NCU Prayer Room: A Reflection on Katy Noel

March 7, 2017 by Tomás Carradero

Hey Everyone!
This past week, Katy Noel opened an NCU Prayer Room right down the hall from L203. For those of you who do not know Katy, she is a student here at NCU who is a Sophomore communication major with Spanish minor. After hearing about her plans for a prayer room, I wanted to be able to tell her story and get to know exactly what she had in mind/what she intends it to be. I attended her grand opening, along with 20 other students crammed into the room last Wednesday. She explained what she wanted the room to do for our spiritual life and how it helped her this past summer. Yesterday, I sat her down at the Beanery so that she may share how God has worked through her to set this all up.

Here are the questions I asked,

What inspired you to create this room?

God very clearly put it on my heart to start this room here at NCU. I worked as a camp rep over the summer at WiNeMa First high and they had a prayer room for leaders to use throughout the week. I had never experienced a prayer room before and it was super influential in my prayer life to have an intentional place set apart for seeking God. I found myself disheartened at the end of the week knowing that I would not have a similar place to go to back home. That was when God impressed upon my heart to start a prayer room at NCU.

How did the prayer room improve your spiritual life during the week you were there at camp ?

It helped me to become more aware of my deep dependence on God by providing me with a place that was so sacredly ours. I could go there to be with Him at any given time in my joy and in my pain and it really grew my intentionality in my relationship with him. It taught me more about what it really means to have a relationship with God — seeking him out and communicating with him regularly. God desires to have an intimate relationship with us, and he impressed that upon my heart in a completely new way that week.

What are you hoping will happen in the prayer room?

I’d like it to be a sacred space and would love it to be a place where we can go and challenge our faith by taking opportunities and risks to grow that we might not take in our normal devo or prayer life. I pray that as a community we will be able to use this space to lift each other up and encourage each other, all the while glorifying our Creator.

What will people find when they walk into the room?

There are about 10-12 stations and every station is a little different. Basically each station is a way to interactively connect with God through prayer. We like thereto be a lot of different kinds of stations so that you may connect with God in different ways. It will be more clear when you take a look for yourself. There is a handout you can pick up at the door that will describe the room and gives you a list of all the different stations. How specifically to engage with God though the stations is described in more detail at each station itself.

It is our hope that you will take a moment out of your day to go check it out. It provides so much potential for our community to grow deeper in our intimacy with God. Also, many people came together to make it all possible. Huge thanks to the following: Gene DeYoung, ASNCU, Craig and Marci Noel, the Campus Ministries team, the Res Life team, and of course Security (for generously letting Katy into the room genuinely all of the time). If this wasn’t incentive enough, it has been scientifically proven that the room has the softest rug in the entire world.

A few things to remember:
• The room is open from 7am-12am every day except Saturday (after 10pm you must ask security to let you in).
• No shoes in the room.
• Bring a friend! And respect the space provided to you that’s intended to communicate with your Heavenly Father.

Until next time,

Tomás Carradero