Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
September 2008 – Last fall more than 3 million students in all 50 states and 20 nations participated in See You at the Pole (SYATP), an annual prayer event at which students meet to pray for their schools and the new school year.
September 24 is the date for this year’s SYATP. Mark Hall, lead singer for Christian music artists Casting Crowns and spokesman for the student-initiated/student-led event, is featured on a video on the SYATP Web site.
“I’ve been a youth pastor for about 13 years,” Hall says. “And I have seen God use students and leaders in youth groups to be a part of an outreach in the schools as well as a prayer event where students all over the world agree together to lift up their schools, their leaders and their friends in prayer.”
The 2008 theme is “Connect,” based on the story of Samuel, who as a youth served at the temple and truly connected with God when God called him (1 Samuel 3).
Reviewing the impact
Laura Watson was a high school junior in 1999 when Larry Ashlock burst into a post-SYATP rally at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Ashlock shot 14 people, then fatally shot himself. Seven of his victims died in the worst violent act ever related to SYATP.
Fast forward to 2007. Laura Watson was doing lifestyle evangelism as a teacher at a Changzhi, China, middle school. Though SYATP is student-led, Laura felt moved to go alone to her campus to pray for the school. Of the 6,000 students and 300 teachers, she knew of only one Christian student and one teacher.
“Being from Wedgewood, I feel like SYATP is something I need to do every year,” Watson says. A few students and one teacher stopped to ask what she was doing, giving her opportunity to witness.
Last September in Eustace, Texas, 50 high school students met at 4:30 a.m. to do a prayer walk around their high school. Later, they met at the flag pole, and at an evening rally, at least 15 students prayed to receive Christ.
The Web site carries those stories and others reflecting the kind of fruit coming from the efforts of the committed Christian students who lead SYATP.
Resources for planning
The Web site offers a wealth of resources to help students plan, prepare and carry out SYATP at their respective schools. Clip art, posters, flyers, church bulletin inserts and suggestions on how to organize the time are there. There are even ideas for pre-rallies and post-events to review how God worked through SYATP.
The site helps students think ahead regarding all the details that might be relevant. For example, will you need a sound system? SYATP doesn’t require huge crowds, so you may not need one.
Does your principal know you’re planning the event? The legality is well established by legal precedent, but SYATP wisely advises teens to talk to the principal and teachers ahead of time. Invite them to be present and observe, but maintain the student-led integrity of the event.
Hall urges students to honor the routine school-day schedule. In other words, don’t be late to class and blame it on SYATP.
“You’re a witness with your schedule as well as with your prayers,” he says.
SYATP was birthed in Burleson, Texas, in early 1990 when a handful of Christian teens were deeply moved to pray for their schools. With no master plan, no goal but to pray and no idea what they were starting, they drove to three different schools that night, huddled around the flag poles and prayed for their friends and their schools.
Word got around about what the Burleson students had done, and their obedience planted a vision in the hearts of Texas youth leaders. In June that year, the vision was communicated to 20,000 students at a Dallas rally. Three months later, SYATP left its launch pad on September 12 when more than 45,000 students in four states met at their school flag poles to pray for friends, schools, leaders, teachers and the nation.
SYATP is a vehicle God is using to help students connect to Him, to other believers and to their friends who need Christ. 
For more information:
SYATP
P. O. Box 60134
Fort Worth, TX 76115
817-447-7526
www.syatp.com
