Campus Ohio: A Report from Universities in the USARyan Milner - 6 Apr 2007

Campus Ohio. The name is telling in its singularity. Though the university students participating in the forty days of prayer that began Sunday, April 1st hail from all over the state, they are putting geography and rivalry aside to worship and pray and move together. From Xavier, to Bowling Green, to Ohio State, to the University of Cincinnati and beyond, these students are joining together as one people, one body, one campus. Campus Ohio.
If more university students took hold of the vision, the nation could be transformed one college at a time. Campus Michigan. Campus Indiana. Campus Kansas. Campus Oregon. Campus America. What’s beginning in Ohio, what could be the genesis of something huge, didn’t start because of any national ministry or any authoritarian prompting. It was a simple and beautiful seed planted by God in the hearts of a few normal university students. They were crazy enough, and filled with faith enough, to move mountains on that simple beauty.  

So on Saturday, March 31, Ohio State graduate Allison Brooks and Miami University student, Molly Gibson launched the movement. Leading a gathering of nearly seventy university students from all over the state, they spent the evening talking about the God that spoke to Nehemiah, the God that can retake strongholds, the God that retook Jericho, the God that’s mobilizing a movement. They prayed and worshipped and sang and danced and invited God to speak. And upon listening to the stories so many in Ohio had to tell that night, one could conclude that God already is.

One look at Brooks’ life and it’s easy to believe that one person can make an impact and leave a legacy. As she read about Jesus in the Gospels, how He prayed and crazy things happened, she decided to take God at face value and try it out herself. God captured her heart and taught her that He answers prayer, and she couldn’t stop praying and telling people about prayer. She prayed for her roommates and her coworkers, and they supernaturally came to know Jesus.

During her time as a student at OSU, Brooks started dreaming and praying about establishing a place of prayer on campus for students, and she spent months building relationships with campus ministers and student leaders from groups all over the college. Eventually, she came across a house for rent right on campus, and with the help of New Life, a church at OSU, they secured the Prayer House and set up the space for God to meet with them. Brooks’ faith and faithfulness resulted in transformed lives through prayer, and since then their story has spread across the state of Ohio and beyond. What might God do with these 40 days of prayer and through the ongoing friendships and that are sure to result? What might come of Brooks’ faith? For now, it’s easy to believe that if there’s commitment and there’s movement, one person, one group of people, might truly change the course of a nation.

 Next Page: The Vision Inspires, A Messenger from China and Provision for a Prayer Room