Following Up Campus Weeks of Prayer

I'M GETTING to be hesitant about taking a Week of Prayer," an often-called-upon speaker recently commented. "After the week is over, too many of the youth who have found a new experience in Christ get discouraged. Then they give up, and often are more destitute spiritually than before."

-General Conference Educational Department, textbook division at the time this article was written

I'M GETTING to be hesitant about taking a Week of Prayer," an often-called-upon speaker recently commented. "After the week is over, too many of the youth who have found a new experience in Christ get discouraged. Then they give up, and often are more destitute spiritually than before."

"What we need," he suggested, "is to develop better follow-up methods."

School personnel obviously do what they can to encourage those who have drawn closer to Christ during a Week of Prayer. But could the speaker do more to assist the already overloaded faculty members?

Combined with the need for follow-up is the need for our Weeks of Prayer to have more of the personal touch.

The purpose of this article is to introduce these two subjects, to share some personal experiences, and to request ideas from the field. If you have found work able techniques in these two areas, why not put them into a letter to the editor for discussion in Parley?

We have found that an effective personal touch requires, among other things, the ability to remember names. We have always had trouble doing this. But the Lord has promised to take our weak points and make them strong points. When we were invited to conduct the spring Week of Prayer a couple years ago at Wisconsin Academy, we decided to put this promise to the test. Several months before the Week of Prayer we secured the previous year's annual. We also requested a list by grades of the current year's students. The first thing we did was go through the yearbook and place a check by each currently enrolled student. That way we didn't waste time memorizing names of students who were no longer enrolled.

Then we used four three-by-five cards to make lists by grade of each class. There were thirty-five freshmen, fifty sophomores, sixty juniors, and eighty seniors. We carried these four cards with us, and whenever we had a few moments we would take one out and concentrate on familiarizing our selves with the names. While walking to and from the office, for example, we could not only review each name on the list but pray for that student.

We made a weekend visit to the Wisconsin campus a few weeks before the Week of Prayer began, not to speak but simply to mingle with the students. By this time we recognized the names when introduced to individuals, and mentally associated the face with an already recognizable name. After we returned home and continued to study our lists we could place some of the names. At the same time we kept familiarizing our selves with the yearbook.

The Personal Touch

During the Week of Prayer we concentrated on a personal-touch approach. Contacts made at meal times, in the hallways, in the boys' dorm, and about campus provided continual opportunities to associate already memorized names with faces. By the end of the week we had been able to meet in some capacity close to 80 percent of the students.

We generally prefer not to have frequent announcements made about being available for counseling. By using the methods just described we can informally meet most of the students, and if they do want to talk about a problem they generally will make it known.

We also arranged to make two weekend return visits after the Week of Prayer. By going Thursday evening both Friday and Sabbath were available for follow-up visiting. We were especially alert to try to meet the 20 per cent we could not yet place as having met.

These return trips made a total of fourteen days spent on cam pus. During this time we were able to visit with almost every student in some capacity. Though we still mixed up many of the names and faces, we knew the students far better than we would have if we hadn't put forth this extra effort.

Follow-up

If an appointment is quite a distance away, advance and fol low-up visits are not practical of course. But could we do more follow-up by mail than is generally done?

If you have a student secretary who is a good typist, or a regular secretary who might be willing to do some extra typing, try this:

Write out three or four paragraphs that are general enough to be used in most situations. In these paragraphs include a Bible promise or a thought, such as:

Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. 1

I write out in longhand a personalized first paragraph for each student to whom we are sending a letter. I give to a typist these personalized first paragraphs (with accompanying names and addresses) and the standardized main body of our letter. She does the rest, except for the signatures and possibly a personalized P.S. I like to use a postscript similar to this: "For another good promise see Isaiah 41:13."

A second method, if you have access to a copying machine, is to prepare a standardized one-page letter in which you leave room for a name and address to be typed in. If you have letterhead stationery, the machine copy looks almost as good as a personally typed letter, once you type in the name and address.

Send Personalized Books or Bibles

We have also found it helpful to send underlined books or Reach Out Bibles to selected students as part of the follow-up. Last fall at Canadian Union College at the Sabbath morning call for baptism, half of those who responded were students from the elementary school—two fifth-graders, six sixth-graders, three seventh-graders, and five eighth-graders. We had neglected going over to the elementary school, thus we had never met any of these students, and knew that we probably would never see them again. In God's providence we were able to keep the entire baptismal group after the service, which gave us opportunity to secure their names.

A few weeks later we wrote to each of those who had come for ward. Except for the eighth-graders, to whom we sent Morning Watch books, we sent each of the elementary students a Reach Out New Testament in which we had underlined several promises. We did this underlining as a family project on Sabbath afternoons. Then we wrote a personal note in each Bible or book.

In our letters we mentioned our joy at their decision to be baptized. Several wrote back and told us about their baptism. Since we were afraid we might have missed getting all the names, we sent a list of the names we had to one of the eighth-graders and asked her whether she knew of any other elementary students who were planning on baptism. She sent back eight names of additional students who either had been baptized or were shortly planning on it. We also wrote these and sent them marked Reach Outs.

One of the most heart-warming replies was from a sixth-grader. Among other things she wrote:

I think that us fifth- and sixth-graders have had a real revival in our school. Some of the kids in the fifth grade started us. Soon all of us were going around the school and asking forgiveness.

I had a real nice baptism. It was held Feb. 28th during the church service and 10 others were baptized too. I was a bit nervous and my feet went up a little.

A letter such as this reflects the positive results of Christian education and the faithful day-by-day work of teachers. What a privilege to be able to share just a little in these endeavors!

We tried to give similar personal follow-up to the academy and college students who had asked for baptism or for rebaptism or who had problems for which they had sought counsel.

While we were there several of the academy fellows came in to discuss what to do about some shoplifting they had done. One fellow in particular had several things to make right. We encouraged him to begin, and he did. In situations such as this an occasional letter of encouragement certainly needs to be written.

Prayer Workshops

Several times at Weeks of Prayer we have conducted an after-meeting that we call a prayer workshop. It is built around a series of outlines on how to pray, how to exercise faith, and how to claim promises. At Broadview Academy we were able to plan only two of these workshop meetings, and the pastor and Bible teacher, Elder William Fitch, indicated an interest in conducting weekly prayer workshop meetings as a follow-up to the Week of Prayer.

We left the outlines we had not yet covered, which were mimeographed and given to the participants each week. The faculty allowed the prayer workshop to meet as a worship option on Tuesday evenings. After school closed in May, Elder Fitch indicated that they had continued these prayer workshop meetings regularly till the end of school, with an average attendance of fifty to seventy young people.

Elder Fitch reported that he began a typical meeting with a promise or verse he had found during the previous week, and then invited students to share promises they had found. After a song the students were invited to mention things for which they were thankful and to share special prayer requests. The group then divided into prayer bands of about four each, after which they formed a circle and sang a concluding song such as "I'll Be True, Precious Jesus."

We asked Elder Fitch whether a workshop-option arrangement such as this made any social problems. It was his experience that it had not. Some couples at tended, but their presence was never a problem. They under stood the purpose of the meeting, and cooperated.

At Broadview we had also shared a condensed version of the story entitled "The Year Time Ended—and After" (published in the March through June issues of These Times, 1955). Several students asked for a copy so that they could read the entire story. By the time a list got around one of the dorms, more than fifty students had requested the story. Sending a copy to each one gave us an additional follow-up opportunity.

At Indiana Academy we arranged with the local Book and Bible House to have forty copies of the book The Great Controversy on hand. After our talk on the Second Coming, we encouraged the young people to secure a copy of this book if they didn't already have one and read the closing chapters. We did not give this the personal follow-up through letters we should have, but I am confident that this technique, if it included follow-up letters, could become one of our most effective methods for encouraging youth to get into material that will help them keep a commitment.

Two Helpful Statements

The new paperback condensed version of Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, entitled The Master's Immortal Sermon, also has follow-up potential. It has two statements that we like to underline before sending it to a student. One of these is the statement on page 9 that begins, "Whatever may have been your past experience . . ." The other is the one on page 74 (see Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 115) that begins, "The one thing essential . . ."

We especially value the second of these because it accurately describes the method often used by Satan in separating the youth from Christ, namely, getting them to think that they have made so many mistakes it is no use to try to come back to the Lord. Ellen White's suggestion of how to handle this "what's the use?" feeling is tops, and we have found that youth really appreciate it.

At several schools we have also followed up the Week of Prayer with some suggestions about commitment in the school paper. (Notice How to Keep a Commitment accompanying this article.) The editors of school papers have been most willing to publish a follow-up letter as well.

Most of all, we need to follow up our Week of Prayer with much praying of our own. Have we realized how much the following statement really says? "Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he fears and trembles before His [Christ's] strength and majesty. At the sound of fervent prayer, Satan's whole host trembles." 2


FOOTNOTES

1. Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 70.

2. ————, Messages to Young People, p. 53.


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-General Conference Educational Department, textbook division at the time this article was written

September 1973

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