What compels a beautiful and talented young woman to turn down a prestigious career offer?  Stacey Cunningham stepped away from a $50,000 job in order to coordinate prayer across the state of Maryland.  She says God set her up!  Read here her testimony of God’s faithfulness and how He has hijacked her life.  Also find out how you can support her obedience.

 God is so awesome and totally in control. I started this year so excited because I knew this would be an amazing year. God still did exceeding abundantly above all that I could have ever asked or thought for this year. As I stop and reflect, I can see that it had absolutely nothing to do with anything I said or did. It was only because God has purpose for my life. Not because I have been perfect but truly because of God’s grace and love for me. I often felt like God just wanted so much more for my life.

When I was in high school my friends and I would go to the Gospel Go-Go (Go-Go is a genre of music that is most popular in Washington D.C. area).  We would have prayer and youth bible studies as well that really challenged me to want more of God. However, I noticed that when the Gospel Go-Go was over there was no change in many of the people that were there. I started to pray to God about there being so much more to Him. There had to be a place in Him where people would be transformed. God gave me a vision of a place where His presence consistently dwelled, where young people could come and truly experience God for who He really is. Through this experience they would also come to see who they are as well.   This would be a place where people would leave changed forever and where young people would be safe. This vision was given sometime between the years of 2002-2003 while I was still in high school.

Through my years in college I still continued to seek God. I had not prayed about the vision as much but it was not far from my heart. I saw all the more then the need for young people to really know God. As I started to go to bible studies and just hear the things that were said I realized that so many people have really never experienced the life transforming presence of God. This was evident by the discussions that were so far from Christ. Through my college career at Bowie State University, God began to minister to me about a ministry of Love. He began to show me how important love is to every ministry since God is Love.  Love being the very reason why God sent His one and only Son to die on the cross so that those who believed in Him would be saved. Throughout these years I had experienced God in a whole new level. God had placed friends around me who desired Him and to do His will. We wanted to be used by God and to know Him more than ever before. It was an amazing time of growth!!!  We could be having a simple conversation and God’s presence would fall. We would all be in worship, standing in awe of who the Father is. It was uncontrollable and we loved it. God is so awesome!!! I began seeking God to show me who I really was. As He began to give me a deeper understanding of who He is I saw who I am.

Let’s fast forward to my senior year. This was the best year of my college career. God has always strategically placed the people in my life that He desired to be there. The first that God used my last semester was Minister NaKhia Hopkins-Grays. I had been praying for God to send a campus minister that would truly teach the word of God to the students and to be what God new our campus needed. She was and still is such a blessing to me. She asked me to partner in ministry with her my last semester at Bowie State University. As the year went on she told me that a pastor would be coming from Baltimore to talk about 24-7 prayer on campus. She asked if I would like to attend their meeting. Of course I said yes - “24-7 prayer that sounds great!”

When the day came for the meeting God told me to fast until after the meeting was over.  After Bible study that day the pastor that NaKhia wanted me to meet - as well as her brother - came to Bowie’s campus. After introductions the very first question Pastor Donald Campbell asked me was “So what is God doing in your heart?” I was so surprised by his question. No one has ever asked me that question in that way. I began to tell him about the vision that God had given me when I was in high school. Then he shared with us the vision that God had given him for Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Maryland.  I was so excited because this was my last semester. I really wanted to do something awesome of the Lord on my campus. I felt like God was giving me the opportunity to do so. I felt so privileged to be a part of what God wanted to do on my campus. Pastor Don closed us in prayer and after the prayer I was in tears. I could not hold them back. The Spirit began to speak through Pastor Don to me. It was great. Our God is so Amazingly Awesome!!!! We prayer walked the campus and afterwards Pastor Don told me about the 24-7 Prayer USA Gathering taking place in Kansas City in May this year and invited me to go. God said to go and I told Pastor Don that I would.

I graduated from Bowie State University not knowing an exact plan for my life. I had been applying to different business organizations and going on interviews, but I still did not have a job lined up. There was one job in particular that I had been trying to apply to for a year and although I had interviewed with them a few days before I left for the prayer gathering, I had not heard anything before I left. But I was confident that God had a plan for my life and that He would reveal it in His time.

There were a group of five students that I traveled with to Kansas. We represented four different Universities in the state of Maryland.  When it came time to choose which seminar to join at the National Gathering, I felt God say to go to the Campus America track. Allison Brooks began to talk about her story and I was so moved to hear about what God has done in her life. It was so encouraging and humbling for me. As she was talking she mentioned a state wide coordinator. The Spirit spoke to me, “You could do this.”  Later that day Pastor Don stopped me and told me that he wanted me to pray about being the Maryland State Wide Coordinator. I responded “you must be kidding me, that’s crazy because the Spirit spoke to me that I could do this.” He smiled and said that I should talk to Allison. When Allison and I talked the next day, I shared with her all that God had been doing in me. While she was praying, God spoke to me that I could not get a full-time job and do this. While at the prayer gathering I felt like my whole life made so much more sense. I understood the seclusion, isolation, consecration and just everything that had happen up unto that very moment. My life was totally in God hands and he was guiding me every step of the way. My Father is so amazing. He has always taking care of me. How great is our God!!!

Two days after the gathering I received a call from the Naval Air Station which it where I wanted to work. They told me that they wanted me to come on board. I could not believe my ears! This is the job that I had wanted for a year and now I had it. But as soon as he said that they wanted me God said “no”. There was no need to pray. I knew it was God speaking. I told him that I was considering doing something else instead. He began to explain the $50,000 salary after the internship was over. He said they would pay for graduate school, benefits, and the works. I told him I would call him back and he said, “Ok. But I am not sure if the job will be here.” When we got off the phone I prayed and God said, “You know the answer. Call him right back and tell him ‘No.’” So I called him right back and told him no. If I have never understood before, I finally understood at that moment that my life is God’s. Because I want to see him so amazing things and work in this day the same way He did in Acts and time past I must do my part.

I desired to make a difference on my campus and God handed me all the campus in the State of Maryland. I am leaning on Him for my every move and I proclaim that the state of Maryland will be a state known for the presence of God. We will be God Seekers. We will see the manifested presence of God and see lives transformed. There is no maybe in this. It has to happen because we are trusting God for the unbelievable. 

Stacey is currently raising financial support in order to be able to serve full-time within the movement of prayer in Maryland and among Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  If God stirs you to sow into Stacey’s life and this movement in a financial and prayerful way, you can email Stacey at .   All giving is tax-deductible.