The Invitation, September 9, 2021

As the school year begins in many parts of the world, a YWAM prayer initiative called The Invitation is focusing on universities. Please pray with us for God’s purposes for higher education. More students than ever are enrolling in universities. A newly updated study by the ICEF Monitor, the leading market intelligence resource for the education industry, shows that the number of students attending university has doubled in the past 20 years and is projected to double again in the next 20 years. The future will be shaped by these students and their ideas and practices as well as the events that occur on their campuses. Please pray for these students right now and on our prayer day, September 9.

Listen to the Letter

1. Pray for universities and students near your community, and for any institution of higher education where students you know are enrolled. Pray for those suffering from anxieties and other mental health issues. Pray for those experiencing Covid-related stress. Pray for good relationships between students and their parents.
2. Pray for former YWAMers and other believers currently studying in university. Pray for their continued spiritual formation and active engagement in Christ’s mission. Pray for believing students to study abroad as a means to become ambassadors for Christ in other nations. Pray that stories of faith and courage on campus would be retold and published to encourage a new generation of students to join Jesus’ mission.
3. Pray for international students from unreached people groups and creative-access nations, for the planting of campus fellowships for them. Pray that these students would be empowered to reach their own people throughout the world.
4. Pray for YWAM’s Campus Ministries. Pray for YWAM’s University of the Nations Student Mobilization Centre (http://stucentre.com), which aims to mobilize university students of all nations on every campus worldwide to God’s purposes for their lives. Pray for a new wave of student interns led and hosted by YWAMers and friends of YWAM (www.ywamconverge.org). YWAM interns have established therapy routines in orphanages, set up working pharmacies, developed healthy nutritional plans for hospices, taught forgiveness education to refugees, and created curricula for schools. Pray for the equipping of new YWAM missionaries to universities through training programs such as the School of University Ministries & Missions (https://uofn.edu/course/a0c1600000FFWFkAAP).

Suggestions for Group or Individual Prayer

• Take two minutes to jot down a list of former YWAMers and other people you know who are currently in university.
• Visit a local university and pray there.

Take Action

• Show hospitality to international students who are far from home by providing transport, sharing a meal, or through language practice.
• Help students to serve and learn about issues of poverty, disease, illiteracy, impure water, human trafficking, domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness, at risk youth, etc.
• Partner with student organizations to distribute Bibles and conduct Bible engagement activities.
• Set aside time to pray on campus and then post a video or blog about the prayer time. #PraytheCampus

Join The Invitation

Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.