Hello Readers! Below is a lengthy but worthwhile read I was asked to post on my blog. It concerns the 69th Annual National Day of Prayer, which will be occurring via virtual platforms May 7, 2020. The article contains information about how the day will be structured, and discusses ways people can become involved, either as planners or participants. Note: contact info is listed at the end of the article, in case anyone needs to "cut to the chase!"
Dig in, folks!
E-paper/Newspaper/Media Article: National Day of Prayer 2020 –
Delaware County
National Day of Prayer on May 7
A Virtual Celebration
“America: God Wants Our Attention!”
By NDP Delco Task Force
Members nationaldayofprayerdelco@gmail.com
[Feel free to use the
following article – in whole or in part, with or without attribution – for
inclusion in print and on-line e-papers and media. All that matters to us is
getting the word out.]
For the first time in
nearly 70 years, the National Day of Prayer on May 7 will bring Americans
together around computer screens and smartphones rather than flagpoles in parks
and at courthouses. Delaware County’s annual observance, held in Media’s Rose
Tree Park for the past 26 years, instead will be a Virtual Celebration moved to
people’s homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The upcoming National
Day of Prayer (NDP) in Delaware County will transition to digital platforms and
other innovative venues where people will have multiple opportunities to
partake of the festivities from the comfort of their own homes. There will be a
daytime online program consisting of Spirit-filled praise and worship
interspersed with powerful prayer. County residents will be able to join with
viewers from around the globe as pastors and community leaders seek God’s
blessing on our nation and world. This event will premiere on the local NDP
website (www.NationalDayofPrayerDelco.com) and Facebook Page (@DelawareCountyNDP). For those without
internet access, the NDP team intends to have the audio of the online event
available via telephone. Other creative ways to connect people in prayer are in
the works such as an interactive Prayer Call and Prayer Caravans where families
in their vehicles travel together to different locations to pray. Final details
will be posted on NDP’s Delco website and Facebook Page.
The Virtual Celebration
will continue on the evening of May 7 as all attention will be directed to the
National Observance live-streaming from 8-10 pm ET on the countrywide website (www.NationalDayofPrayer.org) and Facebook Live. The evening event will be broadcast on
television (GodTV, Daystar and NLC) as well as radio (Moody Broadcasting and
Bott Radio Network). Normally the celebration emanates from the US Capitol in
Washington, D.C. but this year speakers and prayer leaders will participate
remotely.
The 2020 NDP theme is
“Pray God’s Glory Across The Earth” and it is based on the Scripture from Habakkuk
2:14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” The annual event is organized by the NDP Task
Force, based in Colorado Springs, whose mission is to mobilize unified public
and personal prayer for America. NDP President Kathy Branzell offers this
prayer in advance of the virtual happening: “Lord, we pray that this unprecedented time in our
generation would be used to draw nearer to You and our families. Help us to use
this time to rightly reset and prioritize our relationship with You and our
family. Let us draw near to You in faith as our Father and our fortress.
Deliver us from this disease we pray and let Your glory fill the earth as You
respond to our prayers. Amen.”
Gabrielle Bruno of
Newtown Square who is co-directing the Delaware County celebration with her
mother Patti finds the theme this year intriguing. “When the theme was chosen in
the fall of 2019, no one knew what our world would be facing with the
coronavirus pandemic. Amazingly, this is the first year that the theme verse
happens to include "earth" as opposed to a verse singularly
addressing one nation, our nation – America,” said Bruno. She continued, “Again,
no one knew when this was chosen what we would be facing. Yet, here we are in
April of 2020 having to pray for the world, in its entirety, now more than ever
before. Only God could set that up.”
Patti
Bruno agrees with her daughter’s assessment of the two-fold uniqueness of the
approaching day. “It is virtual and it is to pray for the world, not just our
nation!” Patti shared what she describes as a string of “amazing
God-incidences” since, as she believes, “there are no coincidences with God.”
She had major surgery in December, has been quarantined at home with health
issues for months before the world outbreak, and then her daughter returned
from California to help with her recovery. And, providentially, to help plan
the unexpected cyberspace format of the prayer event. “Becoming virtual and
dealing with all of the social media is extremely challenging for me. But
praise the Lord! Thank God my daughter Gabrielle was here with me this year. In
all honesty, she did it all and she’s the reason that we are even having
anything for Delaware County this year.” According to Bruno, there was never
any thought that this year’s NDP event would be cancelled due to the pandemic.
Now that the Virtual Celebration is developing into a success story, she sees
that high-tech challenge has been transformed into high-tech blessing: “I am so excited about what God is doing through
social media and technology. We are taking Delaware County’s National Day of
Prayer, along with the National Observance, out to anyone who has a love
for the Lord and for our country. We are giving everyone an opportunity to pray
and to have their prayer heard throughout the world online!!”
Springfield resident
Evelyn Wright founded the Delaware County NDP event in 1994 with her late
husband Bob. “Evie,” as the Springfield Baptist Church member is known, finds a
bit of humor in this year’s altered observance. “We have had the National Day
of Prayer Celebration at Rose Tree Park on the first Thursday of May for 26
years. Each year our planning committee would gather and spend an hour on
Wednesday walking and praying around the whole area near the large American
Flag. We prayed for the “Day” and we prayed for the weather. We never had
to cancel the Program because we never had rain for 26 years.” Wright then
dryly adds, “This year we won’t have to be concerned about the weather!”
Local gatherings of the
NDP in every state are united by praying for seven key areas: family, church,
education, media, government, business and military. The Delco Task Force
typically adds three themes: prayer for the “Peace of Jerusalem,” for first
responders (like police, firefighters and EMTs), and for revival and spiritual
awakening in America. David Buffum of Congregation Beth Yeshua in Media
explains the extra international focus: “I have been opening the Day of Prayer
for the past 15 years by blowing the shofar to call God’s people together for
worship and prayer, and sometimes I also pray for the peace of Jerusalem as God
commands in Psalm 122. What God reveals, from Genesis to Revelation,
is that for Him Israel is the center of the earth, and Jerusalem is the heart
of Israel. As goes the peace of Jerusalem, so goes the peace of the world. So
we pray for the shalom of the City of Peace.” Patti Bruno says this year first
responders will also include medical personnel and essential workers because
these frontline stalwarts especially need God’s protection as they confront
COVID-19.
The Delco Task Force
began meeting in the fall of 2019 to plan the 2020 event. The committee
consists of nearly 40 people from 20 different churches of varied
denominations. The group planned and prayed together monthly until March when
the pandemic forced a restructure of the Day of Prayer as well as weekly
conference calls instead of physical gatherings. “I love the heart and spirit of the great team that has formed.
There is a strong sense of loving one another as Jesus asked us to do which
comes through on our phone calls,” relates Patti Bruno. “Our times are very
uplifting, strengthening and unifying. Everyone is loving the prayer time, so
we have decided to keep up our prayer calls even after the National Day of
Prayer.” Gabrielle Bruno adds
that there are about 300 churches in Delaware County and she would love for all
of them to join in and be represented. “If any church or person wants to get
more involved, they should contact us at nationaldayofprayerdelco@gmail.com.”
Members of the NDP
Delaware County Task Force are all volunteers who have participated in the
annual celebration as planners, speakers or prayer leaders. Many also
volunteered to be interviewed for this article and share their insights about
the unprecedented 2020 version of the NDP. Jodean Duarte, a worship leader at
Manoa Community Church in Havertown, made the following observation about a
revamped approach to the day: “With everything going on right now more and more
people are turning to prayer. Whether it is people who already enjoy regular
prayer with the Lord or someone who has never prayed before, uniting our hearts
to pray and seek God is more important than ever. I feel like this year’s event
will be momentous! The virtual platform may actually make it even more
accessible for people to participate. I’m excited to see what God will do that
day!”
Duarte often joins her
friend Lara Silvis on prayer walks throughout their Drexel Hill
neighborhood. Prayerwalking, a practice of many local church members,
combines two common human abilities: walking and talking with God. Silvis
explains that prayer for her and others is a daily activity, not one reserved
for a special day once a year: “We can pray anytime as we walk along. The
Lord loves to hear our prayers. He desires a relationship with us and
wants to hear from each person. We pray for our community, our friends,
our family and if we have faith in God, He will answer our prayers. While we
are physically separated, prayer knows no distance and our Father in Heaven
hears us no matter from where we pray.”
The
mother-daughter duo of Patti and Gabrielle Bruno echo Silvis’ sentiment,
pointing out that another purpose of the NDP is to encourage more prayer
year-round in America. To achieve this end there are both daily and nightly
call-ins for prayer available for everyone nationwide. One person who has been
a Delco Task Force member for over seven years recounts a profound personal
experience on the national call-in line. E. Trotter, member of the prayer
committee at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Thornton, describes her
encounter: “I was so overcome by the Holy Spirit’s work when I went on the
first time as I prayed with total strangers from across the country. The
precious, beautiful unity of His Spirit was beyond words.” Phone and access
code numbers for the nationwide daily prayer call-ins are at the www.nationaldayofprayer.org/prayer_calls web address. Times to call for “Prayer
for America” on the first Thursday of every month are also listed.
Childhood friends
Roseann Gavarone of Havertown and Marilyn Harvey of Drexel Hill have a lot in
common besides volunteering to help with the prayer and phone ministries of the
2020 Day of Prayer. Both grew up as neighbors on the same street in
Philadelphia, raised their children there as well, and then retired from
careers in health care. They also share optimism about this year’s event
despite the virtual format. “I believe that the Lord will be moving more powerfully than
He ever has. Because the schools are closed for the remainder of the school
year, the youth of the church will be able to join in where they were not able
to do so in the past,” notes Gavorone, who worships at Bread of Life Church in Upper Darby. Harvey, a
member of St. Dorothy’s Roman Catholic Church in Havertown, says this feeling
resonates with her as well: “This different venue might be a blessing in disguise as it has
opened a virtual gathering that will provide internet and phone access to a
multitude of people allowing them to join in as they wish during the daytime
and evening.”
After Gabrielle Bruno
graduated from Villanova in 2014, she moved to California to begin work in the
entertainment industry. Because her job was bi-coastal, she shuttled between LA
and New York and was able to assist her mother Patti with the Day of Prayer for
the last five years. During this period she was not only mentored by her mom
and Evie Wright but also Mary Campbell, the founder of the NDP tradition in
Philadelphia since 1993. Through her training, Gabrielle’s heart caught on fire
to help the NDP fulfill its mission to mobilize unified public prayer for
America. Bruno is convinced this realization will continue despite the
pandemic. “Mobilizing
signifies that prayer doesn’t just happen in a church building. Prayer happens
everywhere. Now, everyone is really learning this first-hand as they are locked
in their homes and kept out of church buildings because of a global crisis,”
she says. Bruno thinks the goal of unity will also be met: “The Christian
church can stand divided by denominations. But on the first Thursday of May the
world sees Christians of all backgrounds coming together to cry out to God,”
even if it is a virtual gathering.
There
is also the hope, according to Gabrielle, that social distancing will highlight
another dimension of “public” that is centered on togetherness of belief and
spirit, not only assembly. “We are very blessed in the United States of America
to have religious freedom. Being able to celebrate Jesus together and pray to
Him in public is important so that others can see and join in. This year's
virtual event will still be public. The Internet certainly is public.” For the foreseeable future, however, it appears
Bruno will be stepping back from her role here in Delco. She will be starting
law school in the fall as a Dean’s Fellow at Regent University in Virginia
Beach, Virginia.
There are inevitable
questions that emerge when there is a highly-publicized Day of Prayer and a
deadly disease is ravaging the earth. Where is God in all this? Why is He
allowing this plague? Answers to such an inquiry are varied and complex.
Words seldom suffice and space usually runs out. But participants in the
National Day of Prayer are not shy about confronting the questions head on.
Rev. Stefan Bomberger of Havertown weighs in: “Natural evil occurs in a fallen
world. People can be evil and they have free will. We do not know specifically
and with certainty what God allows and what He does not. But we know we need to
respond and seek the Lord in times of pestilence and plague.” The pastor
of Manoa Community Church continues: “We cannot trust humanity to fix this; it
is beyond our power. Whether our prayers will stop this pandemic, only God
knows. That doesn’t stop us from calling out and asking Him to stop it. This
coronavirus is outside of our control. That’s what prayer acknowledges. We
believe that God does interact with His creation so we pray that He will
supernaturally intervene.”
Local
pastors and spiritual leaders have theological and philosophical answers to
questions about human suffering but they also can approach the coronavirus
crisis with an emphasis on the personal. Evangelist Alex Morton of
Firebrand Church in Broomall puts the focus on the micro rather than the macro
level in answering the question, Where is God in the midst of this pandemic?
“God is right where He's always been, knocking at your heart's door. He's been
pursuing you; you need only to let Him inside. God is using this moment in time
to bring families together. He's using this season to bring those who don't
know Him into relationship with His Son Jesus. He's using this to awaken His
Church! He's using this to expose the things we've turned toward for security
to prove them useless. God can take what is intended by forces of wickedness to
harm and turn it around for good. That’s what Jesus tells us in Scripture: ‘In
this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world’ (John
16:33).”
Whatever
people’s religious persuasions, there is evidence from every corner of the
United States that increased amounts of citizens are turning to prayer, Bible
study and other spiritual exercises since the onset of the global coronavirus
crisis. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that more than half of
Americans have prayed for an end to the pandemic. More than one third of
Americans who believe in God say they have grown closer to God in recent weeks.
Google searches for “prayer” skyrocketed worldwide since the surge in COVID-19
cases. Another example of religious fervor comes from the US Conference of
Catholic Bishops. Twitter mentions are up 2,783% and Facebook followers
increased 172% by late March. One annual participant in the Delco NDP shared
this anecdote: “I am in an on-line
prayer and Bible study group of 18 that has four nurses in it, from Lankenau,
CHOP, Bryn Mawr and Dupont. I have been praying with them and for them like
crazy for strength, protection and wisdom. We met in person since the fall but
had to transition to Google Meet in March and April. Prior to our cyberspace
prayer, I only knew one of them was a nurse. Prayer for this thing has
increased prayer for everything as well as deepened sharing.”
Last year’s NDP had
nearly 60,000 prayer events stretching from the East Coast to Hawaii and
attended by millions of people in towns, cities and counties across America.
The National Observance broadcast from the United States Capitol had 1.4
million views. Growth in terms of event numbers, viewership and
participation is expected to be exponential due to the nation’s home-bound
population and the danger confronting the world.
An Annual National Day
of Prayer was established in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress signed by
President Truman. In 1988, that law was amended and signed by President Reagan
setting the day as the first Thursday in May. This year’s celebration on May 7
marks the 69th annual NDP.
Modern observance of the
NDP was preceded by calls for such a Day before the United States was founded.
The first Continental Congress invoked a national day of prayer in 1775. Since
that time there have been at least 1,526 state and federal calls for national
prayer, including 146 by Presidents of the United States. President Lincoln in
1863 gave the following rationale in his Proclamation for a National Day of
Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer: “It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves
before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness.”
President Lincoln’s
remarks regarding the importance of national prayer and humility resonate
deeply with Patti and Gabrielle Bruno and the rest of the NDP Delco Task Force.
Gabrielle observes that Lincoln’s proclamation clearly references the Scripture
in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no
rain, or command locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among My people,
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek
My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will
forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Gabrielle suggests that we should
uphold the tradition of our founding fathers by practicing the discipline of
prayer as they did with passion, authenticity and dedication, especially during
the current plague of COVID-19. Patti enthusiastically concludes, “Prayer is
everything! God wants to hear us. He has said in James 4:8 that if we
draw closer to Him then He will draw near to us. My real desire is to bring a
smile to the Face of God. This is why I do the National Day of Prayer each
year. It is my great honor and privilege to serve the Lord by putting this day
together. I hope that through this event people will create a relationship with
the Lord and change the way they live, and our world will be a better place. My
greatest vision is to imagine God looking down and seeing so many of His
children gathered together, out in the open, on a Thursday, an otherwise
ordinary day in the middle of the week, calling out to Him, repenting of how we
behave, and just telling Him that we love Him and want Him here with us. That
is my heart and my hope for The National Day of Prayer in Delaware County.”
The National Day of
Prayer is founded upon the Constitutional rights of freedom of religion and
freedom of speech and can be celebrated by all Americans. In 1988 the NDP Task
Force was founded as an independent, religious 501(c)(3) nonprofit to organize
and promote the Christian expression of the National Day of Prayer. All
sponsored events are nonpolitical and nonpartisan. As the NDP Task Force has
chosen to conduct prayer events consistent with its Biblical faith and life, it
supports the First Amendment rights of all Americans to observe the Day in
manner that reflects their religious perspectives.
Questions may be
referred to the following people:
Gabrielle Bruno
Co-Director, NDP Delco Task Force 610.505.4007
gbruno02@villanova.edu
Patti Bruno Co-Director, NDP Delco Task
Force 610.416.8336 pattibruno@aol.com
David Buffum Planning/PR NDP Delco Task Force
610.207.5534 davidbuffum7@gmail.com
Indulge me for a few more moments,
as I relate an extraordinary occurrence that took place yesterday. I was
readying myself for the day and had my medicine cabinet open. It so happens
that my particular unit is faced with three mirrored panels which each open out
(it sounds fancier than it is). I had the door on the left open almost 90
degrees, which gave me a view into the hallway to my right. The reflected hall appeared
different from the actual hall, placing a doorknob on the opposite side, for
instance, and making the entire runway present as longer than it actually is. A
few minutes later, after thinking I had closed the left panel, I realized it
was still slightly ajar. This oversight, when combined with the reflection of
the center mirror, produced a new distortion, giving my drop ceiling a
kaleidoscoped, “fun house” look, and doubling a painting of a turtle that we
added to said ceiling for the kids’ amusement during bath time.
