Once a week, typically on Thursday or Friday, they stand outside about 14 organizations holding a sign that reads: “We and others are praying for you.” They’re there for only a few minutes, then they get back in their vehicles and drive to the next prayer destination.
It started last spring when Ray Cary, 81, a longtime volunteer at Atrium Medical Center and Middletown Regional Hospital, was furloughed due to the coronavirus pandemic after medical facilities reduced the number of visitors. He needed a way to fulfill what he was missing as a volunteer.
So he drove to Atrium, parked his car and prayed for the medical staff, the patients and their families. He was a one-man crusade.
He then told Zion Pastor Jen Rue about his parking lot prayer, and she fully endorsed his idea.
That was the beginning of the Prayer Parade, and it’s growing in popularity. Cary said after the Middletown Division of Police posted a picture of him and Pam Pearson, 75, standing outside the station recently, he was contacted by a Cincinnati church interested in starting a similar program.
Pearson remembered standing outside a local hospital when she met an exhausted physician who said he had “given up hope” after caring for COVID-19 patients. So she prayed for him, the staff and the patients.
Later, a few people inside the hospital waved to her.
“We’re hitting the right note,” she said. “So many answers to prayers.”
Cary and Pearson were joined by Malachi “Mal” Sloan, 85, and Karen Sloan, 84, of Springboro. Cary also has encouraged church members — those reluctant to pray in public — to pray at home or wherever.
“The holy spirit has been behind us and moving us along,” Cary said.
Whether they’re outside the police or fire station, the prayer in the same, he said. They ask for the officers’ and firefighters’ safety as they deal with their normal duties coupled with the pandemic.
“They put their lives on the line everyday for us,” he said. “We also pray for their families because they ask, ‘Is dad or mom going to come home today?’”
Police Chief David Birk has met with the group and presented them medallions from the police department.
“It’s just nice to see,” Birk said. “It shows people out there still care about law enforcement.”
Rue said she has received numerous cards and phone calls from those who are thankful for the Prayer Parade. One person told her: “You have no idea how much I needed to see them this week.”
Mal Sloan said helping others is “very healthy” and it gives him an opportunity to have a positive impact in the community.
“Despite all the ‘breaking news’ we hear continuously, there is a great deal of positive things being done in the community,” he said. “Serving others helps you as a human being. It gives you a feeling of being worthwhile.”
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