Prayer is still powerful

Mya Hudgins, Faith Editor

German club, Bisionettes, social clubs, club sports and many other organizations are well known around Oklahoma Baptist campus. There is one student organization many may not  know too much about, Pray for the Nations.

“We meet because we believe it’s important to lift up our brothers and sisters around the world, and to remember other nations in prayer, specifically remembering the different request they have,” co-chair of Pray for the Nations Moriah Lamb said.

For eight years now, different people, year after year, have been praying for a nation every night.

“Everybody shows up around ten o’clock, and we all come in and read through the summary of the country [in the world culture book] we are praying for and some basic demographic information,” Lamb said. “Then we will go around and assign a prayer request and decide how we will all pray.”

Pray for the Nations meets every night at 10 with a special emphasis. Tuesdays, they prayer walk around the campus. Wednesday, the group hears from students who have served on mission trips, and Sundays nights they pray for the students’ prayer request that are written on sticky notes and posted on the wall. For many students, this is a time to get away from the busy world.

“It gives me time to clear my mind, be with other believers, and pray for the nations,” freshman Caitlyn Huckabaa said. “Just when I have had a stressful day, I know this is the place where it will be stress free by praying for the nations.”

Others get the feeling of family when they attend Pray for the Nations.

“I defiantly [feel] like [this is] a family environment just being able to learn the information from all these countries and take time out of the day to pray for them at school,” freshmen Destinie Vencent said.

When it comes to praying, this group likes to make it fun and different.

“We have two different ways that we pray; we have silent prayer and then we call it Chinese prayer,” Lamb said. “We have a couple Missionary kids from China that call it Koran prayer, but the Chinese prayer is basically when everyone prays out loud at the same time.”

This club has offered so much to Moriah Lamb. She has been going ever since her freshman year.

“As a freshman coming in, the first thing I got out of “Pray for the Nations” was a since of community and a since of belonging,” Lamb said. “I am from Alaska and I didn’t know anyone coming into OBU, so having people that I saw every night that were willing to just talk to me and be friends with me was really, really important. That’s what drew me in at first. I keep coming back because I know we are making a difference. The reason it is such a strong community is because we are all united in a common cause that is so important.”

As this group has made a community of love and support, they live by their motto and continue to use the biggest power: prayer.

“Prayer for the Nations exists to bring glory to God, daily uniting in prayer by offering specific requests for the advancement of His kingdom worldwide, the encouragement of His church, and the healing of His people,” according to Pray for the Nations’ mission statement.