On Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00 a.m., Houghton’s Student Government Association (SGA) will host a See You At the Pole event around the flagpole in front of the Chamberlain Center. All students, as well as faculty and staff, are invited to come out and support one another in prayer and encouragement. In order to accommodate class schedules the event will run for a brief 20-30 minutes, and drinks and breakfast refreshments will be provided.
See You At the Pole is a worldwide event with a long history. The first See You At the Pole was a grassroots gathering held in 1990 at a Texas high school, when ten students gathered around the flagpole in defiance of their school’s ban on public prayer. In following years, the movement has experienced a vast expansion from its original purpose as a religious liberty protest, and now defines itself broadly as an event “committed to global unity in Christ and prayer for your generation.” See You At the Pole events now serve as an opportunity for students and faculty on campuses across the globe to come together in prayer for their schools and nations, and draw in students from Germany, Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, and dozens of other countries.
In the North American region, See You At The Pole takes place annually at 7 a.m. on September 28. This falls in the middle of the Global Week of Student Prayer, an initiative dedicated to supporting student ministries and prayer groups. Houghton College began participating in the event several years ago, and has since seen a steady growth in attendance ever since. Last year’s See You At the Pole event attracted over one hundred Houghton students, the largest turnout the college has ever seen.
Melissa Maclean ’17, one of the event’s organizers, fell in love with See You At the Pole during her first semester at Houghton and is thrilled to help continue the tradition this year. “I think one of the most memorable moments is to see students and faculty from all different backgrounds and friend groups coming together as one body of Christ, praying with one another,” she said. “Prayer is such a unifying and transformative experience that I could not imagine a better way to start the semester.”
Houghton’s opportunities for spiritual growth are numerous, but it is rare for the whole campus to be able to come together in prayer. The Student Government Association hopes that this year’s See You At the Pole will continue a long tradition of encouragement and unification.