An NIU student and a DeKalb resident claim to have received a commission from God to pray for NIU for 40 days.

Okaka Dokotum, an NIU graduate student and Andre Ramsey, 24, of DeKalb have been praying outside the Holmes Student Center since Sept. 28.

For more than a month, Dokotum and Ramsey have been praying in public from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Commons.

This is what the apostles and disciples did when there was no church for 300 years, Dokotum said. They preached in the market places, in the roadways, by the side ways and that is what they have been doing there.

The reason for the public prayer is based off of II Chronicles 7:14, Ramsey said, which reads, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

“We have been praying that God will show up on campus,” said Dokotum, who is working toward a doctorate in English.

As a result of their prayers, both Dokotum and Ramsey have seen Christian backsliders stop to talk to them and other new students coming to Christ, Dokotum said.

However, both Dokotum and Ramsey said their desire is not only to change NIU but the entire country through prayer.

“This country was founded on the basic principles of God and now we are far away,” Ramsey said.

Christian churches also need to change, Dokotum said.

“We have been praying for the unity of the churches, that Jesus may be lifted up and not individual churches,” Dokotum said. “And we believe that God will do that.”

Some students, such as junior math major Saif Patel, stopped and joined Dokotum and Ramsey to pray.

“I think that they are doing a noble duty in the cause of the truth,” he said.

Even though the 40 days have passed, Ramsey and Dokotum continue to pray in the MLK Commons.

“Maybe these days will be extended if God asks us to do so,” Dokotum said.