Students, Faculty and Passersby Join in Praise and Worship around the Altar Chapel continues today
WILMORE, KY (Feb. 8, 2006) – Praise, worship and release continue as students are still gathered around the altar in Hughes Auditorium where they have been since Monday. After today’s powerful chapel celebrating the work of the Holy Spirit on the Asbury College campus, God’s work carries on.
President Paul A. Rader led the chapel service this morning as students, for the last three days, have converged on Hughes Auditorium for prayer and intercession for the campus and worldwide community.
“God continues to move across the campus,” said Dr. Paul A. Rader. “We have had students in Hughes Auditorium continuously since Monday at 10 a.m. when God came in such power and blessing during our Student Chapel. Last night at midnight there were several hundred in Hughes. Some stayed until 4 a.m. We met for a Prayer and Praise Chapel this morning with an awesome sense of expectation. God did not disappoint us. From the first praise chorus students began coming to the long altar at the front of the auditorium. Soon the altar was crowded with students again. There was incredible freedom in the Spirit as we sang and prayed and shared testimonies of God’s gracious work in the hearts of students.
“It has been wholly the work of the Spirit, who moved numbers of our students to passionate and persistent prayer in small groups over the past several months.
“There has been a wonderful sense of the Spirit’s ordering. We have been spared excesses and unhelpful sharing. Students have spoken with such wisdom and spiritual maturity. Scriptures so well chosen and so powerfully used of the Lord.
“We do have this wonderful sense of the constant presence of God on this campusand He is palpably and preciously present to us today.”
Junior Jonathan Grant of Mishawaka, Ind., stayed in the auditorium until 3 a.m. Wednesday and returned again at 7 a.m. A late night or an all-nighter schedule typically witnessed during finals week, is being used to praise and worship God.
“People kept saying, ‘It doesn’t matter if this ends in five minutes, what matters is what we do when we leave herehow this changes us.’ God has become real to me and I have a responsibility and a gift to take and share with the world.”
Stacy Stevens Hall, a senior from Knoxville, Tenn., talked about the response from the local and nationwide community.
“We are excited. It’s amazing that God is using this time to call others to pray for Asbury College around the world. The news is spreading quickly and people want to join in the celebration.”
Junior Emily Roberts from Sunapee, New Hampshire described her experience in Chapel Wednesday as a romancehaving loved God all her life and finally realizing that God loves her in return.
She illustrates her experience as being like when Lucy meets Aslan in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by C.S. Lewis.
“Then her face lit up till, for a moment (but of course she didn’t know it), she looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture and she ran forward with a little cry of delight and with her arms stretched out. For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, The Lion, the highest of all High Kings. And he was solid and real and warm and he let her kiss him and bury herself in his shining mane. And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside him, Lucy even dared to think that he was purring (169).”
Thank you for your interest and your prayers. To God be the glory and great is His faithfulness.
