About 173 people attended the Twin City Area Ministerial Alliance National Day of Prayer Breakfast, held Thursday (May 7) at Lexington Inn in Festus, said Pastor Martinous Walls of Buren Chapel AME Church in Herculaneum.
Wells, the event chairman, said more business leaders participated in this year’s local observance of the National Day of Prayer.
“It was terrific,” he said. “I’ve had so many people help. Claudia Kirn of the Twin City Area Chamber of Commerce assisted with email lists of all businesses and we got a good turnout of the businesses. There were at least 14 major businesses that bought tables.”
He said the alliance wants participation, not fundraising, from its National Day of Prayer events.
“This is not a fundraiser,” Walls said. “We did this at cost. We just want to promote a day of prayer for our community, our country, our businesses, political leaders, families.”
County Executive Ken Waller was a keynote speaker. Religious leaders followed him with prayers focusing on the topics of government, military, media, business, education, church and family.
Walls said the alliance has held National Day of Prayer events for at least the past seven years.
“We had National Day of Prayer for five years at the Jefferson Hospital conference center,” he said. “Last year, the event was held at Festus High School at night and we had (NFL hall of famer and former Ram) Aeneas Williams (who is now a pastor).”
Next year’s alliance event likely will return to the Lexington Inn, Walls said.
“It turned out so well, people said, ‘Let’s do this here next year,’” he said. “So, we probably will.”
He said the breakfast drew people from a surprisingly wide area.
“Thank you to all the people for attending,” he said. “We had people from as far away as Fenton come join us.”