Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
The anticipation started 90 minutes before the event, with Grand Canyon University students on Tuesday lined up from Global Credit Union Arena to the Student Union.
Four hours later, the energy was never more evident than at the conclusion of UniteUS GCU, where students raised their hands while jumping and singing to “I Thank God,” performed by worship band UPPERROOM.
I thank the Master
I thank the savior
I thank God
“I believe that GCU, that your campus is about to be an example to this nation,” UniteUS founder Tonya Prewett said. “I believe God is about to do something at GCU that will set a precedent for this nation.”
GCU students, administrators and coaches filled the arena with brio as they experienced the most recent stop of UniteUS, a student-generated movement that emphasizes revival on college campuses.
It started two years ago, before a packed crowd at Auburn University’s Neville Arena, and will continue next month at the University of Cincinnati, North Carolina State and Clemson University.
“It is revival, and it’s not stopping,” Prewett told an engaged audience, with many students surging to the front of the stage at the start and end of the two-plus-hour event.
“We get a lot of requests. But there was something about GCU that got my attention.”
After the event, hundreds of students lined the perimeter of the Quad to get baptized.
“From the start of it, it felt nice to be able to have a school that supports God and Jesus so much, and that was willing to help people like me get baptized, since I was never baptized, not even as a baby,” said Shelcee Nakaya, a freshman from Hawaii who found out about UniteUS GCU at Chapel on Monday.
“It was amazing to see so many people that are connected by one thing, which is God.”
The event featured speakers Maia Huff, founder and CEO of MM Designs, a faith-based lifestyle brand; pastor/author Jonathan Pokluda; Christian singer/songwriter Forrest Frank; and Prewett.
“I want to declare what Unite is,” Huff said. “It was for one reason, and one reason only. And that is to lift the name of Jesus.”
Huff, Frank and Prewett shared their struggles, with Huff feeling the “weight of her sin” stemming from her partying habits in college while raised in a dysfunctional household and not “fully giving my life to God.”
“I believe some of you are familiar with some of those weights, and you actually have gotten comfortable carrying that weight," Huff said. "I believe that God wants to remind you that you’re not meant to carry that weight.”
Frank, 30, received the loudest cheers when introduced, but took off his shoes and kneeled after admitting there was a time in his life that what he “showed on the outside and who I was on the inside were two different people.”
Frank attended Baylor University but lived hard until his sophomore year, when he decided he could not put off Jesus any longer.
“There were points in my life where I felt suicidal, and I wanted to end my life,” Frank said. “And the beauty of that is I died with Christ. My flesh is gone, and forever. I get to live in eternity with Him.”
Frank recalled a service where he attended a similar worship service, and “I just fell to my knees and surrendered to Him.”
“From that day, everything changed,” said Frank, who answered several questions about his previous transgressions and advice for someone who has doubts about his or her faith.
“When I fully surrendered to Jesus, everything changed from that point,” Frank said.
Prewett emphasized, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, when God is telling you something, you say 'yes' and obey."
She rattled off studies from 2023 that indicated that Gen Z represented the loneliest generation (73% are lonely) while coping with the highest suicide rates since World War II. Gen Z also has a high percentage of mental health issues that require medication.
“I have news for you, GCU,” Prewett said. “Those statistics are changing. In 2025, the numbers have dropped. And we’re going to see even more tonight.”
Colton Turner, a senior accounting/finance major and Havocs leader, said he attended because, “I’m just trying to get my best relationship with God I can get.”
“It's insane knowing that (as a Havocs leader) my goal is to fill the arena for games,” Turner said. “And I don't think we’ve ever filled the arena like this. So it's crazy, insane, to see people are more excited for God than any big basketball game, which is (now) our second biggest thing to go to.”
The magnitude of the event finally struck Casey Kock, a senior nursing student who said she started hearing the buzz about UniteUS coming to GCU last summer.
“It means a lot to me when our campus gets together and unites as a community and gets the ability to worship the Lord,” Kock said. “It's genuinely a one-of-a-kind experience.
“I love it because you can't get this experience at really any other college campus, and it's just fun to ask your friends to come out and worship and get to experience all the things that God's doing.”
Prewett recalled holding bitterness toward her father for being raised in an environment without electricity, running water or food. She picked pecans to address her appetite.
She finally made a decision to forgive him and asked students to let go of any unforgiveness. She held a pecan and recited that God told her, “Don’t forget where I brought you from.”
The packed arena illustrated the advancement of UniteUS. After listening to horror stories about what students were enduring, Prewett met with a small group of Auburn students, and the first UniteUS event was planned six weeks in advance.
That event lasted until midnight, and Prewett was bombarded with requests to bring UniteUS to other campuses.
More than 125,000 students on 21 campuses have attended UniteUS events with more than 20,000 students giving their lives to Jesus.
“All because of two things – prayer and obedience,” said Prewett, who recalled testimonies of students switching from atheists to Christians, from Satan worshipers to Jesus worshipers, and from drug users to sober students.
“Gen Z, you are the hope,” Prewett said. “And you are bringing the greatest revival our nation has ever seen. We will never stop fighting for you, for your generation, because you are worth fighting for.
“… Rise up, GCU.”
Senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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