{"id":158396,"date":"2026-02-17T14:14:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158396\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T14:14:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:14:33","slug":"alabama-based-college-focused-christian-movement-makes-stop-at-ucf-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158396\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama-based, college-focused Christian movement makes stop at UCF | Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Madison Purdy, junior health sciences major, gets baptized outside of Addition Financial Arena on Tuesday at a UniteUs event. “It was time for a firm foundation,” Purdy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cassandra Joseph <\/p>\n

UniteUS<\/a>, a college-based Christian movement,\u00a0held a “Unite UCF” event at the Addition Financial Arena on Tuesday to share the message of Christianity with college students.<\/p>\n

Tonya Prewett,\u00a0founder of UniteUS,\u00a0said in an Instagram post<\/a>\u00a0that around 5,000 students attended the event, while 1,600 students either decided\u00a0to “go all in with Jesus” or rededicated themselves to their faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“People will tell me all the time, ‘There’s no hope for Gen Z,'”\u00a0Prewett said. “We will never stop fighting for you because you’re worth fighting for.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prewett read to the crowd a list of statistics from 2023 about how Gen Z is the loneliest generation, with “the highest suicide rates since World War II.”<\/p>\n

Depression and suicide rates have increased by 40% since 2000, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research<\/a> from 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After healing from an illness that she said\u00a0almost took her life in 2020, Prewett began mentoring women in college who she said\u00a0quickly realized did not live the lives they posted about.<\/p>\n

“Behind their pictures that they’re posting on social media is a lot of pain that people didn’t see,” Prewett said. “A lot of secret sin, depression, anxiety.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UniteUS movement officially began when Prewett gathered five girls to pray for college students at Auburn University’s arena. The five turned into 100 students joining for prayer, then 200, Prewett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During this time, Prewett said that God gave her a vision that thousands of students would be in the arena. On\u00a0Sept. 12, 2023, around 6,000 students gathered at Auburn University<\/a>‘s Neville Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prewett said that one girl decided she wanted to be a Christian and asked to get baptized at the event. Unprepared, they went to a nearby pond to baptize her with thousands of students gathered around.<\/p>\n

“We ended up baptizing students until after midnight, over 200 students,” Prewett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At UCF, more than 60 students got baptized as a public declaration of their faith, Steve Braswell said, UniteUS’s baptism follow-up coordinator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was time,” Madison Purdy, junior health sciences major, said. “It was time for me to not just know his [God’s] name but know who he\u00a0truly was.”<\/p>\n

Purdy discussed how she grew up in what she called a “broken home” and has noticed that depression and anxiety are\u00a0“normalized.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a worship session from Upperroom,\u00a0a Christian music group,\u00a0and a speech about\u00a0hope and redemption from Pastor\u00a0Jonathan Pokluda, Purdy and several others got baptized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Cousins Lillian Lewis (left),\u00a0sophomore mechanical engineering major, and Emma Davidson (center), sophomore radiology major, talk\u00a0to speaker Jonathan Pokluda (right) before getting baptized at the “Unite UCF” event on Tuesday in front of the Addition Financial Arena.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Cassandra Joseph<\/p>\n

By the end of the night, two cousins, Lillian Lewis, sophomore mechanical engineering major and Emma Davidson, sophomore radiology major, said they made a spontaneous decision to get baptized.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that moment I completely broke down,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Lewis described getting emotional after hearing Prewett talk about the importance of forgiveness and feeling like she needed to first forgive herself for past mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be washed clean, and I want this to be known not just for myself, but I want to make this big huge public declaration,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThis was my time to be like \u2018I am no longer afraid of what other people think of me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Like her cousin, Davidson\u00a0described herself as a \u201cprivate worshipper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, I just felt completely moved,\u201d Davidson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

“Unite UCF”\u00a0attendees browse the merchandise area before the event starts. Many students on campus joined the local UniteUS team to promote and pray for the event weeks before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cassandra Joseph<\/p>\n

During the worship session, Davidson said she felt like she was deserving to be there when she usually feels the opposite. She described this event as \u201cthe perfect experience,\u201d\u00a0especially getting to experience this with her cousin by her side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both just looked at each other and we\u2019re like, \u2018What\u2019s holding us back,\u2019\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n

Pokluda openly shared his struggles with pornography, drugs\u00a0and partying when he was a college student. Pokluda said\u00a0getting closer to Jesus and being open about his struggles ended\u00a0his addictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I would struggle the rest of my life,\u201d Pokluda said.<\/p>\n

The message continued with Pokluda encouraging students to turn away from their addictions and turn to Jesus, who he believes wants to save them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prewett\u2019s husband, Chad Prewett, said UniteUS was named after a desire to unite all churches, denominations and people.<\/p>\n

Chad Prewett said UniteUS has worked toward their goals by visiting 25 other college campuses across the country,\u00a0with more colleges reaching out to host UniteUS events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just see the boldness in this generation and that is something that really stood out to me as we’ve gone across the country,\u201d Chad Prewett said. \u201cAnd it’s contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Zboch, sophomore accounting major, said some students at UCF had reached out to UniteUS and prayed for weeks that they would come to the campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a one-night transformation, it\u2019s a lifelong journey with God,\u201d Zboch said. \u201cGod is not done. God is still moving, we just have to say yes.\u201d <\/p>\n