Campaign summons Christians to pray at U.S. colleges

Last year across North Dakota 1,700 students gathered in mostly small groups at every college and university that exists, praying that God would awaken the hearts of unbelievers. At Ohio State, a young woman named Allison decided to invite her friends to experience Jesus and the meetings still are going on. In Indiana, the prayers that started with a single lstudent resulted in a salvation experience for members of one fraternity.

Now a campaign is being launched to spread prayer to every campus across the United States, and not just for a brief meeting or two but for the entire year of 2010.

Called Campus America, the program is being promoted by 24-7 Prayer International, which started several years ago and is headquartered in Guildford, England.

It currently is mobilizing prayer events in 100 countries and expanding.

Student promoting Campus America 2010 campaign

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The Campus America program is simple: a call for a connected, unbroken year of prayer in 2010 on "every college and university campus in the U.S., to give every student the opportunity to experience the presence fo Jesus."

A video on the website raises the question, "What if God shows up and students start encountering Jesus?"

"We need to stop thinking small and start thinking bid," one student tells viewers.

"The most recent research by Gallup indicates that there are 74 percent fewer confessing Christians on America's campuses than in the population at large. Unless something happens quickly, the church in America will be almost decimated within this generation," organizers warn. "And it's not just about filling pews. It's about the Gospel of Jesus impacting the poorest people in the world and it's about tomorrow's leaders being shaped by a biblical world view, and it's about universities themselves remembering their own Christian roots."

The Campus America campaign starts Jan. 1, 2010, finishing New Year's Eve 2011.

"The invitation is for students on every campus in the U.S. to participate with at least 72 hours of united, non-stop prayer. What happens as a result of such an unprecedented wave of prayer is really up to God."

The campaign partners with students and others at colleges, both long-established collegiate ministries and new communities of faith.

"Campus America is about helping create sacred space for students to simply encounter and engage with Jesus," promoters said.

The 24-7 Prayer effort was launched about five years ago by Pete Greig and David Blackwell. It already has reached about one out of five colleges in the U.S.

"The idea of seeing these prayer rooms multiply on every campus in the U.S. seems thrilling and terrifying," Greig said. "Exciting because we have reason to believe it could impact the nation. Terrifying because this is utterly impossible unless God makes it happen."