Awesome Sauce!!!! - by Ron Bekkering

One of my favorite things to eat is Chicken Wings. I especially like them Hot!  Like rub your eyes and they hurt hot. I have friends who make the best hot sauces. Awesome sauces! Sauces are what can make your meal. A savory Hollandaise sauce, a delicious barbeque sauce, a succulent sweet and sour will all do the trick! Well, last Wednesday morning, the youth of the world celebrated See You at the Pole.  See You at the Pole day – it’s about one simple act—prayer. This is an opportunity for students to pray for themselves, their teachers, their grades, the world, etc.… This movement started over 25 years ago and I have been plugging kids into it since I got into ministry in 2002. Here are three reasons we have been a part of this movement.

Christian students discover that they aren’t alone. When they gather at their school’s flagpole on that morning, they meet a bunch of people from other churches; kids they otherwise might not have known were believers. One of the neatest things I heard when we were at Herbison  Woods praying was a little girl say, “I didn’t know there were that many kids here that loved Jesus.” That’s a good thing!

The community takes notice. In an environment that is anything but friendly to Christianity, students who are willing to gather together to pray for their schools is a remarkable event. What I mean here is that when kids are walking by or coming to join, there are lots of looks. Lots of questions, but it has been happening at DeWitt schools for so long that kids and administration at the schools understand and respect it. A neat thing I saw at both the High School and Herbison Woods were the huge walk up crowds. I saw kids jumping out of cars and sprinting across the parking lot to join the High School circle. I watched as kids got of their parents car at Herbison and cautiously walked into the circle to join it. That was awesome!

Prayer is effective. Ultimately this is it!!! Prayer changes hearts, opens doors, and creates movement. Any time we can encourage students to pray, we’ll be engaged. Having opportunities for students to openly share their faith and pray for each other is just another thing we believe strongly in the Student Ministries of Redeemer. Covering each other in prayer is great!

So over 60 kids showed up to eat breakfast with us before their school day started and as we got to the High School, the Jr. High School, and Herbison Woods we witnessed, by rough count, 132 students from the community of DeWitt pouring their hearts out in prayer! And let me be the first to tell you, in the world we live in, where it seems Christianity is under attack, to see these guys and girls standing for what they believe in…that’s awesome sauce!!!  God is good!