Approximately 45 students showed up early Wednesday at Great Bend High School to take part in See You At The Pole, part of a global prayer initiative.
Great Bend Middle School and Central Kansas Christian Academy were among schools that held similar meetings around the school flagpoles to pray for their schools and anything else on their hearts.
One Hope Ministries in Great Bend held a rally Sunday at the GBHS auditorium, encouraging students to take the lead in SYATP events. Jeremy Guthrie, youth sponsor at the Assembly of God Church, estimated more than 200 people attended the rally. He said about 15 students showed up at 7 a.m. Wednesday for SYATP outside Great Bend Middle School. For most middle school students, it was their first SYATP event, he said.
The prayer meeting at the high school also started at 7 a.m. Even though that’s about an hour before the first bell, there were students who ran into scheduling conflicts. One of the few adults in the audience said her grandson couldn’t be there because he had band practice. Great Bend USD 428 Public Information Director Jennifer Schartz arrived at the school to take a photo of Homecoming Royalty scheduled for 7:40 a.m., but said the photo was delayed a few minutes because of other things going on.
Students were invited to partake in free juice and doughnuts provided by Guthrie’s church.
Shortly after 7 a.m., students gathered around the flagpole and listened to brothers Ian and Max McGilber singing “Mighty to Save” and other worship songs. Max played guitar and Ian accompanied him on a conga drum. Then students joined hands, forming a circle around the pole, and began to pray.
“I think they had a successful event,” Guthrie said.
See You At the Pole is now a registered trademark, but according to the website (syatp.com), it got its start in 1990 with one youth group in Burleson, Texas, and continued to grow.