Also a coat drive for the needy

The Ironton Area Ministerial Association is inviting the public to join with them in praying for the community.

The event will be at 6 p.m. on Sunday at Ironton First Church of the Nazarene.
“For the last two months, we have been planning an event with Ironton Mayor Katrina Keith,” said Rob Hale, the ministerial association president and pastor of the Ironton First Church of the Nazarene. “She was going to share with us how we can pray for her, pray for Ironton and the Ironton area.”

They decided to add the Rev. Jimmy Cremeans, the former pastor and director of The City Welfare Mission. “He’s was with the mission for 39 years and knows the area well,” Hale said. “He is going to share a message on how we can pray for the nation.”

As the event was being planned, there were two great tradgedies that made the ministerial association decide to expand the prayers.

“Well, all the sudden we had what happened in Las Vegas and then we had what happened, right here next to us, losing that precious 8-year-old and his family,” Hale said, referring to the Oct. 1 mass shooting of country music festival goers, which left 58 dead and 489 wounded and the Oct. 11 killing of Devin Holston, his mother, Stacey M. Jackson, 25, and his grandparents, Donald McGuire, 50, and Tammie L. McGuire, 43, all of Pedro.

“We just feel like this is a very timely event,” Hale said. “We don’t want it to be just for the churches, we want the community to come out.”

Kristin Martin, the choir director of Mt. Olive Baptist Church, also leads the Ironton Community Choir.

“We would love for people in the community to join with our choir,” Hale said, adding they will have a practice at 5 p.m. on Sunday before the event.

Hale said the churches will be bringing in desserts and there will also be pizza.

“There will be fellowship afterward and we have a big gym, so we have room for everybody,” Hale said. “We really want the community to come out, meet the mayor and she wants to share some of the challenges we are facing here in Ironton so we can pray for our city.”

The ministerial association is also having a coat drive for the LINK UP ministry’s which reaches out to the homeless camps along the Ohio river in Huntington. LINK UP also feeds each Sunday a full home cooked meal to over 100 of the economically depressed along with those families hurting from addiction in our Tri-State.

People are asked to bring a gently used or new coats for children and adults that will be needed the fast approaching winter.

For more information, contact Hale at 606-923-3538.