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One time, one night
Fervor sparks night prayer
By Tia VanVeldhuizen
Published:
Monday, April 26, 2004
"Yes, this was a quiet night," Frederick Gomes concluded, reflecting on other nights that week.
Students have been gathering at the United Ministries in Higher Education (UMHE) house at 391 Fourth Ave. S. for prayer. But this prayer service is very different from familiar church vigils.
At least five students have been meeting from 9 p.m. until as late as 2 a.m. It started with a group of students having the same vision and passion: to get together and pray, said Crystal Vogt. It began at Shoemaker Hall with only two or three people, but more wanted to take part, which spurred meetings at the UMHE house.
"Soak in the presence of God. Forget whatever is going on," said Blen Jaletta, a student from Ethiopia, describing this time.
"Last night we were here for 3 1/2 hours and it went by so quick," said senior Chris Prahl.
In addition to Jaletta and Prahl, Vogt, a junior; Gomes, a senior from Bangladesh; Treonna Stratton, a 21-year-old employed in the community and Darren Cleare, a 23-year-old St. John's graduate, attended this vibrant prayer service.
It began at 10:45 p.m. with the lyrics "God of wonders beyond our galaxy" humming from the stereo and the beat of Cleare's bongo. The first prayers included thanking God for his presence and for the resurrection service earlier that evening.
As the bongo was played, these young people stood, sat, kneeled, shouted, whispered and cried prayers to God. Hands raised then clasped, heads lowered and lifted, tears flowed and smiles beamed.
About every 10 minutes someone raised his or her voice above all others to lead the group in a prayer on his or her heart. The tone moved from thankfulness to pleading for forgiveness to ministry on campus and individual concerns. It was all spoken with a sense of urgency, all to the same God.
Yet the most peculiar person was Gomes, who prayed on his knees with his forearms on the ground and his head on his hands, hardly moving anything more than his fingers and his mouth. For more than an hour he remained like this, standing only to say goodbye to Cleare and Stratton at 11:50 p.m. He then returned to the same position, face down on his knees. Most of the time he was praying in an unknown language, sometimes soft, sometimes loud.
Where had these students found time to pray so late into the night, with so much energy?
"I haven't gotten tired. God has given me strength," Vogt said.
She had been at each prayer service that week.
Gomes said time was not a factor for him.
"I don't even think time is there because the presence of God is so much in that place when we are in prayer. Sometimes we go two, three, or four hours and it is gone," he said.
He also said that some of his prayers have been answered.
"Not all, but definitely quite a few," Gomes said. "I was praying for a couple of people to open up their hearts and basically talk about God and Jesus and that happened already. I was praying about revival for this campus and we are believing that is going to come."
"We will meet more," he said. "We pray for the campus and individual prayer requests. We pray in mind and we pray in spirit. We talk about scripture and what it says about God. We pray however the spirit leads."
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