A handful of Smithville Pastors joining forces Sunday to pray for the DeKalb County Schools and a new school year.
Smithville First Baptist Church Pastor Chad Ramsey said the event happened long before he got involved eight years ago. Ramsey said the community has a heart for the students and a heart for prayer.
“Not just the students, but the teachers, the admin, you know everyone from the custodians all the way up to the principals,” Ramsey said. “We just wanted to lift them up and care for them and show them that we care about them and make sure they’re surrounded by God’s blessing as they go into the new year.”
Ramsey said this prayer event is important because it helps establish a proper foundation. He said now is the right time to ensure students start on the right foot. Ramsey likened it to blessing a meal before eating.
Ramsey said the event will begin at the high school on Sunday at 2 pm. Ramsey said there will be a time of prayer led by local ministers for each school, followed by a prayer walk around the campus.
“So if you’ve got a young child at the elementary school, you can slide over to th elementary school afterwards and walk around and do a prayer walk there,” Ramsey said. “And make a little more intimate of a prayer time between you and God as you’re praying for that. So, it’s one of those best of both worlds, where we get to pray corporately, but we also get to pray individually.”
Ramsey said this prayer event is important because it helps establish a proper foundation. He said now is the right time to ensure students start on the right foot. Ramsey likened it to blessing a meal before eating.
Ramsey said although Church and state are separated in most aspects, the Church exists to be a helping hand in the community it serves.
“The Church is there to love God and love others,” Ramsey said. “So, we’re there to help the community in any way that we can. And we want to make sure that we are the light of the Gospel, the light of what God’s called us to be wherever we’re at. If we can’t do that at our home base, there’s something wrong.”
The event will begin in the high school gym before groups break off to other schools. Ramsey said a pastor will be present to lead prayer at each of the DeKalb County schools after the primary group ends.
Pastors participating are Darrel Gill of Allen’s Chapel, Graden Kirksey of Refuge Church, Chris Moore of Smithville Church of God, Jeremy Poole of Smithville First Assembly of God, and Nathan Thomason of Outreach Baptist Church.