Unity - Nikki's Story

Nikki Barr is a freshman education major at Bethel College. This is a reflection paper she wrote for a class assignment after last Wednesday chapel service.

This past Wednesday was an experience that I have thought I had experienced before but then discovered that what happened on our campus was far deeper than a night at summer camp. When I was a sophomore in high school I went to a Bible camp in Michiana and every night at we would have worship that lasted for thirty to forty minutes. During these times I would see people raising their hands and closing their eyes but I didn’t understand why they felt drawn to making those kinds of movements. As the week continued, started to talk about what night “the night” was going to be; the night that everyone would break into tears. Well “the night” ended up being Thursday when people literally just broke down…visually. Everyone I saw had a tear stained face and was on their knees with their hands raised or in a corner praying with friends or mentors. My peers were verbally crying out to God in repentance, thanksgiving, and regret; I too was a part of this; it was the first time I saw Jesus as more than just a man as a key character in a book and that was the night I dedicated my life to live for Jesus Christ.

Now comparing that night at summer camp with chapel on Wednesday I would say the summer camp “revival” was one that brought me and my peers from a previous life and choices, but I see Bethel’s “revival” as one that is leading us to a new standard.  What happen on Wednesday is so much more than what could have happened at a summer camp. We drew together as a community and because we live together, study together, eat together, and worship God together we have the privilege to grow together in our relationships with our Lord Jesus Christ. During a summer camp we are with our peers for a week and then it’s back to life and learning how to live in a new way on our own. We live at summer camp and we do have to say goodbye for months at a time, this gives us the opportunity to really learn what it is to confess and be open with each other. On Wednesday, people got up on stage in chapel and confessed, thanked, and prayed and we now have the opportunity and the obligation to be accountability partners for each other campus wide. Because of what happened we need to draw together in such community that this campus has never seen before; it is up to us to transform Bethel and our community and each other for this is what being a part of the body of Christ is about: striping ourselves of pride and pursuing God with reckless abandonment. Now is the time God has chosen to open people’s eyes to him we must not let this impact simply die down or fizzle out, now is the time to feed the fire and have it grow to the point of rapturing any of whom walks onto Bethel’s campus!