On Sunday nights, it’s fairly common to see a hundred or more students at the World Gospel Mission (WGM) student center. It’s dedicated time for worship, fellowship, testimonies from missionaries across the globe— and some of the best home cooked meals on campus.
It was here on Feb. 5, the Sunday before the Holy Spirit fell on Hughes Auditorium, that freshman Brooke O’Carroll claims her testimony began.
“God convicted my heart of a sin I had intentionally pushed into the back of my mind,” she said.
The speaker, Mat Luce, questioned the students in attendance if any past sin still held power over them. If they did, and if they felt led, he encouraged them to ask God for forgiveness so they could finally be freed of it. He listed examples of sin, and “one of them was already on my mind,” O’Carroll said. “When he said that, God’s conviction flooded over me as tears fell from my eyes.”
When she confessed the sin to a trusted friend that night, she was told Jesus died for her sins and that there was nothing to keep Jesus from forgiving her. O’Carroll described the experience as darkness being brought into the light, and referenced Luce again because sin is in the past and sinners can be made new through repentance.
“God wants us to bring our darkness into the light,” she said. “He wants to shine light in the darkness to free and heal us from it if we are willing to surrender it to Him.”
When on Feb. 8, 2023, Wednesday’s chapel continued, O’Carroll knew she had to go back to Hughes Auditorium.
“I did not sleep well because I felt anxious to go to Hughes, so at 8 a.m. I headed back,” said O’Carroll. “I stayed there six hours and just sat in the Lord’s presence.”
She didn’t want to leave. The longer she stayed, the more she felt compelled to “raise my hands and worship more and more fully,” she said.
As her experience continued, a friend prayed over doubts and for O’Carroll’s reluctant ‘yes’ to become powerful and bold.
Later in Hughes, she said the healing of God in her life continued. He helped her surrender idols like school and forgive those who had hurt her. She said she “felt the burden lift” as she truly surrendered everything to Jesus.
On the first Saturday of the revival, Director of the Christian Life project Jeannie Banter felt prompted for people in attendance to pray over family hurt and families in general.
“Stand if your family is on your heart and we will pray over you,” Banter said.
O’Carroll had stood up and received prayer on their behalf. However, she said the topic still felt heavy and she found herself kneeling on the altar. Afterward, she felt more at peace.
“When I returned to my seat there was a text that they got the last room in the Asbury Inn,” said O’Carroll.
At the outpouring with them, she called the prayer time as a family “surreal.”
“God further convicted me Sunday night and I surrendered everything,” O’Carroll said.” Every piece of my heart and asked for prayer for freedom from my past. I was freed, and empty so God could use me.”
O’Carroll joined the prayer team, to help those encounter Jesus and speak into them as others had done for her. To summarize her experience, she only had three words:
“Presence, surrender and prayer.”