The Story of the Prayer House at Ohio State and how it came about
by Allison Riggs
This is the story of God inviting his sons and daughters to pray at Ohio State, an invitation into deepening relationship with him and one another, and an invitation to dream and bring about change by praying – together.
The part of the story I am going to tell you is a part I know of first-hand – a part I was a part of. The story goes far beyond me in both directions, before me and after me. Some of the after-me story includes you who are reading this right now – your story. The before-me story I know is deep and wide and long. Some stories of that story I was told and discovered during my time at Ohio State, 2002-2006.
One of the stories I was told was of a group of women staff members (I met one who was at the time the Dean’s Assistant in the College of Optometry) who walked weekly around the Oval on campus, praying. They had a written prayer they would pray aloud over each building around the Oval. For weeks and years they did this prayer walk around the Oval. This story and the others I know of are testaments of God’s persevering love and faithfulness, and the story of God’s Faithful – his people.
Hopefully someday soon more of those stories can be collected and recorded for our pleasure and remembrance so we can be much more in awe of God and let the reality sink deeper into our beings that yes, he is quite committed to the prayers of his children.
So this part I was a part of began for me in the 2002-03 school year...
I began to read the Bible for the first time in a long time after a recent gift of all my heart to the Lord Jesus. I started with the New Testament, reading the translated words of Matthew and was quickly mesmerized by Jesus. I was in wonder! The way he engaged with people, his relaxed schedule, his pursuit and value of persons, the nicknames he had for his friends, the stories he told, etc. – all of it was making me very happy. I affirmed again and again with every verse, “Yes I want to follow you! Yes, I want to know you! Yes, I want to be like you!” I felt like more of me was being set free on the inside or that my heart was waking up from some kind of slumber as I read about Jesus. I really wanted to be friends with him.
What got my attention more than anything during that read of Matthew’s was: Jesus prayed. I was taken with curiosity and bewilderment by Jesus’ pursuit of time and conversation with his Father, as well as the incredible promises he gave about prayer, the stories on prayer he told, and the way he talked about this privilege and authority of the children of God. Wow!
I wanted to sign up for this prayer thing, but I didn’t know how. Growing up, prayer had seemed like a boring activity to me. My experience of prayer was what one does before meals or in a time of need or panic, before bed at night or inside a church building, etc. But Jesus seemed to know something of prayer that I didn’t know and I began to wonder what prayer really is and how I could begin to pray like Jesus.
One day I came across a most wonderful verse in Luke’s gospel – Luke 11:1. After Jesus’ friends saw him “praying in a certain place”, they simply just asked him “Will you teach us to pray?” Aha! This is how I can begin to pray like Jesus – ask him!
“Jesus, will you teach me how to pray?”
In very few words of the journey and adventure of that 2002-03 school year – my freshman year, I learned to pray by praying. I began to see and know Jesus like I never have before, and I saw very specific, persistent, and Jesus-shaping prayers answered in ways that, for me, were unimaginable. Sometimes the very detailed request I prayed, happened! It was incredible to me. I remember wholeheartedly supposing with Jesus’ very good friend John that the world surely could not contain the books that would be written about all that Jesus has done. (John 21) If John only knew my story, I thought.
In Fall 2003, a friend connected me with a gal and fellow student named Katie who had also been enraptured by this God-given gift called prayer. We began to meet regularly and pray together over the next year for something swirling in our hearts and minds along the lines of prayer and unity among the family of God at The Ohio State University. A dream to see – and be a part of! – his kids coming together from across the different Christian groups on campus, alongside members of the university’s staff and faculty who worship Jesus, and gathering together as one big family at the center of campus to pray.
I referred to it in my journal as “this campus-wide prayer thing”.
We really weren’t sure what God had in mind as far as what this was going to look like or how it might happen, but we did dream of what things could be like if we prayed. We knew this increasing desire in our hearts was not of ourselves but from God, a dream of his he was sharing with us. When we prayed, the desire grew. There wasn’t much intention on our end except praying together and seeing what might unfold. We had simply experienced the power of prayer (that it really works!) and we were getting to know Jesus more and more as we spent time conversing with him. Our lives were turned upside down by this discovery of prayer. We wanted the Church at Ohio State to get caught with it, and the campus to experience the small and large effects of when God’s sons and daughters, his glorious family – the Church, come together to pray. (It gives me goose bumps just writing that!)
In Fall 2004, we met (coordinated by the holy Holy Spirit) some other new friends who shared a similar desire to see united prayer increase at Ohio State among the wonderfully different Christian groups. At this point, this small group of us felt the green light from the Holy Spirit to create an opportunity for the coming together of Christians on campus to pray. We began to host that Fall a twice a month “Campus-Wide Prayer Meeting”.
We shared this meeting with already friends and new friends across the different Christian groups at Ohio State, and word spread. We met the first and third Monday evenings of every month in Buckeye Suite B in the Ohio Union from 8-10pm. We chose just twice a month because we did not want to create an overwhelming invitation of prayer meetings for students who were already quite active in the Christian group they were a part of, as well as being in school, possibly work, and whatever free time they had. We valued people’s schedules and wanted to make a realistic opportunity for as many people to gather that desired to and were able. We also valued campus group leaders/ministers and their investment into the students they were discipling and leading. We did not want to distract students from this relationship nor their growth in Jesus within that setting, as well as what they bring to that group or community. We loved the goodness God was doing in his people in and through these Christian groups/communities on campus. We did not want to distract away from them at all. Rather, we wanted people to get to know each other across the different groups in these prayer meetings so they could discover what a rockin’ good thing the Lord Jesus is doing in his family at OSU, as well as how beautifully unique each group was within his Body present at Ohio State. It is always good to stop, look around at the Father’s family and celebrate such beauty! Oh, I just love it! Beautiful! Beautiful!
We envisioned from the very beginning (because God gave the envisioning) having these prayer meetings on the Oval – rain, snow or shine. One time as I was praying for these prayer meetings that would one day take place on the Oval, this phrase was vivid in my mind “Nothing will keep the sheep from meeting the Shepherd at the pasture.” The sheep? Us. The Shepherd? Jesus. And the pasture? The Oval. It might seem like a strange phrase to you (the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our individual mind/heart language), but as a farm girl from Central Ohio I could easily imagine this phrase. I treasured the vision of it, and carried it in my heart and mind.
We continued these prayer meetings in the Ohio Union throughout that school year, 2004-05. Alongside these prayer meetings, we invited students to also sign up for a 15-minute time slot each day that they would pray for Ohio State (a professor, classmate, pray for themselves, read through The Lantern and pray, etc.), as well as join in on a monthly fast the first Monday of every month. We imagined a day when the whole university population would have a shared family day of fasting and prayer. Why not, eh?
The reason we began praying in the Ohio Union and not meeting on the Oval initially was direction from the Holy Spirit. He told us this was a place of beginning, of gathering, of brothers and sisters meeting for the first time and learning how to pray and pray together. It was a quiet room we met in, free of distraction…and indeed, that year an army was increasing and emerging in the power of agreement in prayer. And I must note, because it is very important, that most excellently accompanying the prayer was friendship. Students and campus ministers were meeting each other for the first or second time in these prayer meetings. Some discovered they had seen each other in a class they had together (and could now get together beforehand and pray for their class!), some got pizza after a prayer meeting, or planned to meet up later that week over coffee or a sand volleyball game. Situations like these happened. Yes King David, it sure is good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity (Psalm 133) over pizza, volleyball, a heart-to-heart conversation, or praying for their professors and fellow students.
In Spring 2005, Hannah Mugambi and I were mostly giving shape to these prayer meetings, alongside some others. Hannah and I met weekly to pray for these prayer meetings, share our desire with God to see prayer increase, ask Him about certain things and listen to Him together. Early on, the Holy Spirit had cautioned us to continue to pray for the praying happening. Even though there was an increase of united prayer happening at Ohio State, we should not take it as a reason to stop our praying for it. The prayer needed prayer. It was that Spring, God began to put on our hearts and minds the idea of an actual place for prayer, available to students all the time.
So we asked our Holy Spirit Friend to lead us further. We began to look at actual houses on and around the Ohio State campus. Each house was not inviting with what was taped on the walls to what was left from a drinking party the night before. We continued to pray and ask the Holy Spirit about the house He was preparing. One time when we were praying, we had a clear sense that the location of this house for prayer was in the south campus area, west of High, around 8th, 9th, and 10th Avenue. We began to look for available houses in this area.
One day we were planning to look at a house with the address 43 W. 10th Avenue. As you may know, this is the address of the current prayer house but it does not face the street, only the alley. Because it does not face the street, when we went for our appointment we could not find the address of 43 anywhere along W. 10th Avenue. We tried calling the property manager we were meeting, but she did not answer her phone. We were stuck. Where is 43 W. 10th Avenue? For us in that moment, it did not exist.
Disappointed and frustrated, Hannah and I walked back to her home to talk with God about this whole situation. As we walked on 10th Avenue toward home we ran into three different followers of Jesus, each a part of a different Christian group/community on campus. It was bizarre! Through these random encounters with our spiritual siblings, we knew the Holy Spirit was confirming to us (and encouraging us!) that 10th Avenue is the street where he has prepared a house for the diverse members of his Church to share and pray with each other.
We arrived back at Hannah’s place encouraged and we got on our knees, praying. We knew we were on a treasure hunt arranged by God and spending time with Him in prayer together was inching us closer to that treasure he was preparing. We were eagerly awaiting the surprise to be revealed, waiting for the curtain to be pulled. It was exciting!
Well, we rescheduled with the property manager of 43 W. 10th Avenue to see that house again and she gave us the important instruction that the house actually faces the alley, not the street.
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Two or three days before we arrived at the steps of 43 W. 10th Ave, I was reading a passage in 2 Chronicles. I found myself in chapter 28, where King Ahaz is introduced and his reign is summarized. King Ahaz was continually unfaithful to God. During his reign, he closed up the doors of the house of God, cut up the articles in the house of God, and made for himself altars (to the gods of Damascus) throughout Jerusalem. Not good!
But when he died, his son Hezekiah became king. The first thing 25-year-old Hezekiah did when he became king was to open the doors of the house of God again, and repair what had been damaged during his father’s reign. He gathered the Levites in the East Square, calling them to sanctify themselves and the house of the of the LORD God of their fathers, and “carry out the rubbish from the holy place.” He said that their fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord, and now it’s time for a change. For repentance. For praise and adoration of the LORD God in this house again and among these people. He reminded these Levites who they were - called and set apart by God himself to serve him, to minister to him, to be priests – bringing the people to God, and God to the people. Wow! That is big stuff.
Then after Hezekiah gives his above speech, in 2 Chronicles 29:12 it begins “Then these Levites arose…” Oh, do you see it in your imagination? The moment happening here. The 25-year-old calling these priests to be who they are blessed and privileged to be at such a critical time…and after this young king’s speech, these sons of Levite arise – they stand. They say yes. And as the story goes on in 2 Chronicles 29, these men clear, clean out, and sanctify this special place for God and his beloved people to meet.
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At the scheduled time, Hannah and I walked through the back alley doors of 43 W. 10th Avenue. It was clean. It was crisp. The smell of new wood and paint still lingered. It was the best place we had seen in all of our campus house tours. No one had even lived there the last year. It was empty, open, new and ready to be filled. If this was to be the prayer house, we would be the first to occupy this newly restored and renovated little house on the alley.
And as soon as we crossed the threshold, we knew this was the place – the secret place for prayer, the subversive alley hub where kingdom-of-God, history-making friends and strangers can gather to dream, to pray, to receive.
The passage of 2 Chronicles 28-29 I read randomly a few days before came back to me in that threshold moment in the words of the Holy Spirit, and I was overwhelmed with emotion. God had prepared this place for us – a special house for us to meet with him, for Jesus to teach us how to pray, for us to live out our calling as priests - bringing the people to God and being sent out from the place of prayer to bring God to the people. Our Father had it renovated, cleaned and set apart for us. He did the work the Levites did back in Hezekiah’s day. A home, a hub, a secret place was prepared for us, by HIM. Selah. (And one day, he anointed it - and everyone in it! -with oil, which is an absolutely crazy story you should ask a girl named Paige Bailey about.)
So, a week or so later, Hannah and I signed the lease with the exact amount of money given by students to cover our rent deposit. One student, Sarah, called me the day before we were going to sign the lease (she had been really impacted in her walk with Jesus through our bi-monthly campus prayer meetings) and asked me how much was still needed for the deposit. It was somewhere around $300, I remember. Sarah? She paid it all, the rest of what was needed! She said our Holy Spirit Counselor was talking to her that day about giving money towards the beginnings of the prayer house, leading her to Malachi 3:10.
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
Bam! Sarah, of course, called me as a cheerful giver that day, thrilled to give and see those windows of heaven open up.
So Hannah and I met with the property manager for 43 W. 10th Avenue and signed the lease. I’m not sure what day that was, but I do remember we went next door the leasing office afterwards, and got ice cream cones at United Dairy Farmers. We sat on the curb eating ice cream, and pretty much dumbfounded by the provision of God and a thankfulness so deep in our hearts we couldn’t express it with words or emotion – silence was our best expression that day. Jesus had given us faith to believe for and receive the prayer journey he was taking us on, as well as anyone else at Ohio State who wanted to jump in on the bandwagon – the invitation was for all!
We did not have any other money to pay for any future rent at that point, but that really didn’t concern us. Seriously, we leaned in on the fact that this was God’s house – God’s idea. We were going to steward it the best we knew how as a rag-tag bunch of college students, but we never took the reins on any of this – our story was mostly praying and following the Holy Spirit. He had the reins, and we were along for the ride because we loved him.
That Summer in 2005, each week we met on the steps of what would be the prayer house and prayed (we didn’t get the keys until September). We consecrated the use of it to Jesus’ glory, to his amazing works…for Jesus to take this place and make it a home for his sons and daughters, for us to be refreshed by his limitless love and power, and walk out of the prayer house changed - for inside these walls to be a place where we bring more of heaven to earth through prayers we pray as children of the living God, through holy meetings with the Holy Spirit, and to us becoming a people who love much better. We surrendered ourselves to the journey ahead.
“Be known and loved here Father, treasured here Jesus, and worshipped here Holy Spirit in all kinds of expressions and thoughts. Surprise us here. Strengthen your beautiful family at Ohio State in love and affection for one another and celebration of one another. We freely receive from you to freely give all that you’ve given us to each other and the persons you cherish, with your grace enabling us to and leading the way. We praise you awesome God and say again and again “THANK YOU!” Lord, teach us to pray!”
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It was later that Summer in 2005 we also discovered that the rubbishy bit of High Street down from the prayer house was going to be transformed into what was projected to be a new hot spot by campus with a bookstore, restaurants, shops, a movie theatre, etc. We smiled, knowing God knew before we ever knew. We didn’t know what it all meant with this soon-to-be well-trafficked area being built down from the prayer house, but we reckoned God positioned us nearby on purpose. Positioned there by what was going to be called “South Campus Gateway”. Prayer - a gateway. God’s kingdom drawing near. Love spilling out of that back alley house onto the street called High, and a river flowing.
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We opened the doors of the house you are in that September 2005 with a colorful 24-hour prayer vigil. Individuals and groups crossed the threshold for the first time as I once did, and added their shoes to the pile by the door. I was there those entire 1,440 minutes, and God was the host. We didn’t plan on him being the host, but rather we thought we’d be the ones to invite him to the prayer meeting we planned. But that’s not how it was at all. He was there before we showed up, welcoming each of us at the door with a hug and a kiss, and a “thank you” for coming. I remember feeling like a complete guest at this prayer party, as if I had no hand in planning it at all – as if I had never even been to this house before. It was different. Each hour was new. The Love that was in the air in this house you are in that September day, while the Earth did a full turn on it’s axis, is some of the richest treasure in my memory from my days at The Ohio State University.
I hope you experience our Father’s welcome, his thank you, his touch and his invitation in this house again and again to embrace the adventure, write the story, and be in the present moment with him. He loves you very much. Enjoy!
Love, Allison