An athlete-led worship and baptism event took over the University of Toledo campus last week.
Headed up by football standout Ben Sahakian and volleyball player Janella Green, the event took seven weeks to plan, but it all came to fruition when nearly 400 people came to the university’s Fetterman Training Center.
“They experienced a night of worship, heard a Gospel message from a local pastor, and also heard athletes like Sahakian and volleyball player Janelle Green share their testimonies,” Sports Spectrum reported.
When the event first started, only had five people had signed up to be baptized. But throughout the night, God began to move.
“Then we started worshiping, and I don’t really know what happened. It was truly God,” Sahakian told Sports Spectrum.
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By the end of the night, over 50 people were baptized.
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“I am still in complete awe from last night and what the Lord is doing. I just want to say thank you to everyone who came out, whether you helped set up, tear down, fundraise. Just was there and you worshiped with us and you praised the Lord with us. It was so beautiful, and we could not have done it without all of you guys,” Green said in a video on social media.
“It was just the most beautiful night, and the Lord is moving. The Lord is moving so fast. That is so encouraging. It’s so inspiring. And He wants your yes. He wants you. He wants you home with Him. And the heavens are rejoicing every time somebody died and came back to life last night,” she continued.
“It was just so beautiful, and I want this to be an encouragement to say yes to God, to obey Him, to follow Him because He will never, never turn you wrong, and be plugged into with community. We had so many amazing people there last night that community is going to encourage you, hold you accountable and is going to love you,” the volleyball star encouraged.
Sahakian isn’t sure what God has for the future at the University of Toledo, but whatever it is, “the Lord has already exceeded my expectations in every way,” he told Sports Spectrum.
“But the vision that we’re having as a group is this: We have an amazing platform as athletes. There’s clearly hunger here on campus. The reality is we want to do things like this led by athletes, not any individual organization. And there’s a strong desire here,” the football player emphasized.
As Sahakian and Green look ahead, their vision isn’t about building another organization, but about sharing the gospel with their fellow students.
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