Valerie Osier | Features Editor
May 1, 2014
College students and young adults from all over Riverside gathered at California Baptist University to participate in a “love revolution,” on April 17 as part of a statewide tour known as “March to May Day” that included more than 20 colleges across California.
The One Love organization has been holding events at college campuses all over the state, including UC Berkley, UCLA, UC Davis and more. CBU was the 16th stop of the tour. Although not originally a planned stop, a crowd gathered in Stamps Courtyard at CBU, where a night of dancing, worship music and a message on love was given.
Kenyon Reed, a guitar player in the worship band said: “If there was ever one thing that would be most necessary to California, it would be just this message of love; because everything would then in turn fall away. Rather than us trying to rip it off of people.”
The “March to May Day” tour will be culminating at the ‘One Love: May Day’ event in Los Angeles on May 1-3, where students and young people will come together to learn from several pastors, including Francis Chan, an internationally-known speaker.
One Love is in collaboration with The Circuit Riders, a group of young adults with a mission to “make Jesus famous” in their generation.
The goal of One Love is to bring colleges and students together to put aside differences and “spread the love of Jesus” to college campuses all over California, according to Samuel Rodriguez, who was the speaker for the night. They also hope to eventually have more than 1,000 universities across America participate in these “love-activated” gatherings.
“What God is doing in our time; it’s something that transcends background, transcends denomination and transcends race,” Rodriguez said. “It doesn’t matter where we come from or where we’re going, we’re doing it together.”
According to Rodriguez, the idea of the One Love tour came out of a music festival at USC two years ago where 1,000 students attended eager to hear a message about Jesus and love.
“Students were actually hungry for Jesus and what he did on the cross,” said Nick Brent, a member of One Love. “At that point, we just got addicted to his love and that people would know his love.”
Not only is the tour happening in California, but One Love tours are happening all across the United States, with about 100 campuses currently participating, according to Brent.
Students from UC Riverside and Riverside City College also attended the event. Most attendees were enthusiastic and danced as a form of rejoicing worship.
“I have a friend who’s a little bit shy, and they’re like, ‘Oh I’m never going to dance.’ But it was a kind of rejoicing and it was cool to see them break out and rejoice in God and what he’s done for us,” said Matthew Dina, an attendee of the event.
One Love’s main goal is to spread love to what they call “the lost,” meaning people who “don’t know Jesus, the broken and the poor” according to Rodriguez.
