Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409230098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In what is becoming an annual rite of fall, students at junior and senior high schools throughout the region gathered before classes Wednesday to pray for themselves and their fellow students, their teachers, their schools and their country.
"We feel there's great power in prayer," said Jeff Eenigenburg, who met with a group of Patrick Henry High School students at 8 a.m.
Actually, Eenigenburg was part of the second group prayer of the morning at Patrick Henry; the first group had met an hour earlier.
The public demonstration of faith is part of a national program called "See You at the Pole," promoted by the National Network of Youth Ministries. Largely through promotional material in their churches and organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, students are encouraged to get to school at 7 a.m. - or at least 15 minutes before classes begin - and circle around their school flagpole to pray.
It began in 1989 when a group of Christian students in Dallas launched the new academic year with a prayer. The next year, the movement spread to neighboring states and has been growing ever since.
Religion researcher George Barna estimated more than 1 million youths participated throughout the country last year, and organizers were expecting at least that many again this week. The events now have spread to 19 other countries.
A check with church youth ministers in the Roanoke Valley indicated that they expected students in more than a dozen schools to have participated in Wednesday's "See You at the Pole" events.
B.J. Caffee, another Patrick Henry student and a fellow member of Calvary Memorial Baptist Church with Eenigenburg, said setting aside the day for public prayer "makes us stand up for what we believe. Our friends see us, and that is a way for us to share our faith with others."
Five students showed up for the 8 a.m. prayers at Patrick Henry, but students who also attended the earlier event said 22 participated in it. About a dozen students at the nearby Governor's School for Science and Technology held their own prayer service at 8 a.m. as well. Those students' home schools included Cave Spring, Patrick Henry, Lord Botetourt, William Byrd, Northside and William Fleming, said senior Kate Norris.
Patrick Henry freshmen Dana Pickett, like Norris a member of First Baptist Church on Third Street Southwest, and Sophia Miksa, a member of Glad Tidings Assembly of God, also are members of a club at Patrick Henry called Voices of Christian Youth. It is likely to gain some new members from those who attended the prayer sessions Wednesday morning.
"A lot of people here are Christians, but they just don't show it," Pickett said.
"A lot of people have lost hope," Miksa said. "We pray for them to have hope, something to live for."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***