A handful of times through the school year, Dr. Jim Lo can be seen on campus with a small group of students walking and praying. His 2,000th prayer walk in 2023 saw students and faculty come together with cameras capturing sacred images of this monumental walk. However, regular prayer walks for Dr. Lo are not for publicity. He accounts for the thousands of times prayer walks have happened on the campus at 3:30 in the morning when nobody sees.

Perhaps nobody will ever know how many times Dr. Lo initiated prayers spoken over classroom seats, chapel rows, dorm rooms, or administrative offices. He believes the prayer walks are necessary. After he started working at IWU, he began inviting students to participate in a weekly prayer walk on campus. Sometimes they ventured into the community to walk and pray for God to come along and claim victory over the entire surrounding area.

As an institution set on spiritual formation, Dr. Lo understands the spiritual warfare waging to squelch spiritual growth. “Prayer walking is the force God uses to move us forward.” His experience as a missionary overseas helped him see and understand the value of prayer in victory over a geographical area. He arrived on campus 27 years ago, fresh off experiences in the mission field. He reflected on God’s protection over his life overseas. He believes God protected him through many experiences and believes prayer walking can usher in God’s protection in a specific place.

Answers to prayers encourage Dr. Lo in his ongoing effort of prayer. He recounts the times he and students have prayed over cars in the parking lots just before a break, when students travel home. The number of times he hears stories of students in serious accidents, yet walk away without a scratch, are the visible reminders of the effectiveness of prayer.

Other answers to prayer involve finances like tuition balances or trip expenses. He remembers one example clearly when the university decided to travel to devastated Sri Lanka after a tsunami ripped the coastline. Students had only three weeks to raise funds before they traveled to offer relief work. One student didn’t have any funds raised with one week to go. She doubted her place in going on the trip. Dr. Lo prayed with the student. After a few days passed, she reported to Dr. Lo, that her expenses were paid in full. She recounted, in awe, about a message she received from an aunt whom the student hadn’t heard from in some time. Her aunt reported that she felt God tell her to use her tax refund to help support the student. Dr. Lo says, “Even in the small things, can we see God at work.” These are the stories that Dr. Lo counts as visible victories. Other victories may never be witnessed by the human eye.

The president and his cabinet, for example, are likely unseen victories. Dr. Lo prays for these leaders daily. He prays for the president and his cabinet regularly because he knows the evil one is planning to attack them. He prays to combat the unseen and praying while walking brings a different perspective and a powerful position. “If we prayer walk in a certain area, we can claim that area for victory in Jesus Christ.” Sometimes victory for those in leadership means a slow and steady pathway to a deeper understanding and commitment to the work God is doing. The leaders at IWU can testify to the undergirding strength in this very work.

For those who first step foot on this campus, Dr. Lo has a prayer for them as well. He prays for students visiting campus, that even before they encounter anyone at IWU, they will feel the presence of God. So many times, he hears stories of students who come with their parents and comment about the overwhelming presence of God on campus. This presence is invited in, one step at a time, on a prayer walk.

This discipline is one Dr. Lo teaches in his “Evangelism and Discipleship” class. He likens life and ministry to an iceberg, counting the tip of the iceberg the visible components to life. The invisible girth is made up of disciplines nobody can see. Dr. Lo longs to teach students this lesson in order to help them realize ministry is really a place of service. He refers to a servant as an ‘under-rower’- active where nobody can see.

Sometimes these hidden jobs are thankless, yet people like Dr. Lo will never stop serving in unseen areas. Dr. Lo enjoys this service and understands early morning prayer walks as an opportunity and not a burden. Prayer walks have enriched Dr. Lo’s own walk with Jesus as he continues to grow deeper because of witnessing countless answers to prayer. He says, “When you see God answer prayer, it motivates you to keep praying.”

The community of IWU is forever indebted to, and eternally grateful for, a man like Dr. Jim Lo who will walk through campus, praying for victory in the unseen. His “under-rowing,” alongside many other servants, keep IWU moving forward and on mission with strength.