Tired students clambered up the stairs and into the chapel Monday at 12:30. Many had woken up earlier for classes due to Week of Prayer causing the morning class time to shift back an hour. For many, classwork and other stressors pressed down on their shoulders and souls as they looked for seats with their friends. The music lightened some souls while others continued to drown out the sound with thoughts of the weights of life dancing in their heads. Then a “travel size” Filipino man named Gem Castor walked onto the platform, and, for the next week, he described the awe-inspiring love and care God provided him during the beginning of his mission work, including his story of God providing him his ticket, his tuition, and his visa to travel to the United States.
“I began my mission with God in October 2010,” Castor explained. Although he works with ASAP (Advocates for Southeast Asians and the Persecuted) Ministries, Castor simply explained: “I go where He opens doors.”
When asked how the doors were opened for him to come to Andrews University, he said, “I was invited at the Michigan Camp meeting by Pastor Ringstaff. I have come to Andrews before for Revive, but I’ve never done Week of Prayer.” He went further to describe Week of Prayer as a blessing. “[Week of Prayer] is very beneficial. It’s a need. [Students are] busy with academic focus.” He continued describing how students can “forget to spend time with God,” adding that “we need to be plugged in” to what God is trying to tell us.
For many people, Castor would describe Week of Prayer as a “turning point.” He shared several stories of students reviving or even beginning a faith with God. “The Lord became real in their lives. It was a beautiful experience to hear [their] experiences.” He also told of the remarkable prayer effort spent before or during Week of Prayer. The prayer team “stayed until 10:30 praying for students” and for “continual refreshment” before Week of Prayer.
He also expressed the importance of student missions, which was listed as an option at the bottom of each checkout. “If you are called to go, go,” Castor advises. “If God is calling you, there is nothing to consider.” He highlighted the blessings of mission work, reaching the “needs of people who need to know Jesus.”
Castor says his favorite verse is from Ephesians 3:20 KJV: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” For Week of Prayer, the verse serves both as an excellent summary of the amazing anecdotes that Gem Castor shared as well as a reminder to students here of the love of God and His desire to provide for us in ways that we cannot even imagine.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.