Wednesday morning, the Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s annual event, See You at the Pole, made its return after being called off for two consecutive years during the pandemic. Students gathered around the flagpole at 8 a.m. in front of the high school in worship.
“There was a pretty big turnout, which I was excited about because I know in the mornings it’s hard to get up,” senior leader and student council member Sydney Legg said. “There was a pretty good amount of people, which was so fun. Obviously, in the mornings, you’re not going to be able to have everybody who wants to go or wishes they could have because everybody’s so busy.”
FCA provided breakfast and members gathered to listen to a devotional led by one of this year’s leaders. This week’s speaker was junior Lorenzo Osteguin.
“A lot of the times, we don’t see as many people or different people; we have a bunch of regulars come to FCA,” Osteguin said. “This grew like crazy; I didn’t expect this many people to be here. I was told I was going to do a small little devo[tional] and it kind of just carried on and turned into as many people that were there.”
This is Osteguin’s second year in FCA and first year as a leader in training. Osteguin recited scriptures and walked members through the Lord’s Prayer.
“The big thing [about] prayer is that’s our foundation, that’s what we depend on,” Osteguin said. “It’s not a test, but it’s almost like an assurance of our foundation when we go to that first. That’s the biggest thing I was trying to portray.”
See You at the Pole began in 1990 as a 10-student prayer, but has now expanded to include millions of nationwide participants. See You at the Pole is usually held on the fourth Wednesday of September.
“I think [FCA is] just a really good way to find community and friends,” junior leader in training Mackenna Ford said. “It’s a global thing that they do at multiple schools all over, it wasn’t just Lovejoy, so that was cool that it was an all over the world thing.”
FCA’s next event, Fields of Faith, is on Oct. 12 at 6:15 p.m. on the baseball fields for food, games and worship. Former superintendent Dr. Michael Goddard will be a guest speaker at the event and there will be free Chick-Fil-A for the first 200 people to attend.
“FCA has been amazing,” Osteguin said. “You don’t really see pure love too often, but in [FCA] you see God’s love. That’s what it is, that’s what he ushes through us once he’s loved us. [He bestows] it on us and we bestow it on others.”
