January Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises:

• Praise God for the 14 students who gave their lives to Him in the fall semester!
• Praise God for our amazing team of staff and for their dedication to God's mission. 
• Praise God for our incredible staff retreat, the unity of our staff team, and our enjoyment of one another.
• Praise God for the thousands of students who responded to God's call into mission at Urbana. Praise God for those who made a first time decision or recommitment to follow Him.
• Praise God for Raya and how He is working in her life and in the lives of many other students like her in our area.

Prayers:

• Please pray for our SLED (Student Leaders Equipped and Developed) retreat at the end of January. Specifically pray:
• For good driving weather for students and for a safe drive.
• For our staff team and for our visiting staff (Rob) as we prepare for teaching at this retreat.
• For students to respond to God's call to mission on their campuses and get excited about being a part of what God is doing 
• For students to learn how to lead small group Bible studies on campus
• For students from our area to get to know one another and feel unified in Christ
• Please pray for Justin as he prepares for one of our largest chapter camps ever! He is the camp director this year. He will be organizing staff and students, as well as co-teaching Mark 1.
• Pray for our staff and student leaders that they would make compelling invitations to camp and that the right students would come to camp and be changed by studying God's Word. 
• Pray for more staff and interns! We would love to hire more staff for our area.
• We have a few MPD goals (ministry partner development).  We would love for prayers that the Matt Moten legacy fund would get to $500,000 in the next five years.  We also personally need to fundraise for a current deficit (to replace lost funding) and hope to make a push this spring and summer.  Please be praying towards these goals!

August Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises:

• The 199 students in the Rocky Mountain Region who made first time decisions to follow Jesus, including the 26 in the Arches Area
• Our intern at Utah Tech (DeAngelo) is nearly fully funded!
• We had an incredibly restful summer and are excited to engage with students this school year
• Samantha's health is greatly improved and she is experiencing relief from many of her symptoms

Prayers:

• Please pray for our staff team (Brad, Kenzie, Ken, DeAngelo, Grace, Justin and Samantha) as we interact with many students in the next month and a half, as well as make many invitations (to Bible study, to large groups, to fun hang-outs, and of course invitations to follow Jesus)
• Pray for our family as we all travel to St. George for outreach at Utah Tech during the first week of September
• Pray for our student leaders.  In addition to their classes, they work hard to love students on campus and plan and carry out quality small groups, large groups and events.
• Pray for Brad Bertelsen and his student Hannah as they plant a new Bible study small group specifically for UVU students (UVU & BYU small groups have been combined up to now).
• Pray for DeAngelo and Grace Brown as they intern at Utah Tech this semester.  We are so excited to have staff who live in St. George at Utah Tech!
• Start praying for fall retreat (Sept. 26th)! We have a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of bringing 100 students.  Would you pray with us for this BHAG?
• And as always, pray for revival on the UVU, UTU, BYU, USUE, and SUU campuses!

May Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises:

• 40% Growth in our area this past school year
• 26 students who chose to follow Jesus 
• Growth in our number of leaders and apprentices as we enter into a new school year in the fall
• Specifically: 5 leaders at USU Eastern for the fall! Growth for BYU from 9 to 26 students! 
• The amazingly soft hearts of students we encountered this year

Prayers:

• Please pray for Grace, DeAngelo and Connor as they fundraise their intern budgets this summer
• Pray for our SUU staff, Ken and Kenzie, as they travel to Kenya with a group of staff and students on an InterVarsity global program
• While we had 26 students decide to follow Jesus, there are many more (yay!) who are on the cusp of making that decision.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives this summer and that they would wisely and eagerly make a choice to follow Him.  
• Pray for our family to have a restful time off in May
• Pray for everything we experienced this year to continue into the next school year (soft hearts, willing leaders, etc.)
• Pray for revival!

April Prayer Requests & Praises

 Praises:

• 9 students from our area chose to get baptized while at chapter camp
• 1 student who had been on the fence about following Jesus chose to commit and follow Him!
• Samantha received some good blood test results and is feeling very improved in her health
• 25 CCU students came to Orem over their spring break and some of them are very interested in interning with InterVarsity

Prayers:

• Please pray for our upcoming area meeting April 27-30th.  Pray for our team to be unified, to be aware of the Spirit, to listen to what God is saying to us, and to enjoy one another's company.
• Pray for God to raise up student leaders at Utah Tech; currently only 6 student leaders who lead 3 small groups serve a chapter of around 70 students.
• Pray for the students who have chosen to follow Jesus this year to continue in the faith and to pursue the discipleship offered to them.
• Pray for our 3 new interns as they fundraise this summer! Their names are DeAngelo, Grace, and Connor.
• Pray for us to have a restful and rejuvenating vacation after what has been an incredibly challenging year.

March Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises

• 3 new interns for the 25-26 school year at Utah Tech!
• 49 students from our area have signed up for camp!
• Students continue to choose to follow Jesus! Including one last week!

Prayers

• Pray for camp: 
• Pray that non-Christian students would feel welcome, encounter Jesus, and choose to follow Him.
• Pray that Christian students would be called into deeper fellowship with God and one another and that they would respond to whatever the LORD is doing in them this week, whether that means repentance, sharing the Gospel, or anything else the Spirit stirs up in them.
• Pray for safe travel for students (who will be driving).  Also pray for students and staff to stay healthy while at camp.
• Pray for Justin, Ken, Kenzie and Dee (who are on our staff team) as they teach students during this week of camp. They are all teaching the first half of Mark to students from our area.
• Please pray for our 3 interns as they begin the fundraising process: DeAngelo, Grace and Connor
• Please pray for our staff team as our team changes and grows in the coming year
• Pray for the CCU mission team as they fundraise and prepare to visit Utah in March.
• Continue to pray for Samantha's health as she continues to experience chronic health issues and try different solutions. 

Spring 2025 Praises and Prayers

 Praises

• 3 new interns for the 25-26 school year at Utah Tech!
• Students empowered and sent out at Ambition 
• Student leaders and apprentices equipped at SLED retreat
• Samantha's dad cancer free!!!

Prayers

• Please pray for our 3 interns as they begin the fundraising process
• Please pray for our staff team as our team changes and grows in the coming year
• Pray for rest for the Tappans.  January has been an incredibly busy month with 2 conferences and a trip to St. George for Justin.  We look forward to a slower month in February before chapter camp and the CCU mission team visit.
• Pray for the CCU mission team as they fundraise and prepare to visit Utah in March.
• Pray for students to give compelling invitations to their friends to come study the book of Mark with us on Catalina Island over spring break.  Pray for our staff team as they prepare to teach Mark to students.
• Continue to pray for Samantha's health as she continues to experience chronic health issues and try different solutions. 
• This has been an especially challenging year of ministry. We have been allotted some time off in May.  Please pray for us as we decide how to steward that time well. 

Fall Semester Prayer Requests

 Praises:

So many I can't list them all -- see our most recent newsletter!

Prayers:

• Fall Retreat (Oct. 11-13)
• Pray for favorable weather as some students will be in tents
• Pray for non-Christians who will be there and that they would be receptive to the Gospel
• Pray for our staff team (including Justin and Samantha) who will be teaching over the weekend
• Pray for safe travel for staff and students to and from camp
• Pray for our kids health and safety as we are away and they are with Nana
• Cultivate (mid November)
• Justin and Samantha will be attending a staff director conference.  Please pray that this conference is a source of encouragement and refreshing for us after what has been an incredibly challenging year.
• Pray for our kids as they are with Justin's parents.
• Fundraising
• Justin is trying to fundraise so that he can get paid for the actual number of hours he is working.  Pray that God provides the right people to partner with us.
• Stamina for trips to St. George
• Please pray for Justin as he continues to travel to St. George (UTU) every other week to be with students.  He loves these students and we are seeing amazing things happen, but it is also exhausting and hard for our family.  Pray that God would provide a new local staff for Utah Tech to love these students.
• New Staff for UVU - please continue to pray that God would send the right person or people to staff the UVU Orem campus
• Pray for Abbie's fundraising 
• Abbie works with international students at UVU and is currently fundraising to work full-time.  Keep praying with her as she is about 65% funded and excited to be back on campus with students.
• Samantha's health 
• Please continue to pray for healing for Samantha as she recovers from damage caused by Celiac disease and as she figures out how live a new lifestyle without gluten, dairy, eggs, and corn. Specifically more energy, less sickness, and less arthritis would be great.