What happens when thousands of high school and college students from schools across Southern California gather in one place to hear the powerful history of the student missions movement and receive the call to go out as missionaries to a dark world? The people involved hope the answer is revival. And students at Biola are catching that vision.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, about 50 Biola students joined 3000 high school and college students at “The Call” conference at Glory Church in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Luke18 Project and The Student Call, the event was an eight-hour prayer and worship service that focused on bringing revival.

God is “raising up radical young believers to pursue Christ wholeheartedly and change hearts,” said sophomore art major Nathaniel Smith after attending the event.

Maggie Hazen, senior art major and co-leader of Biola’s Revive Ministry said the event gave a “call of desperation” to students from campuses across Southern California, including Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, USC, and UCLA, to pray, repent, and spread the gospel throughout the world. They gathered to share the vision of fulfilling the Great Commission and reach every unreached people group by the year 2020.

The legacy: packing coffins for the missions field

Jason Wilson, an assistant professor of math and computer science at Biola also attended the conference. He said that “The Call” leadership shared the history of the student missions movement of the late 1800’s, with its stories of students that would leave college for the missions field even knowing that 80% of them would die in the process. Students even took to packing their belongings in their coffins. With this reminder of those who have gone ahead, the audience at “The Call” was charged to make a commitment to be missionaries in the darkest places on earth. Wilson estimates that around 700 people came up to the stage to make a confirmation of that commitment.

Fast prepares students for conference

The challenge posed at “The Call” did not come without preparation. Students at Biola, as well as across other college campuses, participated in a 21 day Daniel Fast, which ended shortly after the conference. Following the story of Daniel refusing to eat the king’s food, students fasted from meats and sweets. According to a flyer by the Student Revival Movement, the fast contended for three things: a New Jesus Movement; a Student Volunteer Missions Movement; and a Prayer Revolution.

Participating in the fast was an empowering experience for many. Smith said he found the Daniel Fast challenging in the beginning and that it was initially hard to see how it was helping. But through the experience he learned that “God rewards sacrifice” that is made out of love.

Chase Andre, a junior communications major and a member of Revive, said that the fast expanded within the Biola community beyond just Revive and many more people participated than they anticipated. Andre found that the fast provided a unique opportunity to build community among the participants as they strived towards the same goals. Their prayer throughout the fast was focused on bringing revival to campus, and paving the way for what was to come.

“The Blitz”

A blitz is a military term for an overwhelming attack, which is exactly what Biola students hoped to accomplish in a five day period leading up to “The Call” conference. “The Blitz” consisted of continuous prayer and worship services as a partnership between Biola’s Revive Ministry and the FireHouse of Prayer, a local affiliate of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas. About 40 IHOP students came to Biola’s campus for Blitz events.

The meetings were powerful throughout the week. Smith said that he saw “people minister to each other through healing,” and free worshipers of God “unbound by cultural inhibitions.”

Hazen saw broken hearts turn to joy and knows of someone healed from pneumonia. She noted that members of IHOP had prophetic words specific to what Biola students were going through. Andre spoke of a student who was healed of back pain that required physical therapy. These empowering prayer meetings set the stage for “The Call.”

The story continues

Jason Lee, a sophomore journalism student who attended some of “The Blitz” meetings and “The Call” said he is excited about what God was doing in his life through these events. During the Tuesday night Blitz meeting he “never felt so much joy for awhile” from prayer. Later at “The Call,” he met up with some of his friends from high school. Although in high school, they had all been mixed up in the wrong things together, they were now all Christians praying and loving God together.

After “The Call,” Lee encountered online a middle-school friend who is an atheist. While his friend had always been apathetic when Lee would try to share the gospel, this time he opened up and shared the stress in his life. By the end of the conversation, his friend was joyful and said that he had prayed that Satan would have no power, and that Jesus would fill him with His blood.

Expecting revival

Lee is not alone in his excitement over how God is moving at Biola and elsewhere during this time. Wilson said he expects to “see increase in spiritual fervency” of Biola students, and a “massive conviction of sin” followed by repentance and an increase of students in the missions field.

From the prayers of the Daniel Fast to “The Call,” God has been at work powerfully in lives of Biola students, and shows signs of continuing far beyond those few weeks. Students are being healed. Hearts have been touched. People are beginning to believe that revival is possible for this generation.

“Revival is already happening right now,” Lee said.