This year was Evan Reindl’s fourth attending Super Summer and his fourth time participating in the class on prayer. “A lot of special things would happen in those classes,” he said.
The member of Chatham Baptist Church and recent high school graduate said he looks forward to the class taught by Phil Nelson, pastor of Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale.
Each evening as the worship service was beginning, Reindl said the students would pray as a class for two hours straight. “Praying over the preacher for that night, I felt so close to God. It opened my eyes to what a relationship with God should be in that moment,” he said. Reindl, who feels called to serve as an international missionary, is also one of his church’s three summer interns.
He was one of 181 students, and 47 adult volunteers from 28 churches gathered on the campus of Hannibal-LaGrange University for Illinois Super Summer from June 24-29. The students, in grade seven through those entering college, were there for a training and learning experience designed to develop and strengthen their leadership skills.
Ahron Cooney, the church’s youth pastor, has been taking a group to Super Summer for the last four years. This year the church sent 16 students, with five attending Nelson’s class on prayer.
“We have a group that meets to pray every Sunday morning before the service,” Cooney said. “It used to just be senior adults. Now we have a handful of youth committed.” It was Reindl who led the way for students to join the senior adults in prayer. He is also seeking ways for them to become more involved, including starting a church-wide prayer ministry.
Cooney said, “The students who’ve gone to Super Summer come back more mature, and more serious about faith…. They come back looking for ways to serve.”
The students’ participation in the prayer group is already making an impact. “We had a leadership meeting last Sunday and our leadership prayer coordinator said the older adults felt challenged and encouraged,” said Cooney.
“The students were reigniting their passion.”
At this year’s Super Summer, five students made professions of faith, 20 indicated they wanted to be baptized by their home church, and 36 expressed feeling a call to ministry or missions.