The Student Mission story is always unfolding. With every new story of salvation and answered prayer, there is another story of someone committing to pray to see a move of God in the student generation. Some of these stories are hundreds of years old, with people whose names we may not know, making a huge impact on the student mission narrative we are a part of today. To highlight the story you're a part of, we're sharing some stories from years before. Check out this one below.
Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf was born in Germany in 1700. Raised in the Lutheran faith, Zinzendorf was noted for his devotion to God from a young age. At six years old he wrote love letters to Jesus and would throw them from his tower window to scatter them across the courtyard like prayers. In 1716 he began studying at the University of Wittenberg to study law in preparation for a career as a diplomat. At age nineteen, during a trip to Dusseldorf, he was looking at a painting of Christ in agony on the cross - Ecce Homo by Domenico Feti - and an inscription below that read, “This have I suffered for you; now what will you do for me?”
Deeply convicted, he reflected: "I have loved Him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for Him. From now on I will do whatever He leads me to do." God had disrupted his career path, and from that moment on he committed himself to spreading the gospel.
In 1722 he began giving asylum to exiles and people fleeing persecution from places such as Moravia and Bohemia, allowing them to build the village of Herrnhut on his Berthelsdorf estate. This became known as a place of religious freedom. The different groups living on the estate began to squabble amongst themselves; in response to this Zinzendorf called its people together to pray and study Scripture.
During one particular prayer meeting in August 1727 the Holy Spirit moved powerfully, birthing a twenty four hour prayer vigil focused on world intercession and unity. It continued unbroken for a hundred years. This passion resulted in the Moravians mobilising and sending out missionaries to share the gospel among different people groups all across the World. It is thought in that community one in every five families became a missionary one, and that in the next twenty years the Moravians sent out more missionaries than all the Protestants or Anglicans had sent out in the previous two centuries!
