PRAYERFULLY ROOTED, PARTICULARLY ESTABLISHED & "PANTHER PAUSE" MONTHLY PRAYER ZOOM
A View of GU – FEBRUARY 2026
“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3:14–19 MSG
In the January issue of “A View of GU,” I sought to honor and celebrate the long legacy and contributions of women to this flourishing GU ivy-linked “net that works.”
At Greenville University, a Christian liberal arts institution birthed out Almira College for Women, we carry on the legacy of preparing and readying women (and men) for meaningful and purposeful service in the world.
Nurtured by the rich soil context of Christian higher education in Greenville, IL, we seek to develop a deeper root-like sense of calling in our students and grow a wider shoot-like understanding of career possibilities, with the mission of cultivating alumni capable of bearing fruit through meaningful lifelong contributions. Our story has always sought to reflect God’s story, one of faith in a God who sees us, of hope in a Son and Savior who knows and among a Church that values us, and of love flowing out from a Spirit who inspires us to influence and impact the Kingdom.
Scripture tells a powerful story of a people whose “hearts are set on pilgrimage” (Ps. 84:5), from a place of slavery and struggle to one of purpose and promise. The exodus of God’s people, the Israelites, from languishing to flourishing required them to engage an “under-the-waterline” wilderness journey between the Red Sea crossing to the Jordan River crossing. It required them to entrust all they were and all they had in a prayerful posture of surrender and submission before the Lord.
GU offers a unique spiritual “soil” space of faith-filled education from which the distinctive vocational “fruit” of love-filled service emerges, but only as much as we sink the “roots” and “shoots” our souls, personally and relationally, in the hope of Christ through the character-shaping work of prayer-filled postures and particular partnerships amongst his followers.
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“PANTHER PAUSE” MONTHLY PRAYER ZOOM
The GU Alumni Association (GUAA) Alumni Board, in partnership with the GU office of Alumni Relations, invites our GU alumni, parents and friends, to join us on Zoom the third Thursday of each month as we pause for prayer over Panther nation. Beginning this Thursday, February 19, at 11:30 a.m. CST, members of our GUAA Alumni Board & Ambassadors will lead us through a time of staff-led devotions, student-led worship and corporate prayer (large group prayer and in breakout groups focused on specific requests).
Scripture promises that God will show up “where two or more are gathered” (Matthew 18:20). As we entrust the will and work of God on our campus—in and among our GU students, faculty and staff—we will believe Him to show up through us in flourishing ways.
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Closing this on a personal note … As I was focusedly finishing this article on a Friday morning with a noon deadline, I was reminded of our 9 a.m. weekly Advancement prayer time. I was quick to see the humor in my own temptation to dismiss the notification because “I didn’t have time” to pray.
This is us so often in our current culture context, right? We want to go straight from Egypt to the Promise Land via the shortest route possible, ignoring God’s invitation:
- to pause our plan and seek Him for His plan;
- to incline our ears to a new experience of His voice and to turn our faces to the faces of His people for new understanding;
- to root our lives, individually and corporately as His Church, in the grace and truth of Jesus,
in order that we might better reflect Him in meaningful ways to the world. In this way we best engage Paul’s directive in Ephesians 3:19, “Plunge the depths! Rise to the heights! Life full lives!”
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👟 YOUR NEXT STEPS: Join us for “Panther Pause” Prayer Zoom the third Thursday of each month, beginning Thursday, February 19. You can find the Zoom link in the email version of February's “A View of GU” or email alumni@greenville.edu for the link to the gathering.
👟 SAVE THE DATE: Homecoming & Family Weekend 2026, October 15–18 featuring the 50-year Reunion Class of 1976, 40-year Reunion Class of 1986, 25-year Reunion Class of 2001, and the 10-year Reunion Class of 2016. Senior class officers from these reunion classes, watch your inbox for invitations to initiate planning for your reunion!)
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Until we meet again … keep praying. Keep watching. And keep thanking God with us for the good work He continues to do on campus in the lives of GU students, faculty and staff and in you, our GU alumni and friends.
