Written by Sarah Kyle
After a tremendous response during the 24/7 Prayer Week, Harding officials have agreed to permanently convert Shores Chapel into a student prayer room.
Junior Jane Messina, who had an active role in initiating and planning 24/7 Prayer Week, said the event itself was divinely inspired.
“It’s a lot of prayers that people have been praying for years and years,” Messina said. “It’s a vision for the campus that God had but … my role in it was waiting for him to say ‘go.'”
Messina said the event was geared to make prayer an approachable task for students who struggle to connect.
“For a lot of students, 30 minutes of prayer is daunting,” Messina said. “We wanted to involve the student body, involve the local churches.”
Messina said she and the committee for 24/7 Prayer strove to create a safe atmosphere for students to give their hearts to God in prayer, and received overwhelming support from students that participated.
“We got over 1500 student testimonies, and they were all really deep and legitimate,” Messina said. “They come in there, and they say ‘Why can’t we have this forever?'”
It was then, Messina said, that she felt the call to make a prayer room available to students at all times.
“Within three or four days, it was clear that everyone’s vision for it is to have it as something permanent,” Messina said.
While the chapel would not be available the entire day, Messina said Shores Chapel will be a safe place for students to pray and be prayed for— an answer to the spiritual needs on campus.
“It’s just perfect timing, it’s God’s perfect timing for this to start,” Messina said. “It really is an answered prayer for lots of people.”
For more information, contact Jane Messina.
