Caption: Senior and Kinder Buddies meet in the breezeway to pray over the country posters and key prayer requests for these countries and the people who live there. [by Dr. Cristina Meier]
by Dr. Cristina Meier
“See You At the Pole” was a phrase that some high school students in Texas first began to use with each other when they planned their first prayer event together. They could not have known that their idea would spark an entire prayer movement across their state and all over their country to eventually take place in schools around the world.
Since the first time that these students chose to gather together at the flag poles of their schools, they chose a specific day near the beginning of the school year to come together and pray over their schools, their communities, their country and the world to know the saving grace of their lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
No matter what the weather would bring, they came to their schools in the early morning hours to pray together.
From its simple beginnings, it became an established yearly tradition. An entire website is dedicated to its planning and many world-known Christians have helped to spread the news among students around the United States in order to inspire them to step into leadership roles to make this event happen at their schools.
And now, teachers and students at international schools around the world share that same inspiration for similar traditions to happen at their schools.
Here at PACA, Dr. Cristina Meier brought the idea to the chaplain’s office during her first year of being part of the school community. Together with Mr. Lucas Ham Swisher, PACA’s chaplain, they have planned out the event for the past four years.
For the first two years, they had met at the PACA flagpole, which has been a desired location for this event. However, the location was not ideal for rainy or windy conditions. The immediate back up plan was to use the gym. There was a brief window of opportunity before school started in order to get a set of flag moved from Mr. Wesley Penteado’s office to the gym before the downpour began.
In the midst of the sound of rain coming on the gym roof, the sound of prayers began to rise towards the heavens. Students from high school had prepared specific prayers for the Church, the nations representing PACA families, our school (PACA) and the families of students at PACA.
Throughout the day there were different opportunities for student to pray. The senior students were able to pray with their kinder buddies and to show them an example of what it means to pray for their countries. Elementary teachers explained to students what the event was about and gave them the opportunity to pray over the country posters hanging in the breezeway. And several eleventh and twelfth grade students helped lead prayer times with different elementary grades as they gathered at the flag poles in the gym.
The rain did not stop the time of prayer. As Mr. Stephen Meier, the superintendent of PACA, likes to say, “God is at work.” He was certainly at work at the “See You At The Pole” event in São Paulo, Brazil.
And as encouraged on the www.syatp.com website, if you have any pictures of PACA’s prayer event, please, don’t forget to tag #syatp in your social media.
