Darlene, Leli, and Susie, Roommates 527

Room 527 in Lamson Hall was my home for three years while attending Andrews University and that room became a sacred space—a house of prayer.

One of my best spiritual memories of that room is when it was shared with Leli, Darlene and Susie during my second year of college. We were all suite mates; there was a bathroom between our two rooms. We bunked the beds and moved them all into one room and dedicated 527 as a place for study and prayer. We knelt on the little green rug (our prayer mat) and asked God to fill that space with His presence and that when people walked through the door they would find peace.

I was the Resident Hall Advisor and would leave the room unlocked so that students on the hall could come in and sign-out the vacuum cleaner when they needed it.

One day I came into the room and found a dorm resident just sitting in the room. She said that she felt a sense of peace/Divine presence when she was in this space. She had previously been in the room for one of our impromptu prayer sessions. The four of us “roommates” had been about to pray, but one of us suggested that we see if there was anyone in the hall who wanted to join us. We had opened the door, and finding this young woman in the hall, we had invited her to join us. She accepted, and then returned to the space on her own. (Yes, I know that today, most of us would not leave our rooms unlocked. Back then we really didn’t have many things of monetary value. No computers etc. Maybe our textbooks were the most expensive things we owned.)

That year the four of us searched for peace ourselves as we dealt with the typical college angsts of boyfriends, money for college, exams, why was Jesus taking so long to come back, an upcoming spiritual life event, and friends who were not walking with Jesus.

I think I’ll write a note each year and slip it under door 527 encouraging the current residents to make that space a house of prayer.

(The four of us also planned the banquet that year. The theme was based on the four seasons with four stages. That was also a real bonding time for us.)