“It was about May of last year when one of my friends told me I should become a leader for Fellowship of Christian Athletes next year. I didn’t really know much about FCA or how to lead a ministry but after very many days and nights of praying over this I heard God tell me “Go lead this next generation. Your past doesn’t matter”.  So this semester I started leading at FCA with some other members. Not only has this ministry grown significantly, but it has impacted so many students and even teachers. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is being scared to present the Gospel wrong. But a wise soul told me that if I’m telling people about how Jesus saved my life then what could I be doing wrong. Every message I give I tell the students one story on how Jesus has impacted my life. I love connecting my messages to others because you never know what someone may be going through. The most beautiful thing that has happened at FCA is worship! This is a fairly new thing we added this year. Some musically inclined students volunteered to lead worship at the meetings. It’s so important to me to bring that into the school because it’s such a wonderful way to connect to God and know him better. I’ve even seen students start to pray over other students while worshiping which makes me even more grateful for the opportunity to lead this ministry. One of the biggest reasons why I keep leading FCA is because I know I have a calling to ministry. I pray one day I am able to become a youth or children pastor. God has been working so heavily throughout Valley Center HS – if you attend a meeting you’d be able to see it. It’s truly amazing seeing a group of different kinds of students coming together at 7 a.m. in the morning and  listen to the Word. This year we hosted our first ever fields of faith. It was challenging because we were all nervous about how it would turn out but let me tell you this, the Lord provided as always. We had more than one hundred fifty six people come and listen to students from different schools share their testimony. People were inspired and even led to some new students coming to FCA! This has been such a huge blessing in my life and I highly encourage you to join your local FCA! Don’t ever let anyone think less of you because you’re young. I once was scared to even walk into school now I walk into school with a new confidence and that’s from the good Lord.”  Elosie – 12th grade – Valley Center HS

“I wanted to find a way I could serve the Lord and a previous leader told me about the opportunity to become an FCA leader – so I went for it. I’ve struggled keeping my lessons inside the short time frame. We have and we’ve had many guest speakers come and speak, and I’m grateful for all of them, but I’d love to see more student leaders speaking. I am one of two current senior student leaders and the other are all juniors. I see the passion that the juniors have for FCA and I’m very excited to see what they achieve next year. Something I believe is very important to student ministries is discipleship, if generation after generation is discipled by the last, then the ministry will continue to be healthy. As student leaders it’s important that we lay aside our pride and not think solely about the impact of what we’re doing now, but how can we reproduce strong student leaders to lead the next generation.”   Manvel –  12th grade – Valley Center HS