Phonathon Creates Quality Time with Alumni
By Lindsey Runyan
In a world that is sprinting after success and riches, the Asbury Seminary Phonathon team decided to do the opposite: learn the discipline of slowing down through prayer. Prayer has always been the foundation of slowing down and trusting God to take care of the rest. To pray is to give God one of our most precious resources, and what this world desperately clings to, time. So, Phonathon decided to use the time given in the month of January to slow down and call alumni who needed our time.
Instead of barreling through 8,000 calls over two weeks with 24 callers, we called only 2,000 alumni over three weeks with eight callers. We wanted to treat our alumni with the utmost respect they deserve, to give them our time, and to listen to their stories. Sharing stories is a way that unites the body of Christ together. The stories that we heard from alumni shaped our lives. The prayers that you prayed for us, and the honor it was to pray with you impacted us.
Irene Kabete, one of our caller’s this year, said:
“Calling and listening to the joys and sorrows of fellow servants of the Kingdom, I cried and laughed with each [alumni] as they shared their stories with me. The atmosphere was conducive to privacy and intimacy. It was a ministering and being ministered to moment as I prayed with people on the other end [of the phone call.]”
As callers, we sign up for Phonathon because we get to hear from you, your stories, and be a witness to the journey of God in your life. We do not take this opportunity lightly and it is a time for us to be encouraged in our journey of faith.
This year we focused on ministering to our alumni, to listen to and pray with you, to praise God that you are well, to live in a state of gratitude and thanksgiving for all God has done for you, and to lament with you and pray in the posture of pain. The discipline of slowing down brought us more testimonies of alumni and the opportunity to write personal letters to the alumni that we called. In this age we are transitioning out of the personal touch of handwriting and into an age of technology and efficiency, therefore, I was a bit rusty and it took time for me to get in the rhythm of writing again.
As a Phonathon Team and as students on campus, we will continue to pray for you and the prayer requests we heard this past month. We will begin to integrate these prayers into the daily rhythm of prayer on-campus. We will pray them in morning and evening prayer which are held daily during a chapel service in Estes Chapel on the Kentucky campus, a time of intercession dedicated to our beloved alumni.
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