As a junior in college, I found myself praying for revival in the Ivy League schools. I spent a night immersed in the presence of God, full of hope, that God’s presence would be known on Harvard’s campus. After praying I began to think about how “strange” it was for me to have a heart for Harvard when I did not attend an Ivy League school. The next morning, I decided to research the connection between revival and the Ivy League campuses. When I sat down to the computer, I searched Google for “Ivy League Revival”. The very first link that came up took me directly to the registration page for the Yale Institute of Campus Revival and Awakening. Although the website for the institute clearly explained that they were looking for campus ministers and professors with a heart for the universities, I knew God had ordered my steps and that I was to attend this gathering. I completed my registration not knowing what the person on the other end was going to think when they saw I was a college student. After applying, I told God that I expected for him to cover all of my finances to attend what I had just applied for.
A few days later, I received a phone call from an unknown number. It was Dave Warn from Collegiate Impact who was planning and hosting the institute. Dave shared how they appreciated my interest, but at that time they were not accepting college students. If they changed their mind they would let me know. After the conversation ended, I told God that I knew I was supposed to be there and I would go ahead and raise the financial support to go. I wrote a letter and began sending it out to friends, explaining what the Lord had placed on my heart.
About a month before the institute began, I received my second phone call from Dave. He let me know that they had decided to let me come if I could get my finances together in such a short period of time. Little did he know at that time that I was already working on the money! I told him the money wouldn’t be a problem.
A man from church offered to buy my plane ticket and I continued making plans to be somewhere that would reveal my heart’s desires. It was amazing to see how God took care of every little detail including my two professors who allowed me to miss the last full week of summer school.
On my way to Yale, I had a layover in Hartford, CT and changed to a much smaller plane for the last flight into New Haven. When I boarded the plane, a man in front of me named Gary Stratton asked if I was going to the institute and I told him I was! He explained that when we were waiting at the terminal God spoke to him and told him there were specific young people God was raising up to lead His next move and when he closed his laptop to board the plane he saw me and God said, “She is one of them.”
That week, Gary was my dad away from home! I have had the privilege of meeting part of his beautiful family and they are such a blessing! I was in awe of how God not only takes care of our finances but also provides family and relationships everywhere we go with God!
Through that week I heard so many incredible ministers. I met men of God who have had hundreds of angelic visitations in their home and took their time to pour into me that week. There are men and women of God who have radically laid their lives down to see the fullness of God’s heart known to all men and nations.
On the last night of the institute, the President of Life Action Ministries, Byron Paulus, spoke after our dinner. He shared the story of a man named Gipsy Smith who would take a piece of chalk and draw a circle around himself. Smith would ask God to fill that circle with revival. He knew if he was overflowing with God the presence of Jesus would pour out of him everywhere he went. Revival begins with you!
That was a life changing message in my life! From that night my heart has been to be so full of Jesus that I leak Him everywhere I go. I want to radically love Jesus in such a way that every person I come in contact with knows Him. Although I am blessed with an incredible family and friends, it was my passion from that night forward to know that my destiny, provision and happiness depended on God alone. I knew that, even if it was just me and Jesus, we would see transformation together in the entire world.
Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. -Psalm 2:8
Keeli Fawcett
