Group of Bethel Moms take part in a weekly prayer group on campus.

Katharine Griffin | Freelance

It seems you can’t turn a corner at Bethel without being reminded of a seminar or club. Bright paint and markers are splayed across windows advertising symposiums and stairwells are adorned with posters marketing upcoming events. There is one program, however, that manages to fly under the radar.

Meeting quietly in BC 468 is a group of 10 to 15 mothers with overflowing hearts who come together through prayer. They call themselves ‘Moms In Prayer.’ Moms In Prayer meets twice every month for a morning group and once a month for an evening group to pray for Bethel students and staff.

Moms In Prayer was started in 1984 by Fern Nichols, a mother who was burdened with the weight of her two children entering high school. Nichols knew that they would be facing a lot of challenges in the coming stages of their lives and felt a fire in her to pray radically over it.

Not soon after having the thought, God heard the call in Nichols’ heart and her prayers were answered. Little did she know, there were other moms feeling the exact same burden as she was. Those moms got together and started praying every week and called themselves ‘Moms In Touch’.  A couple of moms meeting once a week turned into multiple groups meeting at all sorts of different locations, all for the same incredible purpose.

Moms In Touch transitioned its name to Moms In Prayer and is now an international program with groups praying for children and schools in every state in the USA and in more than 140 countries. And the cherry on top, their ministry booklet has been translated into more than 50 languages.

“I didn’t even know such a thing existed until last year,” Linda Godwin, mother of a Bethel student and chair of the mentorship program for Bethel’s business department said about Moms In Prayer. “I saw it in the Bethel newsletter and I’m like, ‘I’m doing this! Of course I want to go and pray with other moms.’”

Bethel’s Moms In Prayer group consists of all moms with kids currently at Bethel. The program allows certain moms to experience a community like this for the first time, while some have been a part of it for years.

“Some moms in the group started when their kids were in pre-school, followed it through high school and now they’re so excited to have a ministry while they’re at Bethel,” Godwin said.

A typical meeting for the group starts out with all of them as a whole, praising and praying together, followed by a time of thanksgiving and silent confession. They then split off into groups of one or two moms where each pair takes on a different department at Bethel and prays over it, along with praying individually for their own children.

“A cool thing we are able to do through the email group is take in prayer requests,” explained Godwin. “We’ve gotten them from professors, from students, even from moms who live out of state.”

Over the last year or so Moms in Prayer has grown substantially. The group partnered with Jim Bender and the Parent and Alumni Relations Department at Bethel to help spread the word about the group to incoming moms of freshmen and others who weren’t aware of it. After getting the word out, the email group has quadrupled.

“[The email group] is a really cool thing for moms who don’t live in the Twin Cities because it gives them the opportunity to be involved without having to physically be present at one of the meetings,” Godwin said. There is even a mom who travels all the way from Faribault to attend the morning prayer group.

With the way this group is catching on and taking off, Godwin said it will be hard for moms to leave their community once their students have graduated. Thankfully for them, there are groups of moms who meet once their kids have graduated.

“They call themselves career moms in prayer,” Godwin said. “There are even Grandmas in prayer groups now.”

With finals quickly approaching and among all the hustle and bustle of the end of the semester, Godwin wants Bethel students to remember there are prayer warriors on their side. They may not see them, but they’re there, nestled away, praying like crazy.