A group of 11 students involved in the MU campus ministry Chi Alpha met at the Columns at 4:30 p.m. Thursday to join in prayer for peace on campus.
Freshman Lauren Rich thought of the idea to do a group prayer at the Columns, and it spread to many other students and even administrators. Vice Chancellor of Operations Gary Ward joined the original 11 students in prayer, and after the group began to pray, four other students walked up to the circle and joined.
“A few days ago I was really feeling like God wanted me to do something about this situation,” Rich said. “But I didn’t know what I was suppose to do. He just told me that I needed to do something.”
Rich said the Lord put it on her heart to get people to pray, so she posted about the event on Facebook. The post was shared, and word about the group prayer began to spread. Pieces of paper that were passed out at Speakers Circle read, “November 12, 2015 4:30 at the Columns to #PrayForMizzou.”
“(Rich) laid (the group prayer) on our hearts, she laid that burden on us, and we were like ‘OK, we’ll stand by you! We’ll do this if you feel like this is what God needs to do,’” said sophomore Emily Young, a Chi Alpha member who attended the prayer circle. “And the Holy Spirit worked in us, and we said, ‘OK we’ll go.’ So that was the game plan. To just surrender everyone’s burden, all 35,000 of these kids, who are hurting, who are angry, who are broken, and we just took that burden among ourselves and laid it down at God’s feet. He’s going to do amazing things.”
With noses and cheeks red from the cold, the final group of 16 people bowed their heads with their eyes shut tight and held onto each other’s hands so tight their knuckles were white. The group shared words like, “this place needs healing and love,” “help us not see with our eyes, but with our hearts,” and “please put an end to this, and bring back the light.”
“It only takes one match to light a room,” freshman Brittani Langland, a Chi Alpha member who attended the prayer circle, said during the prayer. Voices shook with emotion and tears were shed.
After over 20 minutes of praying, the group sang “This Little Light of Mine,” a children’s Bible song, “in honor of the light they intend to spread on campus.” After finishing the song, the group smiled and laughed as they pulled in closer into a group hug to finish out with a closing prayer.
“It is important to take the joy that God gives us and spread it around to everyone,” freshman Chi Alpha member Ali Fix said. “It was just this incredible feeling that everyone wants to just love on each other and show everyone God and that there is hope on campus.”