While college athletes often make headlines for all the wrong reasons, Ohio State football players took social media by storm for leading a Christian event on their campus attended by hundreds. The players shared their testimonies with classmates and sang worship songs, leading to dozens of baptisms at the event.
Breitbart News reports:
Between 800 and 1,000 people attended a Sunday Christian revival event at Ohio State University (OSU), which several of the school’s football stars led.
Buckeyes running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, defensive end JT Tuimoloau, and former wide receiver Kamryn Babb were among the players who led the service, which ended with at least 60 attendees getting baptized, OSU’s student newspaper, the Lantern, reported.
On stage at the event Babb said, “I was just doing my thing because it was fun, and I’ll tell you this: I was on High Street, and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I had fun. But at the same time, I didn’t recognize my condition. I was spiritually dead. I could go out there, and I could smile and laugh…but on the inside, I was broken.”
In an interview with Fox News, Kamryn Babb reflected on the event.
“This event was truly to bring true peace and joy that I believe in, that I think we all believe, can only truly be found in Jesus Christ, and bring it to Columbus and to the campus…God truly did show up. He delivered, He saved, and He healed a lot of great people that were in a hurting position just like I was my whole life before I met him.”
Babb continued, “I think everybody is looking for some sort of hope. I think the human condition — we want hope. We throw around a word — hope, love, all these different words, and I think those things that we’re searching for can only be found in Jesus…It wasn’t about a football team, it wasn’t about anything else besides Jesus Christ…Everybody’s so divided and looking for answers — the answer’s in Jesus Christ.”
Egbuka shared how the event exceeded their expectations.
“We were praying for years and years for an event like this, and we were praying with expectation. We serve a miracle-working God. So we definitely had an expectation when it came out, but God did increasingly and abundantly more than what we thought. So, we’re just blessed and thankful.”
This was far from the first event of its kind. In October of 2023, over 15,000 gathered for a four day revival event in Mississippi, where 1400 surrendered to the gospel. November of 2023, hundreds of Christians filled Times Square, praying together and encouraging bystanders to give their lives to Christ. In January of this year, 50,000 young adults aged 18-25 gathered for a similar event.
A Phoenix pastor addressing the phenomenon said, “Whenever you start popcorn or start heating it, nothing happens. Then, all of a sudden, a kernel pops, then another one, then a bunch. It’s like a multiplying factor takes over…I see the first kernels of revival happening — the popping. There are measurable signs in the culture, not of a broad, complete revival, but the beginning kernels popping or…the first waves of something good happening.”
