High school students in over 20 countries meet, pray at their school flagpoles
Millions of students all across the nation and from many other countries gathered together last Wednesday for the 21st celebration of See You At The Pole under this year’s theme, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
See You At The Pole is an annual tradition every September, where students from 20 countries, and throughout the U.S., congregate at their schools’ flagpoles to pray for their families, friends, schools, classmates, neighborhoods and countries; and to seek God’s guidance, healing and protection, Christianity Today reported.
Since its inception, a number of other nations have launched their own SYATP movements including Australia (which celebrated it on May 20), Korea, Japan, Turkey, the Ivory Coast and Canada (which followed the same date as the U.S.), according to their website.
SYATP was initiated by students in Ft. Worth, Texas in a suburb called Burleson in 1990. That year, on Sept. 12 over 45,000 teenagers in four states met at their school flagpoles to pray before the start of school, Seacoastonline said.
The intent was to ask God to bring a spiritual and moral awakening to schools and countries. Paul Fleischmann, president of the San Diego-based National Network of Youth Ministries, which coordinates with SYATP said, “Every year, it offers a fresh challenge for [students] to minister to their friends,” the website reported.
Every school determines how they will celebrate prayer on SYATP. Some sing, others include Scripture, but all pray.
In Jacksonville, Texas, high school student Lauren Eyre told the Jacksonville Daily Progress,Jacksonville Daily Progress “Every year I look forward to the chance to gather with fellow Christians to pray for our school and our country. I am so thankful to have the freedom to be able to join in with other believers on our school campus and simply cry out to God for revival to break out in our school.”
In fact, students took the event (which usually takes place before classes) one step further and spent the whole morning praying renaming it, Saw You At The Pole. Another high school student, Hannah Earle told the Jacksonville Daily Progress, “I just think it’s cool how what one person says or prays can make a difference in so many lives.”
In Florida, a group of students from Winnacunnet High School prayed for their teachers and schoolmates. They prayed for their school “to come together as a community,” and asked for healing and “a general sense of wellness over the school,” Seacoastonline reported.
Other prayer requests were for the WHS Student Council and Class of 2010, that they would provide good leadership for underclassmen and provision of finances for their college studies in the future, Seacoastonline said.
Peter Kimball, a leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes told Seacoastonline, “I thought it [SYATP] went really well. There was a lot of participation from the students, and kids really got involved in the prayer.”