Felicity Powers Senior Song Wilson worships through music during Prayer and Worship Night in Alexander Hall chapel Thursday.

When senior Song Wilson and a small group of others started devoting Thursday nights to prayer, they knew it was a powerful thing.

When sophomore Aleya Mullett felt led to pray for missionaries in community, she was convinced that the prayers of their Missionary Prayer Cadre could change things.

And many other prayer groups on campus at SPU hold similar beliefs, but students often do not realize the resources that are available to them in this area.

Some of these ministries are student led while others are overseen by Campus Ministries. Here are some of the major programs students may not have heard about.

Prayer and Worship night in Alexander Hall

As mentioned above, prayer and Worship night in Alexander Hall is a student led prayer ministry headed up by Wilson.

The group began just over two years ago, according to Wilson, when she and a few others got together on the third floor of the library to pray for God to move on the SPU campus.

"Prayer, revival and unity have been anthems of our weekly gatherings," she said. "We have had many people ask why prayer is so important to us. Our answer is simple: We need Jesus."

The group has grown substantially and now meets on Thursday nights in Alexander Hall from 8 to 11 p.m. The group prays for everything from national and world issues to personal prayer requests.

"Whatever the issue," Wilson said, "we always try to incorporate the students, staff and faculty of the campus in our times of prayer."

"It is our vision to see a legacy of student-led prayer established on this campus for years to come," she said.

The Missionary Prayer Cadre

The Missionary Prayer Cadre is led in part by Aleya Mullett. The cadre is devoted to supporting missionaries in prayer.

"The need for people to be supporting missionaries is tremendous," Mullett wrote in her proposal for the Cadre, "Having returned in June of 2003 from five months spent in West Africa working alongside missionaries, I was even more aware of this need."

Most of the students involved in the cadre know missionaries who are overseas, but anyone is welcome to come. It is especially helpful for those who have an interest in working in missions in the future.

"It's been a really good opportunity to share what is on each of our hearts knowing that everyone else is interested in sharing our burdens in prayer," said Sara Duwe, an SPU student who is involved with the cadre. "It's so important for missionaries overseas to have prayer support at home, even from people they have never met."

It is a blessing for both those who pray for missionaries and for the missionaries themselves, said Duwe, and it is "a way for those of us who are studying and cannot spend much time in the field to be involved through prayer."

"Many people at SPU are interested/have participated in missions and we want to keep that link active through prayer," said Mullett, "We also are aware of the power of prayer to make a difference."

The Nehemiah Network

The Nehemiah Network is an online ministry supported by SPU's Society of Fellows which allows students to submit confidential prayer requests over the internet.

The ministry is specifically for the SPU community, and although all requests are taken into account, only those that concern the SPU community are circulated.

"Our prayer cadre takes seriously all prayer requests, no matter the source or subject," according to Sig Swanstrom, who is the director of the Society of Fellows here on campus and oversees the Nehemiah Network, "but the only prayer concerns that we post and distribute are those that involve an SPU student, a student's immediate family or a faculty or staff member, or their immediate family."

To submit a prayer request, you can visit www.spu.edu/NehemiahNetwork.

Guideposts Prayer Ministry

Seattle Pacific also has a prayer ministry through Guideposts, an organization out of New York that runs a national prayer line.

The line consists of volunteers who take calls from all over the nation, talking and praying with callers.

According to the groups coordinator here at SPU, senior Laura Fitzwater, most volunteers are individuals who volunteer out of their own homes. But there are several schools around the country whose volunteers participate from one location.

The ministry started two years ago with five volunteers and has grown to include 17. The volunteers work for an hour a week during a specific time, answering calls and praying with people.

"Our ministry to them is to listen to their needs, reflect back to them and then pray for them over the phone," said Fitzwater in an email, "We do not offer our own advice or opinions."

"Callers tend to be more elderly individuals who are usually lonely," she said, "Many people call every day. It is very humbling to hear some of the needs these people have, because they are so outside of what we are accustomed to hearing at this point in our lives."

There are many more prayer ministries on campus. To find information on some, visit the Campus Ministries website at http://www.spu.edu/depts/ocm/campusPrayer.asp.