Volume 3, Issue 1

Page 2

A Mexican in Michigan

My name is Ricardo Llamas. I am a senior engineering student at U of M originally from Mexicali, Mexico. After two years at Arizona State, I transferred to U of M and first heard about UCO from a Mexicali friend of mine. When I began in UCO I was going through a tough time sorting out my beliefs and whether that was in conflict with my Catholic upbringing. UCO helped me to rekindle my relationship with God and to see his plan for me.

After this new awakening, I wanted to be more active in UCO. I was approached by a departing member with the opportunity to head up a UCO activity he had started called Friday Lunch Fellowship (FLF). Through FLF, students join to share their weekly experiences during lunch on Friday. Heading up this activity has given me the opportunity to get to know my fellow UCOers, see how they live out their faith, and helped me to grow as a Christian.

The more I participate in UCO, the more I want to participate because it gives so much more back. It is helping me on my path back to faith, and it is allowing me to grow in my relationship with Our Savior, Jesus Christ.
-Ricardo Llamas
Ricardo's Latino generosity in time and spirit is an inspiration to all us Gringos.

In Spirit and Truth

going back for each and every prayer meeting since then. I responded by trying to deepen my relationship with him on a number of other levels where it had gone stale and lifeless. I also joined UCO's worship team to help plan and guide the times of worship. 
Being able to participate in God's work in UCO is wonderful. The prayer meetings have only improved since I have been going. More and more people have simply laid their worries down and have been able to spend an hour simply praising God for who He is and what He has done. It has been truly inspiring, truly awesome, and yes, truly refreshing.
-John Lynch
John's fervor and vitality in prayer, both corporate and personal, is a blessing for UCO.

Refreshing. That is the word that kept coming to mind after my first semester of UCO prayer meetings. They were a breath of fresh air for my spiritual life and the awakening of a joyful, vibrant expression of praise that had lain dormant for years. As a child, my family often attended charismatic prayer meetings on Sunday afternoons. As I grew older my family decided that Sunday afternoons should be a time for the family, not for community. My spiritual life was relegated to Sunday Mass, family, and personal evening prayer.
Then I was invited to attend a UCO prayer meeting one Tuesday night. My experience that evening completely blew me away. For years, prayer with my peers had been an oppressive affair: people who did not care

for God crammed into a room and asked to at least pretend to pray for a few minutes. It was an atmosphere unsuited for praise or worship and worse, it was contagious.
This was different. I was in a room full of people who were there because they wanted to be there and because they wanted to praise God. Immediately I felt God saying to me, "I am here. This is where I want you to be." I was overcome with God's joy. I praised the Lord the way man was meant to for the first time in years. It was peaceful, yet energetic. It was invigorating and refreshing. It was God's work and God's love touching me at just the right point in my life.
So I responded to Him. I responded by

Prayer Requests

First, a report on answered prayer; The Essentials Series bore good fruit - apparent in the solid new members among us, the green staff feels unified and more seasoned now, and we were blessed with growth in the area of worship. Let us continue to pray for the help and blessing of God - we really need it in the areas listed below!  Please lift these intentions with us as you read them and then throughout the term as well:
1. Households: We need peace in relationships and about the commitment level in our households.  The common way-of-life during a busy term can seem burdensome, but we need to ask for wisdom in discerning how to

have household be a blessing.
2. Self-Giving: Pray that UCO students would be able to make sacrificial decisions to join special summer programs, households, or even step up for extra service in UCO. Making a decision to give of your self, though it may mean sacrificing a big-bucks-summer-job, is a huge opportunity for college-aged Christians to grow. Ask that many be given the grace to make these decisions.
3. Outreach:  We have a desire to witness, but are sometimes troubled by

fear, and even paralyzed by false guilt that we might be responsible to evangelize the whole campus. Pray that the Lord would provide divine appointments for UCO students to share Christ's Love and for peace in doing so.
4. Stressful Situations: Ask the Lord to grant peace to students who feel like they are drowning.  You know the feeling; two papers due tomorrow, a mid-term the day after, and no end in sight.  Pray that students are free from any despair or hopelessness, and that times of rest would be in the Lord.
-Brian LaLonde UCO Co-Chapter Director

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