As a result of Student Week of Prayer coinciding with the General Conference Ten Days of Prayer, our Student Association Religious Vice Presidents decided to use this theme and the materials provided for the basis of our Week of Prayer.

This week a personal experience of mine from long ago became very relevant in my mind. Some years ago I received a phone call from my sister with an urgent call for prayer as our nephew had gone backpacking in the Canadian Rockies. He left a message with a friend that if he had not returned by a certain day she was to call emergency rescue and his parents. His parents and the rescue people had been called and my sister was asking us to please pray that Matthew would be found and be safe and well. I couldn’t sleep that night as I continued to pray urgently that our nephew would be found safe. The helicopter and emergency rescue did find him and he was safe.

This week, and I should say all year, we as WA staff have felt an urgency for our students. We can see the great Controversy playing out right in front of our eyes. In my forty years of teaching I have seen this happening, but it seems more so now than ever. We see students struggling between the world and Jesus. We ask that you will join us in praying, with the same sense of urgency I had when my nephew needed to be found, for the Holy Spirit to reach each student’s heart for Him. “Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God …” Steps to Christ p.94.

During this week I was very excited to see a group of our young people leading out in United Prayer. They were earnestly seeking God in their lives and on campus. We also began a new tradition, “Drop Everything And Pray”. When an announcement comes across our mass notification system, all classes and activities stop and each group of students pray. The week culminated in a special church service where a number of students shared their testimonies of specific answers to prayer. One of the stories shared was by a student who canvassed last summer. She shared how she had asked God for a divine appointment. Having made her quota for the day, she spoke to a gentleman who said he couldn’t buy her books. Because she had received more than enough from the previous donation, she gave him the book. He broke down crying as he knew he needed it.

God is anxious to pour out His Holy Spirit on us at Wisconsin Academy in answer to our earnest petitions. Thank you for joining in praying for our students.

“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.” Steps to Christ p. 94

Rosalee Rassmussen, Wisconsin Academy Principal