Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Borowski, Jaclyn

Softly playing Christian music and prayer are two things not generally associated with college students, but yesterday on Hornbake Mall, both were in ample supply.

Since Wednesday morning, students have gathered 24 hours a day in a nondenominational "prayer tent," equipped with six windows and stocked with lights, snacks, heaters and a rug. Students said the tent is intended to praise God and heal the university of its wounds.

Inside the tent, students sing, play guitar, share their thoughts in a "testimony journal" and pray for specific areas of the campus - marked off on a map on the wall with highlighters - while Christian-themed songs play from a stereo in the corner.

The idea for the prayer tent began last semester, said Eliot Lee, president of Manna Christian Fellowship, when about 15 ministries such as the Maryland Christian Fellowship, Chosen Generation Ministry, Korean Campus Ministry, Baptist Collegiate Ministry and others came together to start praying once a week and came up with the idea for the tent. After speaking with the Campus Reservations Office in the Stamp Student Union, Lee and others started a Facebook event, "24/7 Prayer Week at Maryland," and put the tent into action.

As described on the Facebook event's wall, the hope for the tent is designed "to draw together the Christians to ask God to move and change the hearts of the students at Maryland, as well as provide an accessible place for people to come and pray."

The tent is especially appropriate in light of recent college shootings such as those at Illinois and Virginia Tech, Lee said, adding that prayer can help with all kinds of problems students often face, including broken relationships, broken families and depression.

Sophomore American studies major Jamiel Callaway-Pinckney, who said his experience praying in the tent helped him to deal with the stresses of college life, would agree.

"Coming here and talking to people who have experienced the same things is a very good way to get help and start to be able to handle these things," he said after adding an index card to the "prayer wall" where anybody can anonymously post a prayer request.

And, according to Lee, the groups will not be aggressive in spreading their message.

"We want to be assertive, but we want it to be a non-invasive but a pervasive thing," Lee said. "If people want to talk to us, we're more than willing to talk about Jesus and the Gospel."

Continued...

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