Pastor Malachi O'Brien has been running the marathon distance of 26.2 miles every day since October 7th of last year. O'Brien, who has a doctor of ministry in church revitalization, is now also running to help Asbury University's revival, which recently ended after 13 days of 24/7 worship, spread across the nation.
Fox News reports that school officials are saying that while they welcome and appreciate the rapid influx of visitors, it is causing logistical issues for the surrounding area, so the crowd will need to move off campus.
The revival began when students refused to leave a chapel service earlier this month, and the services have since grown to pack the school's chapel with tens of thousands of worshipers from all over the country.
The university designated Monday as the "concluding public worship service" of the event, stating that from Tuesday onward, services would be moved off campus. But Pastor O'Brien is praying that the revival will continue to spread beyond Wilmore, Kentucky.
"I'm praying for states by name," he recently told AFN while on one of his daily runs. "I'm praying for counties, churches by name, people that interact with me on Twitter or Instagram, and just believing that the fame of revival spreads the flame of revival."
O'Brien broke the Guinness men's world record by running marathon distance for 63 consecutive days, and he broke the women's record with 107 consecutive runs.
"I believe there's a revival generation that's coming together, and I believe the revival generation is every generation seeking God's face together," he says. "Typically, throughout history, it's always been young people. They want the real thing. They want the real presence of God."
Similar marathon revivals are reportedly happening at other Christian colleges, including Cedarville University in Ohio and Lee University in Tennessee.
