A powerful faith event took place at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi last Thursday. Nearly 1,500 students came together for a night of worship and spiritual renewal. At the event organized by New Life Young Adults, 62 students were baptized. Many others experienced deep encounters with God.
We are seeing lots of young people struggling these days. A 2021 CDC report showed that 1 in 5 high school students had serious thoughts about suicide. Drug overdose deaths among teens have more than doubled from 2019 to 2021.
Churches are closing at a rate of about 4,000 per year in the US. Faith in God seems to be fading in many places. But there’s hope. We’re also witnessing amazing changes in young people through revivals.
In February 2023, a revival at Asbury University in Kentucky lasted for two weeks, drawing thousands. Similar movements spread to other campuses like Lee University and Samford University. Now, this event at Texas A&M shows that God is still moving powerfully among college students.
Pastor Tarik Whitmore from New Life Young Adults led the event. He talked about a Bible story from Isaiah 6. This story is about how Isaiah met God and it changed him completely.
Whitmore told The Christian Post, “After I spoke, students shared their own stories. They talked about how God saved them, set them free, and even healed them. Now they’re helping change other people’s lives too.”
During the event, students could get baptized, ask for prayer to be healed, or pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. A lot of students took part. Whitmore said many students were deeply moved. Some were crying and shaking as they came out of the water after being baptized.
The event wasn’t just about baptisms. Students said they felt God heal them and free them from things that were holding them back. All through the night, students kept sharing stories about how God was changing their lives right then and there. These personal stories helped other students believe more strongly and want to know God better.
This wasn’t the first time something like this happened at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Last September, they had a similar event where about 1,000 students came and over 100 got baptized. Whitmore said this year’s event felt even more powerful. He saw more students being healed and freed from spiritual problems.
It’s interesting to see how these events connect. Many students who got baptized last year came back this year to help lead the event. This shows that what they experienced wasn’t just a one-time thing. It made a real change in their lives, and now they want to help others experience the same thing.
This event at Texas A&M is part of a bigger movement happening on college campuses across the country. Just a few days before, Ohio State University had its own faith event. Some football players led it, and about 60 people got baptized there too.
The pastors of New Life Church, Michael and Bonnie Fehlauer, were really excited about what happened. They wrote on Facebook, “Nearly 1500 students last night Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. 62 water baptisms Powerful testimonies. Many physically healed and delivered! Jesus is Lord. …and He is coming back.”
One thing that made this event so powerful was that students shared their own stories. When young people hear their friends talk about how God changed their lives, it means a lot. It helps them see that faith isn’t just something old or boring. It’s real and it can make a difference in their lives too.
At the end of the night, something really special happened. Whitmore said they had a time where students could say they wanted God to use them on their campus. He said they all declared, “Here I am. Send me!” This shows that these students don’t just want to feel good about God. They want to go out and make a difference.
Let’s keep praying for more young people to find Christ and dedicate their lives to Him. May these campus revivals continue to spark a fire of faith that spreads far beyond the university grounds, touching families, communities, and even nations.