All Night Prayer and Praise

Last spring, several students in our chapter wanted to raise the bar for worship and prayer. Our daily prayer meetings continued to grow, averaging 15 students. One student, Debra, organized an all-night prayer and praise event in the school's chapel. Debra convinced area businesses to donate food so the evening could start with dinner at 7:30 p.m., and end with breakfast at 7 a.m.

Her goal was to pray through the entire student phone directory. There are 9,400 students at our school! That goal was achieved: every undergrad and grad student at the University of Rochester (NY) was prayed for by InterVarsity. In the midst of this, our worship team led praise all night, and we had the Messianic Jewish congregation dance team perform until 2 a.m.! I spoke on loving our enemies, and another local speaker came to speak on prayer.

About 20 students made it all night, but throughout the evening we had non-Christians and Christians from other groups on campus, as well as 45 I-V students in attendance. What a blessing for each student individually, as well as for our chapter and campus!