BACHELOR Star Madison Prewett’s Mom Leads College Revivals
By Movieguide® Contributor
As young people on college campuses struggle with mental health and confusion about truth, Unite Us founder Tonya Prewett, mom of THE BACHELOR’s Madi Prewett Troutt, seeks to change that through college revivals.
“I was mentoring college students at Auburn University and leading a college girls small group…I started sitting down with these girls and hearing one story after another,” Prewitt explained about what started the first Unite Us revival on Shannon Bream’s podcast this week.
Most of the girls Prewett met with have social media pages full of positive photos that show a happy life. But behind the pictures, there’s pain.
“I was hearing things like, ‘Hey, I’m isolated in my closet all day and I don’t want to go out with people. I’m isolated, I’m full of so much anxiety, I’m pulling my hair out and just praying God doesn’t let me live another day because I can’t cope with life. It’s too hard,’” Prewett explained.
“And [one] story was so bad that it got my attention to the point where I think I stood up, and I said, ‘You know what? I refuse to sit here anymore and hear the stories of students who are battling so much with depression and suicidal thoughts. I’m going to do something about it,’ and I started leading prayer on Auburn’s campus.”
What started with just five students became 200 in just a few short weeks.
“And during those prayer gatherings, it’s like I just saw a vision of thousands gathered in Auburn’s arena worshiping together, and I shared it with every campus ministry leader, every pastor in the area, with our coaches, with our administration at Auburn, and they were all so excited on board, let’s go, let’s do it. And we started promoting it.”
“We got there on September the 12th. We had no idea how many students would show up, we didn’t sell tickets, we didn’t have registration. I just knew the vision I had seen, and we got in the arena, and I think we had over 5,000 students show up for that gathering and thought we were going to end the night with worship music from Passion Music, and it turned into just a spontaneous baptism,” Prewett said.
One student asked to get baptized, so they baptized him in a nearby lake. Thousands watched while over 200 others asked to be baptized.
“And that was just the launch,” Prewett said.
Now, Unite Us goes to colleges across the U.S., leading students to hope and Christ. Prewett’s daughter, Madison Prewett Troutt, has spoken at some of the Unite Us events.
Movieguide® previously reported that Madi displayed faith and values in the BACHELOR:
Madison Prewett, 23, declared on Monday night’s episode of THE BACHELOR that she is “saving herself for marriage” because of her Christian faith. The faith-filled statement is unusual, as most contestants on the show indulge in pre-marital sexual activities.
“Faith is more than just this passed down thing to me, it’s literally my whole life and all of who I am,” Prewett told Bachelor Peter Weber on their one on one date in Peru.
…“I want, in a marriage, someone who also has that relationship with the Lord and loves that about me and wants to raise a family in that way,” Prewett continued. “I do want to know that we’re able to be on the same page with that and push each other in that way and grow in that way together.”
Madi’s mom says there are a couple of things that have made mental health decline among college students in recent years: isolation from COVID and social media and phone use.
“So when I mentor these students, I hear a lot about comparison. I hear a lot about the things they’re addicted to and can’t get free from, and then I hear a lot about body image, things like that that they struggle with, and so I think for them it’s like they need truth spoken to them, and they’re desperate for that,” she said. “And then they also need to hear there’s hope.”
“You know, I can get out of this closet, and I can walk in a place where I’m relationally free and able to be in community again and be around people and live an effective life, and so that’s what we feel like we bring. We bring truth, we bring hope in these messages that we’re taking to these campuses, and we offer them three things: salvation, freedom, and if you’re battling and you’re dealing with suicidal thoughts or addictions, we’re here to help guide you through that,” Prewett said.
Prewett doesn’t want the connection to stop after the event. So Unite Us tries to help students get plugged into local ministries that can help them.
“We want you to connect with a ministry or local church where you can live this out, a lifelong discipleship. It’s just been beautiful. We’ve had students who have come in who were contemplating suicide or battling strong addictions, who are now serving in their local church and leading high school students,” she said.
“Testimonies have been extremely powerful, and I will say FSU was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever been a part of. I will tell you. I think they said that we had over 60% of the students were nonbelievers. We had 310 get baptized that night, and I would say probably a thousand came forward for salvation,” she told Bream.
The baptisms didn’t stop until after midnight. The next morning, the Unite Us team called those who left their contact information, which was about 800 people.
They “told them that they were loved and that they were so glad they attended the event and answered any questions that they may have,” Prewett said. “And how can we follow up and make sure that you get involved in a community in the city? And so it was just a really powerful thing and we’ve had so much interaction with students from the follow-up aspect of what we do, even counselling to a certain extent with some of our team members, so it’s been beautiful.”
Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt told Prewett last month at the University of Tennessee’s revival, “I just love seeing this because I was saved in college and came to find Jesus through women like you.”
When Unite Us went to the University of Georgia, students got baptized in the backs of pick-up trucks after the prayer service.
“I just heard the call from the Lord, and he said, ‘Be obedient,'” a junior who was baptized, said. “I listened to Him to take a step of faith and let my fraternity brothers watch that.”
Early this month, Unite Us announced their first stop for the fall will be at the University of Arkansas on Sep. 19.
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