What I Learned From Footprints on Campus

* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
​ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND VIDEOS MENTIONED IN THE POST.*

This past week I participated, for the first time, in Footprints on Campus. Footprints on Campus is a national prayer initiative that invites youth leaders, para-ministry organizations, churches, adults, anyone really, to come together to prayer-walk their local schools. The primary objective is to pray for 67,000 schools and 1,200 juvenile detention facilities across America. I participated by attempting to organize prayer walks for our local schools in my community. We have 5 schools in our district; 3 elementary schools, a middle school, and the high school.

​The whole experience was powerful. I've prayed for schools countless times over the years. But with the exception of showing up for See You At The Pole events or one-off prayers while sitting in my car in a school parking lot, going and praying on school campuses hasn't been a regular routine of mine. So to go and pray for our local schools on the campus was an exciting opportunity. And in doing so, I learned a couple things that I want to share with you. Here we go...

1. Pray for Teachers

At two of our schools we had either teachers or teacher aides show up to pray with us. I was struck by their own desire to lift their students up in prayer. But not just their students, they prayed for their co-workers, support staff, and administration. As I was listening to them pray, I heard their hearts and thought, we need to be praying for these teachers.

But not just in a clump-prayer like, "God, we lift up our teachers to you...blah, blah, blah..." No, I'm thinking, we need to pray for our teachers by name. Let's reach out to our teachers, ask them how we could pray for them specifically. What are their needs? What are they seeing happening among the students? What's happening in the school? How can we pray for them as they serve students? Pray for teachers.

2. Drive-By Prayers

As I make my way to my office, I drive pass 4 of the 5 school buildings in our district. It occurred to me that as I pass by each school, I could say a drive-by prayer. Drive-by prayers, short, 2 to 3 sentence prayers for the students, teachers, staff, and administration. And not just while driving to the office. These are prayers we can make every time we pass the school buildings. 

May I suggest you consider doing something similar. Make it a habit to practice drive-by prayers when passing by your schools. Say a short prayer. And every time to drive by, say another prayer. Then another.

3. Adopt-A-School

This is actually a real thing and not necessarily my idea. You can Adopt-A-School. EverySchool.com is a website that walks you through what it means to adopt your school. On their website they say, "Everyschool.com is sponsored by the Campus Alliance. We are dedicated to the millions of students, youth leaders and concerned adults who’s heart desire is to reach out to the high school and middle school students in their communities. We want to help you get started in praying for your school and reaching out to students."

Visit Everyschool.com to learn more, and to adopt your local schools.

4. Pray Big Prayers

Are you willing to pray big prayers? I mean, BIG prayers. I was at a retreat recently, when I was convicted of my prayer life. Not my lack of a prayer life, but the size of my prayers. No, not how long they are. How BIG they are. I was challenged to consider what it was I was praying for. I found myself leaning into prayers about life and ministry, but they were general prayers. The challenge was to pray for big things. God-sized things. 

So that is what I am going to do. Since the retreat, I have started praying bigger prayers. And that's what I am encouraging you to do. Pray BIG prayers. The bigger the better.

5. Pray With Expectation

A number of years ago I was listening to someone teach about prayer.  They made a comment, a question really, "Do you pray HOPING God will answer your prayers? Or do you pray EXPECTING God to answer your prayers?"

Now we know that God answers prayers, so it's not doubt. Instead, it's about praying and then preparing for God to do what you have prayed for. Remember those BIG prayers you're praying? Are you preparing for God to answer those big prayers?

What would it look like if we prayed BIG prayers AND expected God to answer those BIG prayers? What has He put on your heart to pray for? What are you feeling hesitant to ask God for? Why not pray the BIG prayer AND expect God to move.

I want to invite you to join with me next year for Footprints on Campus. Here's a link to the website. Footprints on Campus.

What are you praying for? What BIG prayers are on your heart? How are you seeing God move in your life, your ministry, in your community? Share those in the comments below.

​- jay

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