Students across the nation took advantage of their freedom of speech and assembly Sept. 26 as they gathered around flagpoles to pray, share testimonies and worship God with songs.
Anderson University students were among the many across the state who gathered Sept. 26 to participate in “See You at the Pole.”Chad Childress, director of student evangelism at the North American Mission Board, described See You at the Pole as “empowering to students because it gives 3 million students throughout the United States an opportunity to gather in a cross-denominational setting and see other students who believe as they do – that there’s something greater.”
“It also is an awakening, on a small scale, for students who for the first time ever begin to see their school as a mission field,” Childress said. “That’s what NAMB is about, so we want to be behind anything that does that.”
In South Carolina, it wasn’t just high school students praying around flagpoles. At Anderson University, more than 70 students and faculty gathered in front of the school’s administration building at dawn to pray and sing.
Louie Audelo, 19, of Whittier, Calif., and a junior at Anderson, told the Independent-Mail newspaper that See You at the Pole is less widely observed in California, so he didn’t want to miss it at his new location.
“It’s nice to be where it’s encouraged,” Audelo said.
Russ Bennett, the university’s associate campus minister, told the local newspaper See You at the Pole gives students a chance to offer prayers for fellow students, faculty and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Our theme is to gather, unite and pray,” Bennett said, referring to this year’s official nationwide theme based on Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23.
See You at the Pole started with a group of youth in Burleson, Tex., in 1990 and has taken root nationwide as students proclaim their faith publicly and ask God to intervene in circumstances they face together. The event’s Web site, www.syatp.com, has set up a forum for reporting.