Two hundred years ago this month five college students at Williams College were forced to meet under a haystack by a sudden rainstorm as they gathered to pray for foreign missions. Tradition says it was a Saturday but no one knows which day in August for sure. The beginning of the American Foreign Missions movement is traced from that event.
Student Volunteer Movement 2, one of the organizations whose heritage is rooted in that prayer meeting, is holding a Haystack Prayer Summit this month. Williams College is also holding a commemoration next month.
A major Midwest commemoration called What Next will be held next month in Madison, Wisconsin. Another bicentennial observance is being planned for the InterVarsity-sponsored Urbana 06 Student Missions Convention being held in St. Louis, December 27-31, 2006.
For the past year, pastor Phil Corr has been blogging on the Haystack Prayer Meeting, and nurturing prayer gatherings to commemorate the 1806 meeting as well as to pray for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this generation. As he invites people to establish their own Haystack commemoration he says, “Be surprised by God! In 1806, God did amazing things through a small group of college students at prayer, and it’s the same in 2006.”
InterVarsity believes that college students who pray are taking the first essential step to become world changers.
