Community Begins 40-Day Fast for Students on Sunday
By Bill Bray, Special to the ASSIST News Service
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS, January 13, 2016)
– Starting this Sunday (January 17, 2016), local prayer partners from
the Operation Esther Circle are joining with university students in 40
days of fasting and prayer. The fast ends on February 25, the national
Collegiate Day of Prayer. The prayer circle meets Thursdays, 5 PM at the
Overseas Students Mission headquarters on Ivy Road, Charlottesville,
and also at UVA and other campuses. For details contact Debra Yarde,
434-227-0811 or 305-9641.
Last
year, in 2015, the same coalition of community and student prayer
partners, staged a joint meeting hosted by the Student Prayer Collective
at the University of Virginia. Prayer chains continued for 72 hours and
involved 600 students in addition to representatives from local
churches and campus ministries.
Nationally
over 1,521 campuses were adopted for prayer in 2015. So far in 2016,
105 campuses have been adopted and 3,084 remain to be sponsored. The
Collegiate Day of Prayer began 101 years ago during the Student
Volunteer mission’s movement and quickly spread to all the Ivy League
campuses including UVA.
Annual
prayer reunions have been held ever since on many campuses. Student-led
campus prayer movements were revived during the Jesus People revivals
in the last century and are now led by a broad coalition of campus
ministries including IVCF, the Luke 18 Project and groups like the
International House of Prayer.
During
the presidential election year and as a result of global terrorism,
many are joining the student prayer movement. Fasting is increasingly
important this year. Millions of additional Christians are expected to
join in the national prayer movement as Lent begins on February 10,
2016. Christians in the larger community can sponsor campus prayer
movements and adopt a campus at www.collegiatedayofprayer.org and jointhefast@collegiatejesusfast.com .
About
the writer: Bill Bray, 68, is an author and Christian journalist who
specializes in missions and student ministries. He contributes
frequently to Assist News and welcomes interaction with our readers. He
can be contacted at 
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