A WORD ABOUT THE ASBURY UNIVERSITY REVIVAL

“Become the love of God by experiencing the love of God.”

With those words the Rev. Zach Meerkreebs ended his normal Wednesday worship service in Hughes Hall at Asbury University in Wilmer, Kentucky on February 8, 2023. Although Rev. Meerkreebs left the stage the students who were there inexplicably stayed and continued worshiping without end through that day and into the night and the next day and night. As of this morning the revival of spirit continues in Wilmore, Kentucky.

We had thought that if we had arrived early enough this past Friday, nine days after Rev. Meerkreebs left the stage at Hughes Hall we would surely be able to find a way to accommodate my wife’s limited mobility and be able to share in the experience but when we arrived at 2:00 P.M. the line of people — young and old — stretched from the chapel roughly two blocks to the road in front and around the corner for another several blocks. Some estimates claim that the line was a half-mile long.

What was the event? What would draw people young and old to stand in the cold, cloudy, damp afternoon for an indeterminate amount of time with no promise of a seat in a warm building? There were no venders selling coffee or hot chocolate, hotdogs or peanuts; no hats, t-shirts, programs, or photographs. So what was “the draw”?

It was simply their desire, their need to spend time in the presence of God.

We knew that we wouldn’t be able to stay in line on that Friday afternoon so we decided to return early the next morning when surely the line would be small and the opportunity to enter Hughes Hall would be great.

We arrived again at 8:00 AM. That morning February 18, 2023 at 8:00 A. M. in 24 degree weather the line of people waiting for a chance to get inside Hughes Hall was already about two blocks long and growing.

I dropped my wife off while I searched for a parking space. While I found a place in line my wife found a rocking chair on the porch of another building where she could sit bundle up in what little sun there was at 8:00 A.M. We believed that we would soon be able to find a place in Hughes Hall.

While in line I was quickly joined by Dewayne, a man about my age who had driven through the night from Chattanooga. As Dewayne and I became friends and huddled under one of many portable heaters for few minutes we met a young woman who had just flown in from Texas. And that is who was in line; college students, parents with their children, young adults, and retirees like Dewayne and I all from places far from the middle of Horse Country, Kentucky.

We soon learned that Hughes Hall had been closed since the prior afternoon because it was in desperate need of cleaning and it would not open again until 1:00 PM. But on that cold, clear day in February few people left their place and none complained about the weather or the wait. By 9:30 it became clear that we would not be able to be among those who could wait until the doors were opened and we would be allowed in. With more than seven decades each behind us, and my wife’s cancer in front of us, waiting in the cold became a barrier to staying. I got her back to the car where should could warm her feet and hands and I returned to where Dewayne was holding my place in line to let him know that we were leaving.

But on the way back to talk with Dewayne I stopped just in front of the chapel where about 30 or so people, mostly students, were worshiping and had been since before we arrived. I didn’t stop out of curiosity; I stopped because I was compelled to stop. If only for a moment I found myself in a place, a space occupied by only me and One other.

There appears to be some debate about what is really happening in Wilmore, Kentucky but for me there is none.

Union, Kentucky
19 February 2023