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Over nine decades after
Columbia International
University was founded on
the prayers of a handful
of praying ladies led by
Sunday school teacher Emily
Dick, CIU students have not
forgotten the importance
of this heritage. Under
the leadership of a trio of students, weekly prayer times for
CIU continue. But the prayers are not only for CIU, but more
recently for Columbia, through prayer walks in the city.
“This group has been inspired by Emily Dick and the Praying
Ladies who believed calling on the Lord’s name was of the
utmost importance in everyday life,” said organizer and CIU
Student Senate President Drew Lindeman. “CIU exists because
of their everyday prayers.”
The new prayer initiative began with lunchtime gatherings
every Wednesday in the fall semester, using Colossians 4:2-4
as a guide:
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude
of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that
God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may
speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been
imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.
“We believe that the Lord calls us to have an intimate
relationship with Him through prayer and living it out in our
lives and spurring others on to this relationship is a necessity,”
Lindeman said.
Lindeman says the awakening to intense prayer began with
experiences last summer that included a missions trip to
Jamaica for him and a missions trip to Africa for his roommate
Scott Swier. After the on-campus prayer group was established,
Lindeman, Swier and fellow student Sarah Lovin discussed
ways of going beyond the campus to impact Columbia with the
message of Christ through prayer.
While Lindeman considers living on a Christian University
campus “an incredible experience” because it’s where
“lasting relationships are built,” he also calls the experience
“dangerous” saying it’s easy to ignore what’s going on in the
“outside world.”
CAMPUS LIFE
So Lindeman and his fellow students prayer walk the streets of
Columbia, and make a special effort to pray at the University of
South Carolina. It is interesting to note that three years after the
praying ladies began to ask God for guidance in establishing
a Bible school in Columbia, they leased a large house and
opened CIU under its first name, the Southern Bible Institute.
Its address was 1627 College Street, which today is at the
center of the University of South Carolina campus. The prayers
have come full circle.
“We believe that the Lord
calls us to have an intimate
relationship with Him through
prayer and living it out in our
lives and spurring others on to
this relationship is a necessity.”
–Drew Lindeman
CIU Student Senate President
The Influence of “The Praying Ladies” Continues
Student Leader Heads on- and off-campus prayer initiatives
By Bob Holmes
CIU students pray at the South Carolina Statehouse.
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CAMPUS LIFE
CIU Today
Winter 2016