Peoria Ministry Trip: Part 1 [Overview] - by Matt

On May 1-4 a group of 225 first and second-year students from the Forerunner School of Ministry (FSM) and The Call Institute (TCI) took part in a ministry trip to Peoria, IL. We ministered in different ways throughout the city, but we were emphatically spread out to six different locations (churches and parachurches). The team that I was a part of was phenomenal. Our 26-person-team (from FSM) served at Bradley-Epworth United Methodist Church, which is only a couple blocks from Bradley University. The weekend was such a great experience that it is hard to put it into words. In this first post (Part 1) I will only be giving you a rough schedule of events that took place May 1-4. In following posts I will go into more detail and give more testimonies of how God was moving among us on this trip. Jesus is alive and He loves Peoria!

This is our small team of FSM students and the pastor of the church (far left) we served at.

We left Kansas City, MO early on the morning of May 1st with our seven car team. Our team was so pumped for this trip (we had been praying about this trip the whole semester) and our convoy set off with every car-load praying in the Holy Spirit while driving down I-70. As we worshiped and prayed the Lord met us and many of us were set on 'fire' by the Holy Spirit before we even got t

o Peoria. What a road trip it was.

We arrived at Northwoods Community Church that evening for a large group dinner and commissioning to begin the trip. All of the churches involved were present and we worshiped Jesus together in unity. It was a great way to begin our time in Peoria--with the presence of God in our midst. It was powerful.

Our team woke up early the next morning (May 2nd) and began to serve at Bradley-Epworth's monthly Food Pantry for the poor. We helped carry food and we prayed for almost everyone who came through the doors. I will give testimonies of the Lord's healing power in a later post.

This is the prayer room during an intercession set. We prayed for Peoria the whole weekend.

After serving at the Food Pantry we trained their worship teams how to run a prayer room. Some of our team members taught the Harp & Bowl model during this time (worship music and prayer combined to make prayer easier for everyone to engage in). The worship teams at Bradley-Epworth were very quick learners and it was a great time of worship and prayer while they were being trained. One of our main ministries was setting up a prayer room much of the time we were at the church. I served as the prayer leader (as seen in the picture above) for multiple sets, and I even got to do some singing. The prayer room was the place where God encountered many of us throughout the weekend. As we partnered with God in intercession for Peoria He moved on our behalf and is bringing change already to this city. I am excited to hear more testimonies of God's work throughout the city.

Friday night many people from the church and about half of our team hit the streets of Peoria to speak of Jesus to those the Lord would show us. We did prophetic evangelism and went on 'treasure hunts' (A treasure hunt is a term used for doing evangelism by asking the Holy Spirit to show us where to go, who to look for, and what to say once we've found them...thus we go out to find God's treasured persons and minister to them - it's quite powerful when the Holy Spirit is involved ;o) ). My 4-person-team has a crazy story from our time on the streets, but...it'll be in a later post.

Saturday (May 3rd) our team was mostly running the prayer room all day. From 1-6pm about half of us served by doing prophetic ministry. I will write a post about this later, but I must say...This was an amazing time to build up the Body of Christ and watch the Lord exponentially grow His people more in love and in line with Him. I was able to lead one of our five prophetic ministry teams during this time. It was a great time to listen for God to share His heart concerning His people. (I'll share more!) That night someone from our team taught on prophecy and many people from the church were released to prophesy. God is good.

Our final ministry to this amazing church on this particular trip was during the Sunday morning (May 4th) church services. While one of our team members preached concerning having the fear of the Lord, a large part of our team was in the 'upper room' interceding for the people, the preacher, and the power (I just made that up - it is accurate, but not our exact words ;o) ). The services were powerful. I even was a part of the Sunday morning worship team (singer) and got to then pray for many people to receive power/grace to walk in the fear of the Lord and thus not sin against Him.

This is the final gathering of all the churches and students involved in this ministry trip. Thank You, Father, for an awesome trip.

After church and a wonderful lunch (the church provided many great meals for us throughout the weekend - it was so great to have such servants blessing us with food) we all (the large group of 225) met at the Gateway Building on the Illinois River. All of the students and all of the churches met to pray for Peoria and thank God for a great weekend. It was an awesome weekend and God was faithful to come (as always) when we invited Him. There are many great stories of my experiences in Peoria and God's great power throughout the weekend that I will share with you shortly. Grace and peace to you until then. ;o)