Excellence: Rising Up, 'Prayerfall18' Initiative A Success
She was enrolled at a university close to her California home but couldn’t shake the
feeling she was supposed to be at ORU. She changed her plans, enrolled, and bought
a plane ticket to Tulsa.
He found every financial aid door closed. Then, just weeks before the start of the fall semester, he received the loan he needed to make his dream of studying at ORU a reality.
She believed God would make a way for her to attend ORU. Her prayer was to have enough financial aid to bring her out-of-pocket expenses down to the amount she’d paid to attend a state school. God moved and it was essentially the same.
These are just three stories to come out of PrayerFall18, an intercessory prayer initiative launched by President William M. Wilson in May.
“During the spring Board of Trustees meeting, I believe the Lord spoke to me about the fall 2018 semester and called me to pray with an escalated intensity and to ask others to pray too,” said Dr. Wilson. “Many of our students from around the world are facing increased economic challenges and are looking for miraculous provision that will allow them to fulfill their dream of studying at ORU.”
Faculty, staff, the President’s Cabinet, the Board of Trustees, alumni, and friends didn’t just agree to add these needs to their prayer lists—they also committed to cover ORU and its students in 24-hour prayer throughout the summer, signing up for a one-hour shift each week. Many signed up for multiple shifts.
“We were asking God for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, said Dr. Wilson. “The Lord simply said to me: ‘Pray them through this.’ We wanted to pray our students through the summer until they were with us this fall.”
President Wilson also organized special PrayerFall18 services on campus in June and July where faculty and staff prayed specifically by name for every person who had expressed an interest in coming to ORU, plus every returning student.
And the prayers haven’t stopped. ORU’s alumni office has invited anyone who wants to continue PrayerFall18 to join them every Friday at noon. Tulsa area pastors and alumni are leading an hour of prayer on the observation deck of the Prayer Tower.
“We are standing in the gap, offering the incense of intercession and proclaiming that this generation is going to experience supernatural spiritual life on this campus,” said Dr. Wilson. “We are on the precipice of witnessing blessings beyond our greatest imagination.”
[Note: This article is featured in our Fall 2018 issue of Excellence magazine. To read the complete issue online, go here].