County planning to gather in prayer
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on April 26, 2015 1:50 AM
Organizers for the National Day of Prayer hope more than a few Wayne County residents will join them as they gather for the annual event May 7.
And they have a Bible verse chosen to support their invitation -- Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them."
This year's event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Family Y. It's free and open to the public.
"It's a great opportunity for us to gather as a city, a community, a county, and just lift up this nation and pray for God's intercession and for his mercy," task force member Linda Meyer said.
This will be the fifth National Day of Prayer in Wayne County. The first event was organized by Daniels Memorial United Methodist Church.
"They just wanted to reach out to the community," Mrs. Meyer said. "But they were interested in more of a community event. So four women got together and made it more of a community effort. And it's been growing ever since. We've had a lot of good support from different people."
The Scripture for the 2015 National Day of Prayer is: "Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day" and the theme is "Lord, Hear Our Cry."
The speaker will be Sammy Hudson, who runs The Refuge in Ayden, a Christian camp.
Music will be by Olivia de Araujo, Jordan Portella and Kaela Coles, who will perform "Build Your Kingdom Here" as the opening song. Participating youths will also sing "Faithful" as the youth song.
"Last year we added a youth song specifically for them," Mrs. Meyer said. "We added youths because we felt like they were so important and are underserved and underprayed for."
Members of the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base color guard will present the flags, and those participating will say the Pledge of Allegiance.
During the event, local people will be praying for eight areas of life -- government by Goldsboro City Councilman Michael Headen; military by Austin Krohn, leader of Officer's Christian Fellowship; media by Barry Stallings; business by John Berry with First Toe; education by Penny Zeimer; church by Danny Rollins, pastor; family by Eric Vaughn, church prayer leader; and youth by Mary Katherine Vaughn.
After the call to worship, there will be a short video by Ravi Zacharias, author of several Christian books, radio host and founder and co-chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
The program will last about an hour and a half.
"We're trying to get people from all the geographical areas of the county -- Fremont, Grantham, Mount Olive -- and all different churches so it's an ecumenical thing," Mrs. Meyer said.
"Individual prayers are great, but we are called to come together to pray. We have 200 to 300 people and the Holy Spirit's going to come and knock the roof off that building because we've certainly felt it in the past."
Mrs. Meyer said residents can do a lot more as a collective group.
"We think the need for a National Day of Prayer increases every year," she said. "The Lord calls us to pray for the nations, even the nations that are not part of his kingdom. So we're doing that, as well as praying for our people to stand strong and stand on the truth. It's a very necessary thing."