As a freshman at Faith Baptist Bible College, Miriam Rüttgers wanted to plug into a student ministry where she could advance the gospel. She had no car, making it harder to serve in off-campus ministries, yet she found something very valuable to offer: prayer.

Miriam joined FBBC’s Global Reach Connect missions prayer group, a ministry that blesses missionaries worldwide. Every Monday from 9-10 pm, Miriam and 50-70 other students meet on-campus for Global Reach Connect. Their prayers and requests lift heavenward and touch down all over the world—spurring church growth, lifting missionaries’ burdens, and quietly shaping eternity in ways they may never see on earth.

Miriam has served as Connect Coordinator, collecting prayer letters and distributing them to seven groups that pray for specific continents. During the second half of each meeting, missionaries share their ministries either in-person or by Zoom. On the weeks when no missionary is available, Brian Trainer (chair of FBBC’s World Missions Department) teaches about missions or gives a devotional.

Although students don’t always see direct answers to prayer—and the ones they do see may not seem earth-shattering—college students’ prayer ministries are powerful. That thought is echoed by Mark Vowels, director of the Center for Global Opportunities at Bob Jones University. As BJU’s missions professor, Mark oversees their student missions prayer group, Missions Advance: “I remind students every semester that, at the end of the day, this student organization exists to do the hard work of praying for missions. It’s not glorious, and you may not hear the answers to prayer. But that discipline is enormous in shaping the way they think about ministry and service and even missions itself.” 

Missions Advance is shaping not just missions majors. Students from disciplines as varied as pre-med, kinesiology, biblical counseling, accounting, political science, and ministry leadership all actively uphold missions. An additional feature of Missions Advance is its dual focus on prayer and missional events. Its student director, Adrianna Teachout, explains that the group holds missions-related informational talks for students, their families, and the community. One event was a panel discussion about Creative Access Nations ministries. Another promoted the pro-life movement and shared ways to participate in this mission field by ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of those involved in crisis pregnancies.  

The university is challenging students to think about missions in new ways, including the burgeoning field of Business as Missions that uses business initiatives to open doors in Creative Access Nations. After Missions Advance’s longtime meeting room became part of the university’s business wing, university officials planned to reassign their meeting place to a room in the missions wing. Adrianna made a case that Missions Advance could influence students to consider Business as Missions. The university agreed, and now more business students are learning about missions and taking part in the group. 

Sticking with weekly prayer can be challenging throughout the busy school year, but Adrianna always finds the meetings refreshing and energizing. At FBBC, Miriam has loved hearing answers to prayer. Even when her group doesn’t see the impact of their prayers, when missionaries tell Miriam how Global Reach Connect is a big encouragement, it keeps their group going. Bible college mission prayer groups are not as common as they once were, but at FBBC and BJU, they are going strong. And their impact is upholding missions now and for years to come.