Umbrellas raise and jackets zip as the threat of a storm lingers on the campus of Texas High School. At 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 24, 2025, students united in their faith at the annual nationwide event of prayer, See You at the Pole.
This gathering, run by the Light Club, serves as a call for students to come together and pray for their school headed into the new year.
“[This event and] this club is like a light for students at school, because there’s so much [darkness] in our world,” Light Club sponsor Greg Brush said. “Even in the school, there’s so much darkness. It’s not the fault of the teachers [or] administrators, it’s just the way the world works.”
One key aspect of the event lies in its ability to be student-led. The Light Club vice president, Iyanna Foreman stepped up and took the initiative to organize and run the gathering. As students arrived on campus almost an hour earlier than usual to take part in the event, Foreman ensured that everyone felt welcome, setting the scene with soft worship music from a speaker and holding one of many boxes of doughnuts.
“Most of the credit, of course, goes to God,” Brush said. “As far as getting everything together, [Iyanna] did most of the work. I mainly just went and got doughnuts.”
However, the gloomy weather from earlier that morning forecasted to continue into the proceedings of the event.
“When [the rain] started, it didn’t affect anything,” Brush said. “We ended up going under the awning only because we decided to. I think if we hadn’t even decided to go to the awning, everybody would have still stayed there.”
Despite the rain, two speakers came with a message for the students at this prayer rally. Church on the Rock’s youth pastor, Cole Yeldell arrived after speaking at Texas Middle School. Samantha Knox, a co-founder of Texarkana’s chapter of Turning Point USA, also came near the end to close the event in prayer.
“I went to different churches for a month, and I wanted to branch out and see how many people actually wanted to come and talk to us,” Foreman said. “Hearing from one pastor sometimes is not enough, but if you hear from multiple different youth pastors and regular pastors and mentors in general, then it probably would make a [bigger] impact.”
Over the course of the event, students were given many opportunities to pray for each other and ask for prayer.
“I went up to [one girl, and] she was saying how high school is stressful and [asked me] to pray for her about that,” freshman Riley Witterstaetter said. “It was just really meaningful.”
Through both rain and shine and light and darkness, students develop determination to endure whatever life throws at them.
“People put their hoods on, [and] some people had umbrellas. We were not leaving,” Foreman said. “Nothing can hold these kids back from wanting to know who the Lord is.”
