National Day of Prayer in Houston County

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – With the world turned inside-out thanks to COVID-19, a day of prayer could not have come along at a better time and on Thursday, May 7, several area residents came together to pray for the nation on the steps of the Houston County Courthouse as part of the National Day of Prayer.

The program started off with Bill Jones, the Director of Missions for Neches River Baptist Association, welcoming those in attendance.

“We just felt like with everything going on, we needed to have a time where we pray for our leaders, our nation and we definitely need to pray that God will bring healing for the Coronavirus,” he said.

“My prayer,” Jones continued, “is that God would give the people who are working to try and come up with a vaccine some wisdom. The Bible says if we lack wisdom, if we ask God he will give it liberally. So, we need to pray God will give liberal wisdom to people who are trying to come up with the vaccine and we will hear somebody really soon say, ‘AHA! I’ve got it!’ That’s what I’m praying for.”

Once Jones concluded his prayer, he turned the program over to Houston County Judge Jim Lovell.

As he began, the judge thanked Jones for his remarks and for including him in his prayers.

“Sometimes I have to make some tough decisions during this time of the Coronavirus and I do appreciate your prayers,” Lovell said.

“At this time,” he added, “we need to be so very careful. Our numbers are growing in Houston County. We may be the first county in Texas but we were the last county in this region to have the Coronavirus. They can’t take that away from us, but I hope we’re not the last to get rid of it.”

Lovell said there were currently 16 cases of COVID-19 in Houston County with two inside the city limits of Crockett. Continuing, Lovell encouraged people with questions about the virus to visit the Houston County website at www.co.houston.tx.us.

He then went to the Lord in prayer and when he concluded, he turned the program over to Pastor Reggie Gregory.

“I hear a lot of people saying God is trying to tell us something, but when I ask them what, they don’t have any answers,” he began.

“I’ll tell you three things that God is trying to tell us. One is to repent for our ways. Two, is to turn to him in worship and the third is to get our families in order. So now, when people ask what God is trying to tell us, you can tell them that,” Gregory said.

“We do need to pray. This is a very unusual time in our lifetimes to face something like this. We need God’s help and God’s grace. Another thing God has shown us is that He is in control and not you,” he said as he closed out the ceremony in prayer.

According to the website, www.nationaldayofprayer.org, “The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.” 

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].   

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