Campus Prayer strategy

I hope you are enjoying your summer!  I hate to break the news to you, but the new school year is quickly approaching!  (But, do enjoy the last few weeks of the summer break.)

If you haven’t already begun to pray for the campus ministry this coming year, now is a good time to focus your prayer time in asking the Lord what He would have you do on your campus this year:

- to make Him known to unbelievers, and

-to make Him better known by believers

-as you trust Him to use you to build a movement of God right there on your campus!

Would you like some ideas of how to invite others to pray with you for what God wants to do at your school? 

Why is praying for your campus so vitally important?  How can God use the faithful prayer of just one person?  Here is one inspiring story:

Foundation in Irkutsk, Russia

There is a dormitory in Irkutsk which has been nicknamed "the Christian Dorm". It is called this because most of the students involved in the local ministry live there along with many who have become Christians. In fact several students who lived in this dorm have recently gone into full-time Christian ministry.

Why is all of this happening in this one particular dormitory? This dorm has a history. A Christian student lived in that dorm in 1995 and during his first year at the university he and a small group of students from his church decided to start a prayer time for the dorm. They faithfully prayed for the  students who lived in the dorm and for the university. It wasn't long after they began to pray regularly that the university administration found out about these "strange meetings" and forbid them to continue. But this didn't stop the students from praying; instead they began to meet more frequently and the size of the prayer group grew.  The local ministry was still seeing answers to the prayers begun in 1995.

It turns out that the "history of prayer" for this dorm began even earlier than 1995. Recently another Christian met a pastor who said that he also lived in that very same dorm when he was a student in 1991! He was the only Christian in this dorm in 1991 and he prayed for this dormitory during his entire time at the school.

Perhaps this pastor really wasn't the first to begin praying for this dorm...we don't know when the "history of prayer" for this dorm actually began, but we do know that it is continuing today. The pastor noted, "with prayer it all begins and with prayer it continues." The students in the "Christian dorm" are continuing to pray today that God will use them to gather a future harvest.

  

We visited Irkutsk last spring and were greatly encouraged to hear about the students’ current prayer strategy which included the following:

o   The students in Irkutsk visited churches in the city to share their vision for starting and growing movements of God on their campus and to challenge the churches to regular, committed prayer for them and for the unbelievers.

o   They printed up cards with specific requests for each of the targeted campuses and handed out these cards to people in the churches and to other students as prayer reminders of the things they are together trusting the Lord to do.

o   The students meet weekly to “prayer walk” together around each campus in addition to their commitment for daily prayer during their personal time with the Lord.  People from the churches were invited to join them on these prayer walks each week.

Perhaps you have a prayer strategy of your own.  If you do, please let me know what you are doing so that I can encourage students in other cities with your ideas. 

If you don’t have a prayer strategy, I would encourage you to think of how you can make prayer for your campus a priority.  You do not need to follow the plans other students are using, simply seek the Lord and follow His lead in the area of promoting regular prayer for His work on your campus!