02.02.10
Campus Kentucky: Sharing Truth with Love and Boldness
by Tiffany Keener
A Bold Approach
When 24-7 Prayer came to campus at Eastern Kentucky University in 2007, senior Shawna Curtis was in the midst of it. By January 2008, she had become a Campus Catalyst and has since seen worship services birthed that have brought together many campus ministries.
During a season of 24-7 prayer from October 4-6, 2009, God challenged EKU students to take their prayers out of the prayer room and engage people around campus by wearing sandwich boards to spark conversations. To prepare, students met to discuss how to share the Gospel and 20 people from various campus ministries met to paint the boards.
During the days of prayer, Shawna and several others walked around campus wearing the painted sandwich boards. The front of the boards read, “Now He’s given me what I don’t deserve: life, love, joy, peace.” The back read “Hater of God, deserved death.”
While some students on campus were wearing their boards and sharing about God, others from Campus Crusade for Christ set up a table outside the cafeteria asking students to come and write their prayer requests down so other students can pray for them.
“While the table was out I got to pray for some people and I was surprised at how receptive they were on the whole,” sophomore Matt Iranpour said. “It was encouraging. We got to pray over the specific requests that we got from the table.”
God Stirs Hearts
During that week, students at EKU saw people both saved and healed as they reached out. They were also able to engage large numbers of students in conversations about the Gospel and to share the love of Christ with them. Below are a few of the things God revealed to the students at EKU as they prayed:
“After setting aside one hour each day for three days, I could really feel the Lord in my life. I can only imagine how close He would be if I gave Him an hour every day. It definitely was reassurance that God rewards my efforts, and it created a desire in me to live for Him in every aspect of my life. His love for me is unreal, and during 24-7 prayer He showed it to me.”
-sophomore Courtney Gilliam
“I learned the importance of blocking out time to pray. It was very important for me to see examples of others so that I could see how to go about praying. Prayer is now a part of my life and is helping me to pay increasingly more attention to God and that He is revealing Himself to us all the time.”
-senior Lindsay Foster
“I pray for an awakening among the body of believers on campus so that we will be ready for anything that the Lord does or wants to do through us.”
-senior Jordan Howard
“The Lord used 24-7 prayer and the cardboard outreach to make the Gospel really practical to me and to put an urgency in my heart for His coming Kingdom. On the first day, the Lord graciously allowed me to share the Gospel with eight people. Those conversations lasted hours on end. The awesome thing was that I already knew a lot of them so I am able to still see and talk to them.”
-senior Erika Maynard
A Look Ahead
As Shawna is preparing to graduate in May 2010, she said that the Lord has allowed her to slowly transition out of her role as a leader and to pass it on to other students. In the process, she said she has learned about unity and how each person has something to contribute to vision for their campus.
“I love the body of Christ,” Shawna said. “We miss the big picture so many times if we all aren’t working together to fulfill our individual roles.”
As the Year of Prayer is now underway, Shawna said she is excited to see what the Lord will do.
“So many people have been praying for revival,” Shawna said. “I know revival is going to come to EKU. I know He is going to answer. It’s going to come in bucket loads instead of raindrops here and there.”
[Find out when 24-7 prayer is happening at Eastern Kentucky University. Contact Jordan Howard via e-mail at jordan_howard141@eku.edu.]
How to pray for Eastern Kentucky University:
-Pray for deep conviction to reach the lost.
-Pray for more unity and less distraction among Christian students.
-Pray for more students to seek Truth and come to know Christ as their Savior in 2010.
-Pray God would continue building unity among Christian students at EKU and show them how they can proclaim Christ on their campus in creative ways.