Thisis a story of how active our God is in the most intimate places.

When I first heard about the !gnite conference, I became excited about all thework that He would do in the lives of many undergraduate students. As a graduate student at HMCC, I am so thankful and blessed by the energy that undergrads bring to all of our corporate church gatherings, but most importantly their genuinedesire to seek God in any circumstance. While I had this heart, I too wantedto experience God myself. So I began to desire such things: God, I want toexperience you and want to know you even though I am not able to participate inthe conference. Will you reveal who you are so that I may find my identity andserve you with all that you’ve created me to do? I served in the refreshmentsteam for the conference with these desires.

Icame to realize two things: one – God reveals who He is through the body ofChrist, two – the joy of serving behind the scenes.

I’ve experienced how great God is through the body of Christ. The !gnite conference was unique in that all the different HMCC sites gathered together to dream bigger dreams about God’s vision for the local HMCC churches and their connection to the world. Therefore, I had the privilege of serving alongside other HMCC members from Austin and Chicago. Even though we didn’t know each other, let alone know each others’ names (we introduced each other later), we were instantly united because we shared the same vision to serve the Lord in any possible way. “…For where two or three are gathered in myname, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV) God, across the three HMCC sites, had been our purpose. It’s from this that I realized how wonderful it is to serve with a group of like minded people in serving our Lord and became reassured that neither I nor any Christian is alone in this their walk with God because there will always co-laborers in Christ. I’m grateful to God for giving me an opportunity to serve Him with brothers and sisters in Christ through HMCC.

Alongwith experiencing God through the body of Christ, I’ve personally experienced God in giving me a greater joy serving Him in the smallest ways. Whilewondering how I can invest in the conference, God tangibly gave me an opportunity to serve Him. Now that I think about it, I realize how funny God is. God used my personal life circumstances to create an opportunity to serve and experience Him through one act of obedience.

About couple of months before the conference, I made plans to move in with a sister from HMCC for the summer. So the week of my move-in day (weekend of the !gnite conference), I emailed the sister as reminder about that weekend. She emailed me back asking if I could reschedule the date because she’ll be hosting eight girls for the conference and so moving all of my stuff would be crazy. But because I had plans to leave town that weekend, rescheduling to another date would have been impossible. Understanding the situation that I was put into, I paused and chuckled at God while I replied back to her e-mail: “Hey sister[D], how about we do this, since it will be too hectic for me to move all of my stuff to your place while you have guests, why don’t we switch places? I’ll host the girls in my apartment and follow through with the original plan?” She agreed and there I ended up hosting eight girls in my apartment on the day of the conference. I’m so thankful that God gave me the heart of obedience and allowed me to follow through it. I’m also thankful that God used my personal circumstances to serve Him in this way. I don’t know how each of those girls from Austin and Chicago experienced God during the conference, but however they’ve experienced Him, I’m really honored to have been part of their overall experience in personally encountering Jesus.

I look forward to all the ways God will use me in serving His people. I think it really makes sense that we are called to be His stewards of all the things of this earthy because all that you and I have and will ever have all belong to God. I’m fully convinced that God will do anything to reveal His glory even with the five loaves of bread and two fishes that we have; God can do wonders. I’ve learned to freely surrender them because I know that God wants me to experience joy in serving Him. I hope everyone in HMCC can experience God in this way.