First of all I was part of the summer internship program here last summer I just want to start off by saying thank you once again to all of you again for letting me be a part of that. And I just want to say thank you for the community that is within this church. I have only gone to church here last summer and then whenever I am home, I come when I can. Everytime I walk in those doors I feel more and more a part of the church family here. I feel like this is the first church that I’ve ever been at where I’ve really experienced church family. So, I just want to say thank you to all of you for showing your love to me and to everyone who walks through that door everyday. I think it is really awesome and I am excited to see where God takes this church.

With the Prayer Room when I first walked in there I was completely overwhelmed. I almost cried. You can just see God’s glory in that room and it is need to see how God can meet every individual in that room whether is is through worship music, at the altar, at the cross, in the art corner, wherever it is. God can meet every one of your needs in that room and I think that is amazing. There is a Casting Crowns song that says “What if His people prayed?” I think that room will give you the answer to that question. When people pray you can see in that room that emotions are stirred, questions are brought up, questions are answered, people are encouraged by othr people’s words in that room and encouraged by God and God’s word. Most of all, I think, God brings peace in that room. It is an awesome experience. Like Brian said, you don’t have to go there to meet God but it is a great place to meet Him. For me, the most important part has been the solitude. At school I live in a dorm, so I still have a roommate, a wonderful roommate, Sarah Whiting, who is here also. I wouldn’t trade her for the world but when you’re at school in that situation it is hard to be alone and be silent before God and I think that is a very important part of having a relationship with God. When I come home, I’m with my family which is amazing but still nowhere to go and be alone and that room has offered that time for me and I’m very thankful that God put it here over my spring break so that I could spend so many hours there. So I thank you guys for letting me be a part of it and I encourage each one of you to take just one hour and give it a shot and I’m pretty sure you’ll become addicted to it.

Testimony, Rob Raduzycki

Pastor Dave talked about how our age group liked to avoid pain, and I would just like to say I would like to learn to say “No” to speaking to large groups. But I’m here today to say that my name is Rob and I am a prayer room junkie. I became addicted Monday, March 21, at 5am. I have spent several hours in the prayer room at different settings. I have been in there by myself, Dave meantioned that the Prayer Team prays for the elders, and I have been part of that. Last Sunday I got to go in with my 11 year old son, Eric. I told him we were going to go bowling and we came up to the church and he followed me in, and the doors locked, and I had these big guys that grabbed him and he went kicking and screaming. That would have been me at 11 years old but all I had to do with Eric was ask him. Very enthusiastically he said “yes”! So our time slot was Easter Sunday at 2pm. I thought he might back out on me because after the service I looked over in the hallway where the Prayer Room is and he and his buddy Ethan were giggling and looking and waiting for their prime moment like a stealth bomber, so that when that door opened they would run in there and see what that Prayer Room was all about. And they had their opportunity, and I thought that was all that he wanted to see what was this big, secret mystery room where the windows were covered and people were going in and out all times of the day and night. But he seemed even more enthusiastic to go in after he got to see it. So we came up at 2 oclock, he brought up his new Christian CD that he got for Easter. And we walked in there like we were Prayer Room Veterans. He put the music on, he had never been in there before but he knew exactly what to do. He went to the craft table and started painting pictures. I sat on the floor, bless all you people who write in the journals, I don’t quite get it but I wrote in the journal. I wrote a letter to our heavenly Father. Eric came running over and was looking for a bible. He grabbed the bible, he went back to his table and he started writing verses on the pictures he had painted. Then he grabbed another sheet and started writing more verses. Then he looked for very strategic spots on the walls to put the scriptures and writing he had made. Then when he was done we went over to the alter table and lit a candle together. We went to the kneeling bench and prayed together, we got on our knees and prayed for you guys, prayed for our family. Then there is a paper shreader in there, he asked what that was about. I said there was pieces of paper that you could write things to God that you want to say you are sorry about and I went back to journaling. All of a sudden I hear the paper shreader. Then I heard it again. And while you’re journaling and want it to be quiet that paper shreader gets to be obnoxious! Pretty soon I thought I ought to talk to this boy because there is a lot of shreading going on! But that’s between him and God and we had an awesome time. Quick things, while he was at the table…you have heard many of us say that time just flies while you are in there…he looked at me and said “Dad, what time is it?” I looked at my watch, we went in at 2o’clock in the afternoon, and I said, “Well, what time do you think it is?” He said, “Oh, it is about 10 after”. I said, “It’s 2:40”. He just had this big smile on his face. The good thing was at the end I asked if he would go in again with me at some point that without thinking or hesitating you’ll see our names on that list again, we’ll be back. One thing I want to share with you, Dave had elaborated on earlier, that even though I had created a juvenile junkie let’s not make it that we are addicted to the Prayer Room but that we are addicted to prayer. In closing, I want to thank all of you who have signed up . I appreciate those who pray during the day when a lot of us have to be at work. I greatly appreciate those who pull the graveyard shift. Laura Burgess, her name has been up there all week, pulling double duty at times. We’re going to write her instructors to see if she can stay longer because there are going to be some time slots we’ll need to fill up there! It was interesting, I was up here at a meeting the other night, it was 7 o’clock Monday night and I ‘m just drawn to that prayer list every time I come in. Tuesday morning the 1 oclock and 2 oclock slots were empty. It was like…what’s going to happen in the Prayer Room, there’s not going to be anyone in there…People were behind me thinking the same thing. I thought, well, when I am done with this meeting if I have to I will sign up. I did not want to do it. And I came out of that room and I didn’t have to do it. Bill Pryor and Jerry Finke had been up here to sign up. That seems to happen over and over so the next day I got up ( I usually read the bible in the mornings, this year I have been reading the New Testament) but I was drawn to Psalms. I would like to close with what I opened up to that morning from Psalm 134: “Praise him, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the House of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord, the Maker of the heaven and earth, bless you…”