Two students have come together to organize a time of prayer on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Amphitheater to remember different traumatic events that have affected the student body.
Chantal Mwiza, sophomore accounting major from Kigali, Rwanda and Austin Randolph, senior mathematics and engineering major Alexandria, Va., have formed a partnership and created the event Remember Life and invite students to join them in a short ceremony to do just that.
“We believe in the power of praying in groups to God and for ourselves,” Mwiza said. “So, we put together this prayer session for ACU students and friends to come and pray for the painful life changing struggles we go through, personally, locally and internationally.”
This will be the first time this event will take place, and they have high hopes for a good turnout.
“This was a very random thing,” Mwiza said. “I had been thinking about doing something like this and I knew that Austin lead prayer in SALT, so I asked him to help me do this.”
April 7 marks the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, an event that has had a significant effect on Mwiza.
“I had the idea of prayer and grief and he had the prayer background and came up with a way to use both of our strengths,” Mwiza said.
After Mwiza recruited Randolph, they set out to make the idea a reality.
“She wanted to create an event where people could come together and remember things that have had a deep effect on their lives,” Randolph said.
This event is for all students.
“I imagine that people’s personal culture will play a part in this because some people’s culture has affected them in a deep way,” Randolph said. “For some people, it’s because of their culture that they have been affected by these things.”
Bob Strader, director of Ministry and Service, will speak about the importance of communal prayer and then Randolph will lead students in prayer.
“We will be praying together and individually for about 10 minutes, and towards the end we plan on singing some softer hymns and doing more personal prayer,” Randolph said.
