On Feb. 8, eighteen students lingered after their regular Wednesday morning chapel programming at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. They stayed to pray, moved by the improvised message on love that Zach Meerkrebs, a volunteer soccer coach, had delivered. 

As they worshipped in that space, the atmosphere started to shift. Their prayers flowed without stopping, the band continued playing, and the students began texting their classmates, telling them “something is happening at the chapel.” Soon, they were running to the campus classrooms, throwing open the doors to spread the news. “A revival is happening!” they declared.  

The impromptu prayer service didn’t stop. Reporting for her campus’s newspaper that same day, Asbury student Alexandra Presta wrote, “I have been in Hughes Auditorium for almost twelve hours now without an intent to leave anytime soon…voices are ringing out. People are bowing at the altar, arms stretched wide…No one expected this to happen. Not on a random Wednesday for sure.”   

Word of the movement got out via social media as the chapel overflowed the next few days with students praising God. TikToks and Instagram posts showing the gathering with the hashtag “Asbury Revival” acquired over 20 million views. Within a week, the public was coming by the thousands to experience God’s love amidst this powerful outpouring. 

Nearly 25,000 people poured into Asbury each day, some traveling from not only across the country but the world to partake in this event. Visitors were present from Hawaii, Canada, and Singapore, among others. Reportedly, a pastor and his wife from Chile sold their car so they could fly to Kentucky. With the chapel quickly reaching capacity, crowds gathered on the lawn outside, worshiping as they waited their turn to enter the building. 

By the second week, the administration had established a system for accommodating the crowds, distributing food and resources to help people find places to sleep at night. Regular rotations for the worship team were implemented, and the faculty worked to coordinate enough prayer support at the altar. 

Testimony after testimony have spoken to the transformative nature of the movement. Freshman Dorcus Lara and junior Hannah Wall both experienced spiritual encounters with Lara expressing that the Holy Spirit began to heal her past trauma and Wall testified of her freedom from anxiety. Many people have said that just entering the chapel gave them a sense of peace. 

“I just slumped down,” senior Gracie Turner told The Free Press. “It was the first time in a long time where I could finally just rest because I felt like I was at peace, and I was protected. I felt like it was God telling me, this is what you’ve been missing.” 

“I did not want to leave that place,” Lexington local Maggie Roblero Garcia wrote in a Facebook post. “Every time I told myself I needed to leave, 20 or 30 minutes would pass without even noticing…Being there in His presence, worshiping and praising the one true God along with so many others was just an overwhelming feeling.”

The event began to draw to a close on Feb. 23, with the university announcing it would hold a final service on campus before redirecting worship services to other local spaces. The impact of the revival, however, is just beginning. 

“[The revival] has given us a better focus on loving each other, even when we’re stressed and have all these other things going on,” senior Abby Fletcher told the Lexington Herald Leader. “We forget that we serve out of an abundance of God’s love for us and that we love other people because of his love for us. It has helped us really focus on God.”