Jesus to Peoria will feature worship, prayer, ministry

A prayer asking that every person in the Peoria area would know Jesus has turned into Jesus to Peoria at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Tower Park at Prospect Road and Glen Avenue in Peoria Heights.

Jesus to Peoria will feature worship, prayer, Gospel presentation, ministry vendors, food and coffee.

The idea came to organizer Lucie Maricle from her prayer that “there wouldn’t be a person in Peoria who doesn’t know Jesus; I pray Jesus would come to Peoria.”

Helped to organize the event by friends Jordan McCauley and Molly McNutt, Maricle said the response has been good so far.

“We are currently at over 600 people interested on Facebook,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of churches and ministries reach out to us saying that they’ll be there.”

Organizers are inviting ministries to set up tables and booths to increase awareness of what they have to offer. Adult Teen Challenge, for instance, will be on hand to share their information.’

“If anyone is interested in doing that, if they’re an organizatio nor they provide something for the community, they can just contact us,” Maricle said. “There’s no cost to be a ministry vendor. They would need to bring their own table, table cloth, and information, or if they really need a table, we can provide that.”

‘Show Jesus to Peoria’

“Our heart behind this is just to show Jesus to Peoria and to provide a place where the Gospel can be experienced by people through worship and prayer,” Maricle said. “”We want to connect people with practical resources. We don’t just want to share the Gospel and leave people there. We want to get people connected so they can continue to grow and build upon what they’ve already heard and are experiencing.

“Another big heart behind this event is unity among the churches. There are so many wonderful churches doing wonderful things individually. A big heart behind this event is to show Peoria what the Body of Christ looks like when it comes together.”

How to connect

Right now contact is through the event’s social media pages.

“If someone wants to get involved, they can just reach out to us through our Facebook Page, or we’re on Instagram as well,” Maricle said. “That’s been our main form of communication. Since we’ve kind of just started, we don’t have an official email or phone number yet.”

Besides attending, local Christians can support the event by sharing the news with others, she said, “not from a sense of ‘Oh, we need to promote our event,’ but because we want the Gospel to get to Peoria. That’s what we’re the most passionate about.”

She encourages those who know about the event to share information with youth groups and small groups.

Organizers also need volunteers to be on prayer teams at the event, she said. Anyone interested can contact them through the Jesus to Peoria social media channels.