Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 21, 1995                   TAG: 9509220044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLAGPOLE BECOMES A CHAPEL

The sound of the lawn mower periodically drowned out the voices of the students, but they kept right on praying.

"Father, we pray for our unsaved friends," said Ashley Wickstrom, a Northside High School senior and member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which promoted Wednesday's "Meet You at the Pole" event at the school.

She prayed that she and the more than 50 other students gathered around the school's flagpole would "be a good example ... and be a witness for you."

Her "love for the Lord and love for the lost" motivated her to get to school at 7:30 a.m. on a cool, overcast morning to join classmates in prayer, seeking God's blessings on their fellow students, teachers, political leaders and their own studies.

The Northside gathering was one of many in Western Virginia and around the nation Wednesday in a burgeoning movement that began at a Texas high school in 1990. Today, the "Meet You at the Pole" event is promoted by more than 70 denominations and organizations and is spreading outside North America.

Doug Clark, coordinator of the event's promotion through the National Network of Youth Ministries in San Diego, said Wednesday that estimates of participation won't be available until later this week.

Last year, his organization estimated that 2 million people participated at three-fourths of the nation's high schools.

"The demand for promotional materials was 50 percent higher this year than last," Clark said, indicating that interest in the prayer event continues to grow.

The events have become so widespread that when state and national education officials this year issued guidelines on religious expression in the public schools, both specifically addressed "Meet You at the Pole."

"Student-initiated and nondisruptive devotional activities during free time, such as `meet me at the pole' events prior to school, should be permitted," say the Virginia guidelines disseminated by the state Board of Education.

"Students may also participate in before- or after-school events with religious content, such as `see you at the flag pole' gatherings, on the same terms as they may participate in other noncurriculum activities on school premises. School officials may neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an event," wrote U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley in a letter to schools last month.

Some religious liberties advocates report that such student-initiated gatherings have occasionally met resistance or prohibition from school officials, but that has never been the case at Northside, said Fellowship of Christian Athletes President Brent Lowe.

His group has been the primary promoter of the event at the school. Its members were allowed to put up posters and make announcements about the event ahead of time, as they have for the past two years, said Lowe, a member of North Roanoke Baptist Church.

The event also drew participants from outside the athletes' organization.

Ailee Steele, another senior and a member of First Baptist Church on Third Street, said she believes the prayers "really have an impact on other students who see us out here."

Most of the comments she gets from other students are positive, she said, though sometimes someone will disagree with her decision to express her faith so publicly, Steele said.

"I love Jesus .... He's my best friend," Wickstrom said after the event. The biblically recorded command for Christians to pray for others led her to ask that "God will soften the hearts of those who don't know him, to open their hearts and minds."

This isn't the only time she and the others at Northside gather together to pray for their school. They meet around the flagpole at least once more each year, and many sometimes gather less formally to pray.

That gets to the next step, Clark said, which is encouraging "students to initiate an ongoing prayer emphasis on campus, giving them a perpetual impact and opportunity to serve their classmates."