Prayer room in the Dixon Ministry Center serves as an important reminder to the student body

By Sam Sofio

When Cedarville students walk into the prayer room, they immediately encounter a room filled with a golden glowing light, a large map of the nations and three wooden frames on the back wall entitled “Prayer Requests,” “Prayer for the Nations” and “Prayed For.” 

Next to the wooden frames, students write their prayer requests and place their requests in either the “Prayer Requests” slots or the “Prayer for the Nations” slots. 

Constructed in the fall of 2020, Cedarville University’s prayer room is a place for weary and burdened students to pour out their hearts to a faithful God who hears, answers and gives rest to his children. Throughout each day, students who are either led by the Lord or who have regularly scheduled group times enter the room and pray for their brothers and sisters in Christ.

After a growing burden and desire for God to move on Cedarville’s campus, Jim Cato, former Associate Vice President for Christian Ministries, along with students who shared the same passion for prayer, dedicated themselves to constructing the prayer room. 

This group envisioned a room where students could be free from distractions as they enjoyed communion with God and sought for Him to move mountains both on Cedarville’s campus and around the world. 

After Cato retired in 2024, Dr. Jon Wood, Vice President of Student Life and Christian Ministries and Assistant Professor of Theological Studies, took on the construction project. He shares the same longings for a Christ-centered campus saturated in prayer. 

“The prayer room is a tangible expression on our campus that we are wholly dependent upon the Lord,” Wood said. “We are a community that desires deep fellowship with God. We are longing for God to move on our campus and in every people group around the world for his glory.”

Through word of mouth, both freshmen and older students are discovering the value of the prayer room. 

For Freshman Psychology major Kara Fuller, the prayer room has helped her in her spiritual growth and has helped her practically love others. 

“It inspired us to make a prayer wall in our own dorm,” Fuller said. “We’ve already seen this room affecting freshmen. We want the future freshmen and the older classmen to know about this room.”

Freshman MDIV student Kaiden Rose discovered that what he will remember most about his time at Cedarville is not the movies he watches but rather the time he spends in prayer and worship. 

“If we’re here a 1,000 days, and we make it in here 300 of them, I feel like it’s going to set up our whole lives for success,” Rose said. “I can’t think of a better thing to do than to pray.”

For some students the prayer room is one of the only quiet places they can go to pour out their hearts to God. 

“This is my prayer closet,” said freshman MDIV major Brandon Mormon. “It’s a place where I can set up an altar to God in my heart and worship. Just seeing all the people who come here and pour out their hearts to God increases my faith. People trust God for small things, big things, and anything going on in their lives.” 

These student prayer requests often reveal the heavy burdens and struggles they carry unbeknownst to their peers and professors. These are the burdens and struggles that the Lord longs for his people to share – just as he shares in ours. 

“It demonstrates faith and the recognition of the power of prayer,”  said senior class chaplain and MDIV major Fletcher Colgan. “Where are you going to turn when things go down in your life when you feel lonely? There’s power in prayer, and that’s where our hope is: approaching the throne of grace. God hears his people, and he hears his people praying on behalf of his people. What would it look like to have someone always in the prayer room?” 

Oftentimes, when students pour out their hearts to God either for themselves, for others or for the nations, they are glad they took the time to speak with God and leave comforted.

“When we pray, the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf with the power of the God who created the universe and rose Jesus from the dead,” said senior MDIV student Trey Storr. “The Spirit is our comforter, so we’re entrusting our situation to the power of God. The reality is that there is a person working in our prayer that is comforting us.” 

Colgan and Storr remember how God answered the prayers of those who faithfully sought his face in the Haystack prayer revival and brought salvation and revival to countless people. They desire to see God move in a similar way on Cedarville’s campus and among the nations. 

Now, Colgan and Storr pray together with a growing number of students every Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. in the prayer room. Their hope is that the whole campus will come to the prayer meeting.

While it can be hard for some students to have a desire to pray for themselves, for others and for the nations, remembering the love of Christ, as 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, compels us to want to enjoy communion with God and intercede for others. 

Colgan and Storr believe that because God showed his love for us by giving up his own life, we can also love our brothers and sisters in the same way through prayer. 

“The cross is central,” Storr said. “Because Christ died, we live for Him, and that means we live for others.”

“My hope is that it [the prayer room] will continue to provide a space and serve as a tangible reminder that our God delights to hear the prayers of his children,” Dr. Wood said. “My prayer is the outcome will be a community bound together in the love of God through praying together as we see God work amongst us.” 

Sam Sofio is a sophomore Professional Writing and Information Design major. He enjoys conversations about the love of Christ and aspires to write for a Christian organization.