Submitted by Jannai Pero
COARSEGOLD – Yosemite Lakes Community Church invites everyone to participate in National Day of Prayer from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, with different prayer themes every hour.
The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation.
It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.
Neil Mammen will be the special speaker this year at Yosemite Lakes Community Church, at 9 a.m. Neil is an author, apologist, international speaker, physicist, and engineer. He was born in Ghana and grew up in Sudan and Yemen. He co-founded four startup companies in Silicon Valley and has about 20 issued and pending patents.
Neil has been featured on NPR and on over 40 radios shows. He is the acting President of the Values Advocacy Council, has spoken for the Family Research Council and trained youth at Summit Ministries. His Daily One Minute Broadcast can be heard on 160 stations around the U.S. on American Family Radio. Neil is the author of “40 Days Towards a More Godly Nation.” His book will be available for purchase and will be given free to any pastor who attends.
National Day of Prayer has been observed at Yosemite Lakes Community Church for over 20 years and for 16 of those years, with a breakfast, plus speakers and pastors from the community. This year, Youth Pastor John Lorenzano is heading up the prayer committee and recommending a day of fasting to replace breakfast. There is a fasting guide and prayer calendar at the website: http://www.yosemitelakes.org
History of the National Day of Prayer
“Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1808
Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history, including President Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863.
In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May. Each year, the president signs a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. Last year, all 50 state governors plus the governors of several U.S. territories signed similar proclamations.
Yosemite Lakes Community Church is located at 43840 Patrick Ave. in Coarsegold.
For more information on how you can participate, visit http://nationaldayofprayer.org/
