The Winona State University Collegiate Day of Prayer was hosted on Thursday, Feb. 26 in the Great River Ballroom. This event brought together six Christian ministries from on-campus and the Winona community. Among these groups were Chi Alpha, Athletes in Action, River Bluff Young Life, InterVarsity, H2O, and the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Newman Center.
The night began with an opening prayer, asking God to be present with and fill the hearts of everyone gathered there. Then, everyone joined in some praise and worship with songs sung by the band. After that, each ministry got to lead a few minutes of prayer, offering up some things to reflect on and pray about individually and in groups. Some reflected on love, others on gratitude and others on praying that every student on the Winona State campus and beyond would encounter the love of Jesus.
One student who gave a prayer reflection was Ben Kingsbury, representing Athletes in Action. He began his reflection talking about the importance of praying for others as a way to bring them closer to God.
“I think it’s rooted in discipleship,” Kingbury said. “I truly believe that it’s the concept of us pouring into one another and truly walking with each other in our journeys to become more like Christ every day.” He read out two Bible verses, then said, “I just encourage you guys all to remain disciples, even when times are hard. Lean on Jesus, lean other others, because that’s sometimes all we have right now.”
The night was focused on praying for the campus, as well as unifying all the Christian ministries in the Winona area. Sometimes, the Christian church can be more divided than it is unified, so it promoted a great sense of unity to have so many Christian students all praying for the same thing.
Third-year elementary education major, Natalie Wensmann, attended this event with the Catholic Newman center. “It was nice to get all the groups together and just praise and worship with them,” Wensmann said. She enjoyed the prayer and the praise and worship. “It was pretty hype at the beginning. We just got to sing and praise the Lord. And then it went into some talks about love, discernment, just being disciples of the Lord and spreading His word and going out and helping others. And we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ, so we should just all be one,” Wensmann said.
The night ended with more music and dancing, with lots of students meeting new friends or recognizing friends from class they didn’t even know were Christian. The main message of the night was that everyone has a story, everyone has a past and everyone still has a future.
