ROCHESTER — Community partners shared prayers for the needs of people during the 19th annual Community and National Day of Prayer at Evangel United Methodist Church in Rochester.
Around 100 people gathered on Thursday, May 4, 2023, to recognize people’s spiritual, physical, emotional and mental needs while praying to God for his help and direction in each area. The National Community Resource Center hosts a monthly prayer event as well as the annual National Day of Prayer gathering. The National Day of Prayer is recognized on the first Thursday in May as an encouragement for people of all faiths to pray.
Paul Logan, an NCRC and National Day of Prayer team member, said Christian believers, or “amazing family members,” need to work together with more “amazing family members.” While praying for friends in the community from people experiencing homelessness to addiction, mental health and hunger, community partners encouraged each other in their causes.
Community member Howard Duncan, who welcomed people into the church, encourages people to “pray much.”
“We believe there is prayer for those who are in authority, prayer for the nation. We believe that with prayer God changes the heart because (when a person) repents of their sin so that they might know the savior it cleanses us from all our sins,” Duncan said. He served as a pastor in Illinois for 38 years.
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While the needs presented seem hopeless, David Hunter shared how he believes in a God of hope. As the Rochester Adult and Teen Challenge center director, Hunter and the staff see God working miracles in people’s lives while also living with the reality of an increasing number of people dying due to overdoses.
“He is the healer of broken heart. He’s the one who can take away the guilt and the shame from anyone, and He’s the one that wants to show the way,” Duncan said about the importance of bringing people’s needs to God. “It is God who sent his son because He loved this world so that He might give us who believe eternal life. We believe that with God, He can change an individual and a church and a state and the city and the nation in calling them back to the belief of the most foundational issue, is there a God.”
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