STUDENT-LED PRAYER TO BE HOSTED AT AREA SCHOOLS, WITH OR WITHOUT FLAGPOLE

You don't even need a flagpole to pray at the annual See You at the Pole.

Students at Eagle Ridge Christian School will gather around their new flagpole -- if it gets installed in time. Otherwise, they will meet around 7:45 a.m. at the spot where the flagpole will be, said Tony Hammack, chaplain at the school.

Dozens of area students are expected to gather for prayer around their campus flagpole at 7 a.m. today. See You at the Pole is an annual prayer meeting for students that began in 1990 in Texas. Youths in all 50 states and 17 foreign countries are expected to participate. Nearly 3 million gathered last year.

Such an event has a good impact on students regardless of where they attend school, said Donna Zahner, a teacher at Notre Dame High School.

"It probably doesn't take as much courage for us as it would at the public high school when that first kid shows up," said Hammack.

But gathering with a group of born-again Christians at school also makes the event more special, he said. "It's an issue of Christian maturity. We encourage youth to not be a pew potato but to be fired up for the Lord."

For students at the area's Catholic high school, See You at the Pole shows the importance of praying as a team and showing compassion and concern for classmates.

"It makes them feel good to see answered prayer. It builds their faith when they can pray as a team," she said. Notre Dame students will meet at 7:30 a.m.

Gathering for prayer is an encouragement for Andrew Lynn, a junior at Scott City High School. "It definitely helps if you need strengthening in your faith."

And it shows that there are other people out there working toward the same goal: to win people for Jesus, he said.

While school violence and shootings have made national headlines, Lynn knows students will continue to pray for safety. "But it's not just shootings at schools but from all forms of violence and things that can bring people down," he said.

As 2000 approaches, students are aware of persecution and have seen it as a rallying point, said David Overstreet, assistant field director of National Network of Youth Ministries.

Violence on campus "has been lived out for so many students that they have a heightened awareness that something needs to be done," he said. That is why a national and international prayer event is so important, he said.

On the Southeast Missouri State University campus, students will gather at Academic Hall at 7 a.m. and again at noon for prayer.

The theme for this year's event is "We Bow Down" and is based on scripture from Ephesians 3:14-21. Students will pray for their teachers and administrators, church leaders, classmates and family.

For more information about See You at the Pole, visit the Web site: www.syatp.com

SEE YOU AT THE POLE

Area schools with prayer services:

Cape Central H.S., 7 a.m.

Scott City H.S., 7 a.m.

Jackson H.S., 7:30 a.m.

Notre Dame H.S., 7:30 a.m.