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Praying “On the Way”

This is a story from my most recent newsletter to the alumni of Harvard Graduate School of Education

In the book of Acts, God tells Philip to go down from Samaria along the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza, and on the way Philip meets an Ethiopian official who wants to learn more about Scripture. (Acts 8:26-40)

During the fall semester, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Christian Fellowship has sought to be “on the way.” (Or maybe “in the way.”) Meeting in public places around campus instead of in closed classrooms, the students want to be witnesses of an alternative way of living at HGSE while also welcoming curious seekers just as Philip did with the Ethiopian official.

What is this alternative way of living that they are pursuing on campus?

Well, it starts with this strange thing called prayer. Every Thursday evening, students meet to hear the burdens and joys of their classmate and pray together. When we meet in Cronkhite, one of the dorms near HGSE, we gather in a circle and pray while ten feet away people are typing away on their laptops or working out in the gym.

That’s a picture of our mission on campus. Even though students in the HGSE Christian Fellowship work (and work out) just as diligently as others, they also take time to pause, lift up their anxiety to the Lord, ask to be filled with his Spirit in prayer—all so that they can love God and serve their fellow students better.

Amid the workaholism that we’re all prone to pursue, they are witnesses that God is real and good and will lead them through life at HGSE.

Sometimes people speak in hushed voices around us. Sometimes people ask questions. Sometimes a student will join us while we pray and open up Scripture. It’s hard to measure the immediate impact that we have on the HGSE community more broadly, but we are a consistent witness to God’s faithfulness and love for students, faculty, and staff at HGSE. We are praying that more people at HGSE will come to know the love of Jesus and the joy of serving him. Please join us in that prayer.