USA (MNN) — Yesterday was the Collegiate Day of Prayer in the United States. It’s a massive annual event put on by a coalition of campus ministries to encourage prayer for college campuses across America.
EveryCampus with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship helped support Collegiate Day of Prayer. InterVarsity’s Jon Hietbrink says yesterday, they saw people doing prayer walks on campuses, praying in churches, and hosting prayer events to see God move. Collegiate Day of Prayer even did a live simulcast from a historic Yale chapel that broadcasted all over the country.
(Photo courtesy of Collegiate Day of Prayer)
“Part of what I love about Collegiate Day of Prayer is there are lots of different avenues for people to get involved and to participate,” Hietbrink says. “The hope is that it’s, of course, not just one day of prayer, but actually a day to shine a spotlight on the strategic need that campuses [have] so that folks would continue to pray for campuses long after Collegiate Day of Prayer is done.”
Other ministries involved in Collegiate Day of Prayer included Chi Alpha, Luke 18, Campus Renewal Ministries, Cru, and Navigators.
Hietbrink says the unity demonstrated between Christian campus ministries for Collegiate Day of Prayer is really unprecedented. But to reach the over 4,000 college campuses in the US with the Gospel, one campus ministry can’t do it alone.
“God knows every single one of those campuses and every single student and faculty and staff that comes through the doors of those campuses…. When we pray through Collegiate Day of Prayer, we get the chance to join in something that Jesus is doing and we gain a greater measure of God’s heart for these campuses and these students. It’s a privilege to be in that space.”
It’s not just ministry leaders leading the charge. Students are also taking the initiative to prompt a movement of the Holy Spirit on their campuses.
For example, Hietbrink says he heard of one group of students from Tennessee who road tripped from Knoxville to New York City. Along the way, “I think they prayer walked something like 20 or 25 different schools as they road tripped up the eastern seaboard. They visited campuses, they made contacts on those campuses, sought to pray for the blessing of God to rest on those campuses.”
(Photo courtesy of Collegiate Day of Prayer)
The need for a spiritual revival among college students is great.
“This emerging generation — call them iGen or Gen Z — is fraught with anxiety, dealing with profound issues of loneliness and isolation from their peers. So the opportunity is really pronounced on college campuses for students to encounter the good news of Jesus in a fresh way, in a way that’s relevant and compelling to them that meets the needs that they have and that they experience on campus.”
Also, Hietbrink points out that college students are unique agents for the Gospel because they are more mobile and can go wherever God calls them.
Although Collegiate Day of Prayer is over, you can still adopt a local college to prayer walk through EveryCampus here!
EveryCampus can help you search for campuses near you. They also provide a customized prayer guide for the campus you prayer walk “to pray on-site with insight.”
For now, Hietbrink asks, “[Pray for] students and faculty and staff — that they would meet God, that they would encounter God on campus, [and] that He would empower those people who already follow Him to bear witness to His goodness and His Gospel on campus.
“I think we’re in the midst of witnessing something pretty historic right now. So it’s a great time to be engaged with young people and to be serving and loving college campuses and we couldn’t do it without the support of the broader Church.”
Header photo courtesy of EveryCampus.
