Fall Semester Prayer Requests and Praises

Praises

• Abbie (our UVU intern) found housing and is 100% fundraised!
• Our Area brought 50 students to fall conference!
• We've had 5 students decide to follow Jesus this year!
• Justin had a great trip to CCU and we're excited to host another missions team in the spring
• We have several students applying to intern with InterVarsity next year
• We got to take a few days off to go camping with our family

Prayer Requests

• Pray for Matt (our UTU intern) as he continues to fundraise.
• Pray for our club to be officially approved at UVU. We've had some difficulty with getting our club paperwork approved this year which makes it hard to host events on campus.
• Pray that God would send us a special team of intercessors to pray intentionally for our ministry this year.  
• Pray for our family to find new/good rhythms as we start a new school year.  Autumn will be doing more homeschooling this year in addition to nature school.  Samantha is working less hours but Justin will be doing a lot of traveling for work.  
• Pray for healing for both Justin and Samantha's hands
• Pray for Justin as he spends focused time fundraising in November. Our goal is to raise $10,000 this fiscal year to get us out of a deficit. 
• Continue to pray for more staff for our campuses, especially UVU, SUU, and USU Eastern.

Summer Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises:

• Praise God for the progress our interns, Matt and Abbie, have made as they seek to be on campus this fall!
• Praise God for the Provo summer GP - for the soft-heartedness of participants, for God's provision, for the BYU students who participated, and for the incredible turn-out at events they hosted.
• Praise God for our new daughter Anastasia and her health!
• Praise God for Tori and Ben's time in Orem this summer, for the Bible study they were able to lead on campus, for the friendships they formed and for the spiritual conversations they had.

Prayer Requests:

• July 22nd our summer intern Tori is hosting a faith discussion at a local dessert cafe for the women she has met and formed friendships with this summer.  There will be both LDS and atheist friends present. Please pray for the Spirit to speak through her, for good discussion, and for continued friendship with these ladies.
• July 26th we drive to Denver for our Regional Staff Conference.  This will be Ana's first roadtrip.  Please pray for Ana on this long drive, for our health (our kids often get sick this time of year), and for Autumn and Zoe as they will be with their grandparents in Denver for the week. Please also pray for us and for our staff team to be inspired and refreshed at this conference.  
• Housing for Abbie-- Abbie is looking for a place in Orem for less than $1000/month.  She would love for this to be a place where she could host students regularly.  Pray with us that she finds something!
• Funding for our interns -- Abbie is 86% funded and Matt is 20% funded

Anastasia's Name

 During our regional InterVarsity staff conference last July, we were talking about revival and we were engaging in a time of listening prayer. During the debrief, I (Samantha) remember saying, “This sounds crazy but I feel like God was telling me that I’m going to have a baby, she’s going to be a girl, and I’m supposed to name her Anastasia because she will symbolize the hope we have for revival.” This felt crazy to me because I was not pregnant at the time and we were uncertain about trying for a third child. I was also not a fan of the name Anastasia. Anastasis means resurrection in Greek (like in Jn. 11:25), essentially it means revival. I found out I was pregnant in September and even then did not fully give into this word from the LORD until after confirmation that she was a girl. As I’ve prayed for her, I prayed that she would be a symbol and an embodiment of the hope we have for revival, both in our day and ultimately on that day when Christ returns and death is defeated forever. I’ve prayed that she would see revival in her days and that she would be an active participant in that revival. But perhaps what’s been most shocking is what I’ve already learned and seen during her brief time on earth so far. As I’ve prayed for revival on college campuses, we got to witness the Asbury revival and others around it. More closely, I’ve seen revival at our local university campus, UVU. In January of 2023, with a baby on the way, we knew we would no longer be able to staff this campus AND fulfill our role as area directors. But UVU was our original calling - why we moved here in the first place. And it is still very much unreached. It seemed like there wasn’t much we could do - so we started praying. And in just four months, God sent us an intern who will be helping at UVU in the fall, a missions team whose week here brought surprising fruit, and two students from that mission team who were so eager to work here that they decided to move here for the summer. Something we thought was dead had been revived. Through this process I’ve learned that longing for revival is a lot like having a baby. God desires us to deeply desire (to long for) revival but He also wants us to expect it (it IS coming) and to prepare for it. Just as we knew Anastasia’s birthday would come and we prepared eagerly for her arrival, so we place our hope in Jesus, anticipating His resurrection work in our lives and communities and asking Him to prepare us for what our role in that revival will be. Be encouraged friends - revival is coming!

April Prayer Requests and Praises

 Praises:

• Praise God for his gift of the CCU student team who came to Orem this month.  Praise God for the friendships and connections they developed, for the ways the LORD taught them about evangelism and mission, and for the hope they brought to UVU.
• Praise God for a great season of camps and retreats for UVU, Utah Tech, and SUU.
• Praise God for sustaining us through a busy month and through many illnesses.
• Praise God for our three new interns who are about to start fundraising!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for our staff team to finish well at all of our campuses this month.  Pray for rest as we head into the summer season.
• Pray for the summer Provo GP which is May 26th-June 27th.  Student participants are currently fundraising - please pray for God's provision for them.
• Pray for our family as we prepare to welcome a new baby girl! Please pray for a healthy/safe delivery, for Justin to be in town when she comes, and for a healthy last few weeks of pregnancy for Samantha. 
• Pray for the UVU students who we met during the CCU missions trip.  We will continue to follow up with these students and invite them to Bible studies this month. 
• Pray for our interns (Matt, Casey, and Abbie) as they fundraise in preparation for their internship in the fall. 

March Prayers and Praises

 Praises:

• Praise the LORD that we have hired two interns (Abbie and Casey) to work at UVU in the fall!
• Praise the LORD that we have a team of 14 students coming from Colorado Christian to spend their spring break at UVU on mission!
• Praise the LORD for a short family trip for us before baby!

Prayers:

• Please pray for Casey and Abbie as they fundraise in order to move to Orem later this summer (hopefully before school starts!)
• Pray for our CCU missions team to love the lost, bear fruit on campus, and that God might call some of them to long term missions here in Utah.
• Pray for our students and staff as they attend camps and retreats this month.  Pray for safe travel, health, and most of all, the movement of the Holy Spirit in each of their lives and their willingness to be sanctified by Him. 
• Pray for Justin as this is an incredibly busy month for him.  He will spend a week at camp on Catalina Island and a week hosting the CCU missions team. 
• Pray for Samantha as she spends lots of time watching the girls while Justin goes to camp and hosts the missions team.  Things have been getting harder for her as she's 31 weeks pregnant and has been experiencing quite a bit of hip pain.

February 2023 Prayers & Praises

Praises:

• Praise God for an amazing small group leader retreat where around 20 students from our area learned the how and why of leading small group Bible studies.  Students had safe travel despite the snowy weekend, which we are thankful for.
• Praise God for those who were able to donate gift cards so that we could feed students at the training!
• Praise God for a new baby girl for the Tappan family and a "new-to-us" car that will fit all of our kids! (it's a Subaru Ascent for those wondering)

Prayers:

• Pray for our small group leaders and apprentices as they leave the training to continue or start Bible studies on their campuses.  They truly are the hands and feet of Jesus to their communities.
• Pray for God to send volunteers, interns, or zealous student leaders to UVU in the fall to continue the work of InterVarsity on campus.
• Pray for our family as we prepare for another transition (maternity leave followed by less hours for Samantha AND a new family member).
• Pray for a healthy/safe pregnancy and delivery for Samantha and baby girl in April or May.
• We are already gearing up for camp! Pray for UVU, SNOW, and UT Tech staff and students as they recruit for Mark study on Catalina Island in mid-March.  Pray for staff as they prepare to teach.  Pray for necessary scholarships to come in.
• SUU and BYU students either don't get spring break or have a very early spring break.  Brad is currently planning a weekend retreat for these students in place of camp.  Pray for him as he plans and recruits students.
• We have seen a recent surge of BYU small group Bible study attendees.  Please pray that they keep coming consistently.