Hundreds gather, dozens baptized at revival event on Ohio State University campus
A revival event was held on the Ohio State University campus last weekend, where a few Buckeye football players gave testimonies and dozens of students were baptized.
The event was held Sunday outside OSU’s Curl Market and organized by numerous on-campus Christian student groups, featuring multiple members of the university’s football team leading the worship.
Approximately 60 attendees were baptized that evening, reported the OSU student newspaper, The Lantern. Speakers included receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson, defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, and former wide receiver Kamryn Babb.
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Although some reports put the number of attendees between 800 and 1,000, an OSU faculty member who was involved in the event but wished to remain anonymous told The Christian Post that he believed the number to be closer to 2,000.
The faculty member said he was “still flying high” from Sunday’s gathering, describing the event as “amazing” and that the players “shared from their heart” about their faith in God.
“It was all Jesus-based, all focused on Him,” he said. “Very vulnerable and very moving.”
After the players gave their testimonies, an “altar call” was held among those in attendance, with those wishing to be baptized raising their hands and being immersed in water-filled tubs that normally served as the ice tubs for the football team.
“It started spontaneous baptisms, and the football guys were the ones baptizing them,” recounted the faculty member to CP. “Person after person came. You could just see the Spirit moving in people. It was different, nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”
Regarding the next steps, the staff member explained that they took contact information for those baptized and passed that along to on-campus Christian student groups involved in the event.
“Before they got baptized, we explained the Gospel and made sure they knew what they were doing,” he said. “And then, afterwards, we brought them in to a back room to share a little bit more and have a presentation delivered to them about what discipleship looks like.”
“Many of the different Christian student groups were there and so, organically, people were bringing their friends. And so, as they were being baptized, they already had friends that were bringing them into their groups.”
In an interview with Fox News after the event, Babb said the turnout for the gathering was probably because “everybody is looking for some sort of hope.”
“I think the human condition wants hope. We throw around the words, hope, love — all these different words — and I think those things that we’re looking for, that we’re searching for can only be found in Jesus,” Babb said.
“It was an honor to see my Lord and my Savior move the way that he did, and it was only because of him. It was all to bring him glory. It wasn’t about a football team. It wasn’t about anything else besides Jesus Christ and this country, America.”
