God is moving in exciting ways through 24-7 prayer on campuses all across America. Gordon Govier of Intervarsity tracks the amazing ways 24-7 is spreading through American Universities...

InterVarsity students at Central College in Pella, Iowa, started praying at the beginning of the spring semester and haven’t stopped. More than 2,400 consecutive hours have been logged by shifts of students in a prayer room set up in the student union.

"It demands sacrifice and perseverance, both of which can all too often be lacking in students," said campus staff member Jon Hietbrink (below). "But not only have the 75 students involved deepened their devotional lives, they have also drawn closer together through the experience". For Jon it all began when students at Pella came across 'The Vision' a poem written in the first 24-7 prayer room: "To be honest, it has captured the heart of the group of believers I help to lead (about 250-300 folks). This led us to take a swing at 24-7 prayer on campus... " says Jon, self-effacingly. That was on january 16th. 2,400 hours later the students decided they were ready for mission: "We coordinated our 24-7 prayer movement with a major outreach event on campus,” he said. As a result “We saw several dozen significant decisions from folks from outside our community"

Last fall, InterVarsity students in Tampa, Florida (left), manned a 24-7 prayer room in a local church for 40 days, despite the threat of hurricanes sweeping across the state. At the same time, students in various other chapters around the Southeast Region of America took turns keeping a separate 24-7 campaign going. “It is clear that a work was begun in us that is meant to ignite those around us, not only calling each other to a deeper place of intimacy with God, but of obedience to the gospel and the lost who need it,” wrote Florida division director Brian Sanders on the prayer campaign’s website.

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (left) initiated a 24-7 prayer campaign for Lent in a campus area church, and representatives from more than 30 local churches and ministries participated. “24-7 brings unity to the body, purification of the body, and a new heart for outreach,” said area director Peter Horton.

For 21 days in Lent, students at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City also did a 24-7 prayer campaign. Campus staff member Seth Neal said that the chapter believed they weren’t praying enough and chose something more ambitious than just a daily prayer meeting. He said the 24-7 campaign was a great thing for a new chapter to experience together and students were sad to see the three weeks come to an end.

The Intervarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship at Stanford organized a weeklong 24-7 campaign from April 9-16 that was written up in the Stanford Daily. This was the second year in a row for 24-7 prayer at Stanford. The newspaper reported that a room in the basement of the Old Union was converted to a prayer room for the event.

The impetus for these 24-7 prayer campaigns is partially from a popular book entitled Red Moon Rising, by Peter Greig (left). Peter was a guest at InterVarsity’s Staff Conference 05 where he discussed this 24-7 movement, the beginning of which he traced to a small prayer room in Chichester, England, in September of 1999.

Peter believes the popularity of the movement, now in 56 countries, illustrates that intimacy and involvement are the two legs of the Gospel. “If all of our activity and strategy is divorced from intimacy, we’re going to have problems” he said. “Combine them in what we’re building on campus and in our life, and we have the Body of Christ, infectious and engaged.”

Expect to see more InterVarsity chapters involved in 24-7 prayer events. “I think the 24-7 model has really been a helpful one for our college students,” said Campus staff member Jon Hietbrink. “When they signed up for their first one hour slot students repeatedly said they didn’t know how they would fill it,” added Seth Neal. “But soon they felt they needed more than the one hour and would sign up for two hours!”