On a Saturday afternoon in 1806, 5 college students from New England met to pray for people living in Asia. People who didn’t know Jesus. And when it started to rain, they simply moved behind a haystack and continued praying, asking the Lord for direction and vision, crying out on behalf of people who hadn’t heard his name. And so ‘The Haystack Prayer Meeting’ began the modern mission movement. It was the first documented time anyone in America ever made a commitment to foreign missions.
In December of 2006, Katie Davis, a college student from Tennessee, traveled to Uganda for what was meant to be a few week trip. Now, 3 years later, she still lives in Uganda and has taken in 14 orphans as her own. I don’t mean she gives them food when she can and buys them a new outfit once a year. I mean she left her home, her family, her friends, moved to Uganda, found a house and has become a single mother to these 14 girls. All before she turned 21.
And today, 43 college students who left their dorm rooms, left their families and the familiar, are living in Kenya, India and Swaziland. They eat unidentifiable food each day. They hold the hand of a dying woman as she takes her last breaths. They pray for rain in Kenya and it storms. They are college students who have been changed by the love of God and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and now they are taking their place in history. Their place as the generation who is not satisfied with unacceptable realities, but is determined to spend their lives redefining normal, fighting for justice and making a difference in one person’s life.
College students are changing the world. Are you satisfied with your Kingdom role? Do you want more? Check out our summer and fall trips for 18-21 year olds and watch this video to see what God might be calling you to!
