Gabe Stark
Reporter

Trenton Assembly of God’s annual school prayer walk brought almost 100 people together Sunday, Aug. 16, to worship and pray over Trenton students, teachers, staff and schools ahead of the new school year.

Organizer Darcie Taylor said that the event had grown this year with the crowd surpassing the 50 to 70 participants the event had typically drawn in recent years.

“Any time you have that many people worshiping God at the same time, it is special. But, to see that many people praying over the schools was amazing,” Taylor said.

The evening began at C.F. Russell Stadium with praise and prayer before participants dispersed along a mapped route around the Trenton R-IX school grounds. The route was also driveable so that anyone could participate. Different locations along the route provided participants with specific prayer focuses, including student-athletes at the stadium and younger students and friendships near the playground.

Derek McCauslin was on hand with Freedom Sound, providing worship music for the gathering. Freedom Sound is a Trenton-based ministry focused on community outreach through worship, music, prayer and fellowship.

“We are all about spreading God’s word,” McCauslin said. “It was cool to see different denominations coming together as one.”

Taylor said the final worship song of the evening, “The God of This City,” made the sight of community members spreading out to pray over the schools particularly meaningful.

“To see that many people praying over our schools was touching,” Taylor said. “God never ceases to amaze me.”

Following the prayer walk, around 30 youth remained for a youth event. The after-party had been planned as an opportunity for area youth to spend additional time together following the community prayer walk.

For Taylor, the turnout reinforced the purpose organizers have continued to build around the event — bringing the community together and covering local schools in prayer as students and staff begin another year.

“We have a responsibility to cover our children and our staff and our schools in prayer, knowing that that’s what God asked us to do,” Taylor said.