It’s cold. It’s dark. No one’s here yet, but from the corner of your eye, you see a group of people standing near the portables. What could they possibly be doing?
A group of students at White Station High School recently started a prayer group that comes together every Wednesday at 6:45 a.m. to pray for each other, the school and students.
“A couple of my friends had the idea to meet before school and pray,” Ella Bennett (11) said. “There’s another organization called ‘See You at the Pole’ that meets but we didn’t have that at our school, so we decided to create our own little group, and they just invited me to be part of it.”
However, the prayer isn’t exclusively for members. They have a prayer box that people can drop prayer requests in before they begin, or other people can send their prayers in as anonymous responses to the group’s stories on their Instagram (@wshsprayergroup).
“People just pick out a random piece of paper from our prayer box and then you just pray for them throughout the week,” Ella Marszalek (11) said. “But lately, since it’s been raining … we posted on the Instagram account and just said, ‘here, write your [prayer]. It’ll stay anonymous.’ We don’t say anybody’s names unless you want your name to be with your prayer.”
To the members, the main goal of the group is to foster a sense of community within the school. Although it may seem that everyone already has their own micro-community of close friends, there are those who are forgotten. This prayer group seeks to not only acknowledge them but also make them feel included by praying for them.
“I hope to just build community … I just want people to know that there are [other] people at this school [who] care for them … because a lot of people don’t have that, and they don’t have someone that they can go to or someone that … they feel safe around,” Marszalek said. “And I think just looking at myself, [this] prayer group has really helped because just knowing other people are praying for me … just makes me happy.”
For many students, the prayer group has changed the larger student body into a community through the one-on-one interactions between students that create a friendly dynamic. Many members of the club feel this is essential to student well-being.
“I feel like [the prayer group] changed the dynamic between students because … everybody would have a place of belonging … you always have a place to fit in with us,” Makinlee Holmes (11) said. “If you have a lot going on in life it’s like ‘Oh well … at 6:45 I’m going to prayer group.’ … it’s a constant thing in your life to look forward to and rely on, and it’s a place where you know that no matter what, other people are telling you that no matter what other people make you feel like, here you can feel heard and appreciated and cared about’ [and] I feel like everybody needs that.”
The way the group shares prayers through prayer requests is important to many members because it helps foster community within the group itself by making their relationships more personal. Although the prayer requests are anonymous, many of the members feel that knowing others’ struggles helps them get to know others better.
“I really like that we share prayer requests with each other,” Bennett said. “And you don’t always know who you’re praying for, but by meeting as a group to pray over one thing and then praying over the people in that group, it really [creates] a deeper relationship and connectivity with those around you.”
The positive impact of the prayer group begins with the individuals that make up the group. Many of them have been greatly affected, which is another reason they not only continue to show up but have invited others to join.
“By meeting weekly … it makes it easier to come to school sometimes — because everyone kind of dreads coming to school every once in a while — but when you know that you’ve been praying for peace in the school, then you show up at school and you just have that peace,” Bennett said.
To members of the club, everyone struggles and needs community. Even if students and staff do not know this, the prayer group recognizes it and wants to make that positive change. This determination is the driving force behind the group and their community formed through prayer.
“And I think it’s just important because even though people might not say anything, everybody needs to be prayed for,” Marszalek said.
