Southwestern Union Record

In 2010, I attended GYC in Baltimore. When Justin McNeilus, the president of GYC, spoke, I felt God speaking through him. At that moment I decided I would always attend GYC, which I did again this past December in Houston.

While in Houston, I met many young people from around the world and enjoyed the fellowship of young believers. The speakers and testimonies that I heard also inspired me. Charissa Fong, from Sydney, Australia, was one who inspired me to believe that God could use me even if I feel like an ordinary person. She gave the morning devotions and set the tone for the day. She told about the people in the Bible who were ordinary and had many faults, and yet God used them. I realized, too, that God could use me no matter who I am. Through what she and the other speakers had to say, I learned to pray for the Holy Spirit and for revival and reformation for myself and for the church.

I was kind of afraid to go to the prayer room in Baltimore, but I decided that in Houston I would do everything I did not do in Baltimore. I went to the prayer room for about half an hour and prayed, and also joined the group that prayed there over the New Year. We prayed for Houston and the Bible studies that we’d passed out, and we also prayed for our leaders and everyone who was at GYC. 

Since going to both the Baltimore and Houston GYCs, I believe more in prayer. Seeing others praying and seeing that they didn’t doubt God at all was very powerful. I now know that I have a connection with God and that I can pray every day and have a conversation with Him. I can ask for the Holy Spirit and I can pray for the people around me—my church, family, pastors—and I can pray for God to speak through me or through others at the right time.

My church is currently doing ten days of prayer, and at first I had a hard time, but on the first morning I prayed and asked God to help me with it. He impressed me to pick up Mark Finley’s Ten Days in the Upper Room, which has gone along with the ten days of prayer. My prayer life has improved because of it.

God also really spoke to me about breaking down the walls that we build in our churches through Dwight Nelson’s sermon about the topic on Sabbath afternoon in Houston. He said that there are many walls within our church that separate even the members, things like music, prayers, worship, or even racism. He gave a call and I went up, because I decided I did not want to be a wall builder, but rather a wall breaker.  The things I learned and experienced at GYC have changed my life and I encourage any young person to attend the next one.