“It’s just me.”
Ruby was a typical middle school student in the Midwest. During one of her summers, she attended a Christian conference, returning home with a renewed vision for prayer. She wanted to start a prayer club at her school. At the beginning of the school year, she found the required faculty sponsor, and opened up the campus prayer group. Her vision was to pray for the students and teachers to come to know Jesus.
Each time the prayer group met, Ruby would faithfully show up, but she would be all by herself. No one else attended. Ruby prayed anyway, trusting and hoping that her prayers made a difference.
Week after week, she would come to school at the designated prayer time and pray alone for the faculty, students and staff to know Jesus.
At one point during the school year, a local church approached Ruby with an idea. They wanted to host a talent show in the school gym after school one day. The show would consist of 5 or 6 people performing their talents. At the end, a local youth pastor would share the Gospel. In order to host the event on campus, though, they had to be sponsored by a school club. Would the prayer club be willing to sponsor them? Ruby readily agreed.
The day arrived for the talent show, and admittedly most people were expecting it to be a small event. The church pastor even said he only expected 20 or so students to show up. The bell for the end of school rang, and a few students and faculty trickled into the gym for the show. At first, there were about 20 people…then more came…and more and more…until about 200 students and teachers were seated in the gym!
The show went off without a hitch, and at the end, the local youth pastor gave his testimony and shared the Gospel. He invited anyone in the gym who wanted to become a Christ follower to come to the front, at the bottom of the stage. People began to stream to the front of the gym. By the end of the event, 80 people had committed their lives to Christ!
At the end of the assembly, the local church pastor wanted to recognize the club who’d sponsored the event. He asked all of the people from the school prayer club to stand up. Ruby quietly stood up. The pastor, thinking the other members were just being shy, encouraged everyone in the prayer club to stand up. Ruby smiled and said, “No, it’s just me. I’m the only one.”
If you are involved in student ministry in high school or a college campus, I hope that this story demonstrates the power of persistent prayer and inspires you to be a prayer warrior.
