Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
Over 50 students and parents of Daniel Pratt Elementary School gathered together at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning in prayer and worship at the school gym for their first ever “See You At The Pole” event.
The event is a chance for friends, family and students to gather together at their respective school’s flagpole and lift each other up to God. It is a student initiated, organized and led event that gives the younger generation a chance to become stronger in their faith.
The prayer rally kicked off with the young students singing songs of worship, such as “You Say” and “Big House.” This was followed with a quick opening prayer from Marion Lewis, a student at DPES.
For the next 15 minutes, Marion handed the microphone over to several other students who, in turn, would say a prayer for something they felt was important to them. Forming a circle around the flagpole, prayers for the nation, city, state, school system and many others were carried out by the children.
Towards the end of the service Principal Donna Finch gave a quick prayer for everyone who attended. At the conclusion of the event, the children sang the worship song “Reckless love,” which was then followed with a closing prayer from DPES student Ann Leigh Jones.
This is potentially the first of many times that the DPES students will be able to come together in worship.
“We would really like to have the children come together again,” said Stacy Lewis, Children’s director at First United Methodist Prattville. “I talked to a few kids in my children’s ministry, and they organized it and decided what they wanted to pray for and what songs they wanted to sing.”
Tony McCullough, senior pastor at First United Methodist Prattville, knows what an event like this means for the kids and the community as a whole.
“It empowers them [the kids] to live out their faith and gives them opportunities to be leaders in the school and community,” McCullough says.
The senior pastor points out that so often we look at children and think that their day will come, but then you see them on days like Sept. 25 leading worship together and realize that they can be have an impact within the community sooner rather than later.
This is the 29th Annual SYATP event across the country, which had over 1000 U.S. schools and over 60 countries participating in worship and prayer.
