One day to change the world and it’s a 48 hour day. The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is observing World Student Day on Friday, October 21, 2011. It’s a day when everyone who cares about student ministry and its ability to shape the leaders of tomorrow can join in a global prayer meeting to pray in unity for students and the ministries that reach out to them.
Twice as Long
World Student Day starts when October 21st begins at midnight for students in Tonga, in the first time zone beyond the international dateline. This day of prayer and student unity will end 48 hours later at midnight for students in Samoa, the last time zone before the international dateline.
InterVarsity/USA is one of the founding members of IFES and on World Student Day we join with the other 156 members of IFES to celebrate God’s love and pray for God’s grace in the lives of students throughout the world. Suggestions from IFES on how to observe World Student Day include:
• Hold a prayer meeting with friends or your small group.
• Set up a prayer room on campus or in your local church, with prayer stations focusing on a
particular region, theme, or group (staff, students, graduates). Ask people to sign up for
prayer times throughout the event.
• Go on a prayer walk around your university, by yourself or with others. Use Bible verses and
prayer requests to fuel your prayers along the way.
• Celebrate the diversity we enjoy in IFES. Organize international meals: invite international
students, eat foods from other countries, pray for those countries.
• Hold a celebration with music, testimonies, Bible readings in different languages,
and a time for prayer for student work around the world.
• Have a region-themed party and pray through the articles published on the IFES website for
the countries in that region.
• Get a group to tweet and post Facebook updates
Additional suggestions and resources can be found in a downloadable PDF document on the IFES World Student Day website.
As it Happens
To experience the global observance in real time, follow World Student Day on Twitter and Facebook. Updates, including prayer requests, will be posted. On Twitter the hashtag #ifeswsd is being used.
From the very beginning of InterVarsity, 70 years ago, prayer has been a priority. Many chapters have daily prayer meetings. In our Core Values we state: “We express our faith, love, and dependence on God through lives of prayer and worship.”
When World Student Day begins in Tonga, it will be just before dawn Thursday in the U.S. For the next 48 hours, until early Saturday morning, a global concert of prayers will be heard in heaven, and some prayers and prayer requests will also show up on Facebook and Twitter. The day will be a chorus of faith, love, and dependence that reminds us how much God loves students, faculty, and staffs of the colleges and universities of every country.
