(AUBURN, ALABAMA) God is working through Tonya Prewett, the founder of 'Unite Us,' in more ways than one. Tonya is the author of the brand new book Roses to Revival: An Unlikely Beginning to an Extraordinary Ending.
Over the past two years, Tonya and her team have traveled to 18 campuses, raising up more than 200 student leaders from across the nation. These young men and women are passionate, bold, and ready to see their generation encounter Jesus.
“They’ll give up weekends, skip work, and pay for their own flights just to be part of what God’s doing,” Tonya said. “Their hearts are on fire.”
At one Unite event, Tonya felt God prompting her to share something deeply personal — a story she hadn’t shared publicly before. Hear the amazing conversation between K-LOVE's Monika Kelly and Tonya Prewett here:
“I started writing this book about a year ago,” she said. “As the movement began to unfold, I started journaling everything God was doing — and I was blown away at how quickly He moved.”
But Tonya’s story began much earlier, when her three daughters left home for college.
“I started to ask God, Who am I now?” she recalled. “I had always been ‘mom,’ and suddenly I felt like my purpose had shifted.”
That question — What now, God? — became the spark that set everything in motion. As Tonya began mentoring college students, she couldn’t ignore what she was seeing and hearing: an epidemic of loneliness, anxiety, and despair among Gen Z.
“I started researching what was going on,” she said. “In 2023, studies showed that this was the loneliest generation — 73% reported feeling isolated, 42% diagnosed with mental health issues, and suicide rates were higher than they’d been since World War II. I remember thinking, This generation needs hope.”
So she started small — gathering students, praying over campuses, and asking God to move. And move He did.
Those early prayer gatherings led to something far greater: a campus-wide movement now known as Unite — nights of worship, prayer, and repentance that have swept across universities nationwide.
Tonya shared one of the most unforgettable moments from that first event at Auburn University.
“We had around 5,000 students show up,” she said. “We hadn’t planned any baptisms that night, but then one student texted a pastor saying, I have to get baptized tonight.”
That one message set off a chain reaction. The crowd moved to a nearby lake, and before the night was over, more than 200 students were baptized.
The most amazing part? No one has been able to identify who that first student was.
“It’s like God used one anonymous voice to start something so much bigger,” Tonya said. “It wasn’t about one person. It was about Him.”
Tonya’s book is filled with stories like that — stories of students encountering the living God on their campuses. One that stands out happened at Baylor University.
“A student was sitting in the common area and saw this crowd of people walking somewhere,” Tonya shared. “He didn’t know where they were going, but he decided to follow. He ended up walking into our event. That night, he went from being an atheist to a believer — gave his life to Jesus and was baptized. He walked out of that arena a completely changed person.”
Another moment came at the University of Tennessee, where a student approached Tonya in tears.
“He told me he’d been praying for his sister for years,” she said. “That night, she gave her life to Jesus and was baptized — and he got to baptize her himself. He said, ‘I get to spend eternity with my sister.’”
Stories like these have become the heartbeat of the Unite movement — students finding freedom from addiction, anxiety, depression, and despair, and discovering a relationship with Jesus that changes everything.
Over the past two years, Tonya and her team have traveled to 18 campuses, raising up more than 200 student leaders from across the nation. These young men and women are passionate, bold, and ready to see their generation encounter Jesus.
“They’ll give up weekends, skip work, and pay for their own flights just to be part of what God’s doing,” Tonya said. “Their hearts are on fire.”
She compared their mission to a scene from the movie Hacksaw Ridge, where a soldier risks his life to rescue one wounded soldier after another, praying each time, ‘Lord, give me one more.’
“That’s our heart,” she said. “God, give us one more. One more student who feels hopeless. One more who thinks they can’t make it. Let us bring them to Jesus and show them that there’s purpose and life waiting for them.”
At one Unite event, Tonya felt God prompting her to share something deeply personal — a story she hadn’t shared publicly before.
“As a child, my father wasn’t present,” she said. “He was an alcoholic and abusive toward my mom. There were nights without electricity, days without food. I would go outside and pick up pecans just to have something to eat.”
Years of pain and unforgiveness had taken root in her heart, creating a quiet heaviness she carried into adulthood.
“Right before Unite Auburn,” she said, “God told me, You have to deal with this before you step into your next assignment. I had to let go of the bitterness and unforgiveness so I could walk in freedom — before I could lead others into freedom.”
When Tonya stood on stage at a Unite event, surrounded by thousands of students, she felt the Lord nudge her heart: It’s time to tell them your story.
She hesitated. It was personal. Painful. But obedience is often the doorway to healing.
She shared about growing up without a father who was present or kind — a childhood marked by lack, fear, and emotional pain. “My father was an alcoholic,” she said softly. “He was abusive toward my mom. We didn’t always have food. I’d go outside and pick pecans just to have something to eat.”
For years, she carried the weight of unforgiveness, not realizing how deeply it had affected her. “Those buried emotions,” she said, “became blockages in my heart. They even caused physical health issues I didn’t understand.”
Right before the Auburn Unite event, God made it clear: Deal with this now.
“It was like He said, ‘You can’t carry this into the next assignment. You need to get free before you lead others into freedom.’”
So she did. She surrendered it all — the anger, the resentment, the pain — and forgave her father completely.
And that act of obedience changed everything.
“One thing we do at every Unite event,” Tonya explained, “is give students an opportunity to speak things out loud — to confess what’s been holding them back.”
The atmosphere is tender, not condemning. Worship fills the room. You can feel the presence of God.
“Some students come forward weeping,” she said. “They’re confessing addictions, anxiety, unforgiveness, bitterness — all the things that have kept them bound. And as they release it, you can almost see the chains breaking in real time.”
Students begin to pray for one another. Some fall to their knees. Others lift their hands in worship, faces radiant with relief. It’s a sacred exchange: ashes for beauty, pain for peace.
“I tell them,” Tonya said, “revival isn’t just what happens around us. It’s what happens inside us when we let God have the parts of our story we’ve been trying to hide.”
Tonya’s vulnerability has become a catalyst for healing.
“When I share about forgiving my father,” she said, “students start dealing with their own forgiveness stories — toward parents, friends, even themselves.”
And it’s spreading.
At one recent event, a young woman approached Tonya in tears. “I’ve been so angry at my dad,” she said. “But tonight, I forgave him. And for the first time in my life, I feel peace.”
Moments like that remind Tonya why she said yes to this calling — why she kept journaling when she didn’t know where the story was going, why she opened her home to mentor young women, why she trusted God with her pain.
“The freedom we receive isn’t meant to stop with us,” she said. “It’s meant to multiply.”
“If I could tell every student one thing,” Tonya said, “it would be this: Don’t wait until your life is perfect to come to Jesus. Come as you are — broken, unsure, burdened — and let Him heal you from the inside out.”
That’s the message of Roses to Revival.
It’s not just a story about college students being baptized. It’s a story about what happens when ordinary people say, “God, I’m willing.”
And it all starts with one whispered prayer:
“Give me one more, Lord — one more heart to reach, one more soul to love, one more chance to bring revival.”
When Tonya Prewett looks back now, she can see that even in her most broken moments, God was already working on her redemption story. “I didn’t know it then,” she said, “but God was preparing me to help other women who felt like I did — lost, ashamed, and unworthy.”
