Prayer initiatives explained

By Sam Waller

Two prayer initiatives have begun in advance of the new school year.

Albany PTO president Malarie Sutton started 33 Days of Prayer for Albany in mid-July with each day dedicated to praying for a different group – students, faculty and staff – within the school district.

“We would love everyone to join us in prayer and continue to pray all throughout the school year,” Sutton posted on Facebook.

Sutton said in her post that she borrowed the idea from Jim Ned schools.

“I think it’s an awesome thing,” Tisha Wilkins, director of The Feed Store, said. “It’s praying for possibly every single person you can pray for in the school system – educators, kids, bus drivers, food workers, maintenance, aides. It’s something we need to do every month because our schools need prayer.”

Regional Prayer

On Tuesday, Aug. 16, “An Evening of Prayer for Our Schools” will be held at Myrtle Wilks Community Center in Cisco.

Organizer Sherry Wright said the event will include schools from Albany, Breckenridge, Cisco, Cross Plains, Eastland, Gorman, Moran, Ranger, and Rising Star, as well as home-schooled students, private schools, Cisco College, and Ranger College.

Wright planned the event in response to the Uvalde school shooting in May.

“After Uvalde, everybody wanted to do something,” Wright said. “The most powerful thing we can do is pray and then follow up with action. I believe the schools are doing what they can to keep children and teachers safe, but there’s nothing more powerful than our prayers.”

Representatives from the communities involved will hand out prayer cards at the event. Each school will have its own table. Albany’s table will be manned by Robert and Susan Montgomery and pastor Jeff Turner of First Baptist Church, who also serves as president of the Albany Ministerial Alliance.

The prayer cards have Psalm 91 printed on one side and The Armor of God (based on Ephesians 6, 10-18) on the other.

“We want parents to keep the prayer cards in their cars, students to keep them in their backpacks, and teachers to keep them in their desks,” Wright said. “Just have these prayers handy and pray over schools regularly.”

Pastors from seven churches will lead prayers at the event.

“We want this region shielded with a dome of love and faith,” Wright said. “This is more than regional. Everybody wants to do something, and this is what we’re going to do.”