Football Stars Lead Christian Revival With Nearly 1K Attendees
The Sunday night event, which attracted between 800 and 1,000 people, resulted in around 60 people being baptized at the end of the night using four tubs of water set up by the organizers. The revival was led by star Ohio State University football players, including running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, and former wide receiver Kamryn Babb, according to the university’s student-run newspaper, The Lantern.
Each of these football stars stepped up to discuss their faith in Jesus during the event, including Babb — who explained that he didn’t realize how “broken” he was until he felt “the weight, the love, the grace, the mercy of God wrap [him] like a blanket.”
Babb, whose football career was cut short because of four ACL-related injuries, went on to state: “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. 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.”
The event also included the crowd joining together to sing worship songs and more than 50 attendees joining the star football players onstage to pray and decide to be baptized. Following the baptisms, volunteers who helped organize the event joined the newly baptized attendees in a nearby building to give them Bibles and help them read through Scripture.
“We were praying for years and years for an event like this, and we were praying with expectation. We serve a miracle-working God,” Egbuka, who is expected to be the team’s top receiver in the upcoming season, explained. “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.”
Tuimoloau also celebrated the event, stating: “I don’t think anything I accomplish on the field compares to what is happening right now.”
Henderson, who led the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2023 season with 926 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns, agreed with Tuimoloau’s comments, stating: “Whatever I’ve done, this right here — what God is doing — is so much more important and so much bigger.”
Posts
