Connect Ministries: Expanding a Community of Worship & Fellowship Across the Pacific Union

Connect Ministries at Pacific Union College is an outreach ministry consisting of several individual teams of students passionate about Jesus and sharing His love by providing a worship experience. Their vision is Connecting One another, Nurturing New friendships with Everyone, and Collaborating Together in Ministry.

The mission is to reach out to communities in the Pacific Union Conference and minister to them through praise, worship, and the word of God by uplifting their spirits and letting them know that PUC is supporting them. Each team can provide services such as leading out in church services, youth events, and other programs where they can inspire other young people to become worship leaders themselves. The goal is to connect with young people and showcase PUC’s presence and complete support.

PUC Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing, and Communication Gene Edelbach tasked Enrollment Counselor and Connect Ministry Director Glanelle Marie Ejurango to take on this ministry this school year. Ejurango was perfectly suited for this task—with her mother a pastor, she was trained in ministerial work from a young age and didn’t stop her involvement in multiple ministries until she attended PUC.

Applying all her years of training and ministry involvement, she laid the foundations for how Connect Ministry could run and nurtured it with the hope that it would continue to grow and be used for the Lord’s work.

She also has a deep passion for music. Using worship as a tool to spread God’s love to whoever is willing to listen is Ejurango’s greatest honor. She is primarily an instrumentalist (cello, piano, guitar) but loves and enjoys singing. She believes that God prepared her all these years for this kind of work and that this may be her calling. She's been pleased with her work, as it has been a blessing in her life.

Among other responsibilities, Ejurango advises her teams on leading people through worship, music, and preaching. “We want to share our love for Christ and allow it to overflow into their lives, creating transformation and drive for growth in their spiritual life, as well,” said Ejurango. “Through Connect, we want to create a New Jerusalem, a new community that flows in many places.”

Churches and academies can benefit from Connect Ministries through the blessing and fellowship of an amazing worship experience. The goal is to glorify God and make genuine connections to those willing to be open about building a community for God’s kingdom.

Ejurango hopes to create a Worship Workshop available to PUC’s on-campus worship teams and invite high school worship teams to participate. “It will be a big project to develop, but I’m hoping it will be a successful one,” she shared.

Connect Ministries also offers scholarships to incoming freshmen and current PUC students interested in joining. They offer different scholarship tiers for those who apply and meet the minimum requirements, ranging from $1k to $2,500. Each tier has specific requirements soon to be available on their website.

The team hopes to expand their ministry beyond the borders of the Pacific Union Conference through attending church and academy events, chapels, vespers, and Sabbath morning services.

If your church or academy is interested in worshiping with Connect Ministries, please fill out their visit form on their website. They can’t wait to visit and connect with you!