Scrip­ture 66: Read­ing from Cover to Cover

MISHAWAKA—With cozy lights and com­fort­able couches, the Shiloh Prayer Chapel looked dif­fer­ent this week­end, but not just be­cause of the dé­cor. Stu­dents took turns sit­ting in the chapel while read­ing the Scrip­tures, pray­ing, and wor­ship­ping God with­out ceas­ing.  

Scrip­ture 66 is an an­nual event hosted by the Spir­i­tual Life Team and is held in Shiloh over the week­end, be­gin­ning on Fri­day and go­ing un­til Mon­day morn­ing. It is a time for stu­dents to come and re­flect on God’s word, and soak-in a spirit-filled at­mos­phere. The week pre­ced­ing the event, stu­dents have the op­tion to sign up for a time slot to read the Scrip­tures out loud be­gin­ning from Gen­e­sis and end­ing in Rev­e­la­tion. How­ever, any stu­dents want­ing to sim­ply sit and lis­ten or pray were wel­come to do so at any time through­out the week­end.  

The read­ing con­tin­ued through the night as the stu­dents came and went. Re­fresh­ments such as cof­fee, wa­ter, and snacks were pro­vided by the Spir­i­tual Life Team for any stu­dent par­tic­i­pat­ing in the event.  

Shiloh is the per­fect place for an event such as Scrip­ture 66, but it was cho­sen for a rea­son—as stu­dents are read­ing through the Bible if they come upon any verse, thought, or prayer that re­ally means some­thing to them, they have the op­tion to write it on the win­dow us­ing a col­ored white-board marker. To see stu­dents’ en­cour­ag­ing, vul­ner­a­ble and chal­leng­ing thoughts dis­played in an ar­ray of col­ors across the win­dow, re­flects the beauty of the time spent in wor­ship and close­ness to God. As the week­end pro­gresses and comes to an end, the win­dows fill up more and more cre­at­ing a stained-glass win­dow ef­fect. 

Though stu­dents may be ex­hausted from stay­ing up late read­ing the Bible, many come away spir­i­tu­ally re­freshed and are thank­ful for the time they set aside to rest in God’s pres­ence.