sitting there I felt enveloped by God’s love I asked that I could have someone praying for me that knew me or had similar interests. I was looking around the room picking different people that I knew. The speeches and charges were given and I definitely felt empowered for what God was doing in my life and where he was leading me. Then we began to be assigned to different groups that were to pray for us.
God did not just give me one person that knows me, he gave me a whole group. Within the group I had the pastor couple of the church I was attending before I moved. They are a couple That have been a constant support in my life from before I was attending their church. I have grown up with their kids and they have cared for my parents.
Tom was also in my group. I first met Tom when I went on a missions trip to Mexico when I was in 6th grade, he was on the team. From that point he kept popping up in my life randomly. I would see him at camps regularly and when I began to tell him the call on my life he would consistently tell me to attend LPC. I told him I wanted to attend a bigger school. He persisted while I resisted. Finally when God made it apparent this was the school I needed to attend, he was one of the first people I told. Then he moved to Virginia last year to teach at Ignite, where I was.
Dr. Mike Larkin was the final member of the team assigned to pray over me. Mike Larkin was one of my professors my Freshman year of College and he challenged me and pushed me while he was inspiring me. He also created Ignite Academy, which God had impressed in me to pray for. What I didn’t realize then was that I would be committing 4 years of my life to. I moved to Virginia and I have been working under and mentored by Mike ever since.
Do you want my prayer card?
I said to them. They smirked and told me no. Mike said that they knew me better than I probably know myself. God knew and he set it up so I would receive from all these people who have been pouring into my life.