For the third year in a row, college students gathered early in a new school year to pray for the Georgia Southern campus and the surrounding community. Greek Row Prayer Walk attracted a large number of students on Wednesday, both Greek and non-Greek, as well as some members of the community.
“We wanted to bring the community together in a most unlikely place,” said GS Phi Mu student and prayer walk leadership team member Merrill Garrison. “It’s a tempting culture out there, and we want to empower people to be bold in their faith. We’re targeting college kids because it’s such a crucial and pivotal age where they’re exploring their identity and seeking more in life. Our hope is to give them a community of faith that will lead them closer to the Lord.”
The event began, as in other years, with a worship time of songs and prayer. Justin Abercrombie, Connection Church youth pastor, spoke at the event.
A 2016 Georgia Southern graduate, Abercrombie said he came to Statesboro as a broken, hopeless and lost individual.
“I grew up as a church kid, and I knew about Jesus, but I didn’t know him personally,” he said.
Abercrombie shared honestly of his struggles during his freshman year.
“I came looking for all the wrong things, enjoyed my share of wrongs things my freshman year. But I was hurting inside. I didn’t feel worthy.”
By the end of his freshman year, however, a friend helped Abercrombie turn his life around.
“Jesus was drawing me to himself,” he said. “I started to see hope for the first time. I started to see a little bit of healing, and then I saw the healer.”
Abercrombie told the mostly young crowd that no matter what baggage they brought with them, God was in the miracle business.
“God is faithful, even when we’re faithless. Whom Jesus sets free is free indeed,” he said.
With lighted candles in hand, students fanned out across Greek Row to pray individually, in small groups or in large groups.
Annabelle Veal, a senior Alpha Delta Pi member, prayed aloud on the lawn of the ADPi house on Greek Row, asking God to help them leave their mark on the Georgia Southern campus.
“Help us not be afraid to stand up for you, Lord. You chase us down and recklessly pursue us. No matter how far we run, you chase after us with your love. May we shine throughout our campus, Lord,” she prayed.
Another ADPi member, Greer Kerns, prayed next: “God, may we see you in classes and on Greek Row, now more than ever before. I pray that our words and actions this year are kind and sweet. I pray that we love well, that we take this love and spread it to this campus.”
Statesboro residents Cindy and Clark Bowers joined in the prayer event in support of their daughter, Katie Ann Bowers, a freshman and new ADPi pledge.
“This overwhelms my heart,” Cindy Bowers said. “As a parent of a Georgia Southern student and community member, to see this large crowd come out to pray, to see the love of God poured out on this whole community, it gives me the confidence and assurance that these young men and women really know God and are working for his kingdom.”
Georgia Southern graduate Kiley Ward Brooks attended the prayer event Wednesday evening and was visibly moved by the service. The first prayer walk, held three years ago, was Brooks’ idea, and she said she felt God leading her to organize the event then.
“To see how God has used the prayer walk, has put it into fruition, is humbling. To see how God has moved in the Greek community and is continuing to move is absolutely amazing,” she said. “When I helped plan the first one, my biggest prayer was that God would spark a flame that would turn into a blaze on Greek Row and on this campus. And to see the huge fire, to see how God is moving on campus, leaves me speechless.”