‘Our nation is in trouble, we need God’s help’: Franklin Graham announces Prayer March 2020
Evangelist Franklin Graham has called on thousands of families, pastors and churches to join him for “Prayer March 2020” in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 26. “Our nation is in trouble … we need God’s help,” he says.
“I’m announcing today that on Sept. 26, I’m going to be in our nation’s capital to pray—& I hope thousands of families, pastors, & churches will join me! Our nation is in trouble, & we need God’s help. Make plans now to come for #PrayerMarch2020,” Graham, president of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Twitter.
“Our only hope for this country is God,” he says in a video message.
Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, responded to Franklin Graham’s tweet, saying, “… I will be there. I want to invite every Pastor and church in the SBC and all others who can to join us. Can you imagine thousands of believers praying together for our broken nation? Let’s do it!”
From noon to 2 p.m., believers will march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building covering 1.8 miles while praying for the nation during “extraordinary times,” the event’s website says.
“America is in trouble. It’s in distress. But we do have hope, and that hope is in Almighty God. And we need to pray now more than ever — more than we have ever done in our lives. Our communities are hurting. Our people are divided. And there’s fear and uncertainty all around us,” Graham says in a video message on the website, referring to riots and violence across the country and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, rioters carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs threw Bibles into a fire in front of the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, and burned an American flag.
Riots in Portland and many other cities across the country have been ongoing since the May 25 death of George Floyd, who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. had more than 5 million confirmed cases with nearly 163,000 deaths, as of early Monday.
Jentezen Franklin, the senior pastor of Free Chapel Church in Gainesville, Georgia, also called on Americans to join him for 21 days of fasting and prayer beginning Aug. 1.
“I believe the Lord spoke to me and said to make the month of August a season of … crying out and praying and fasting and turning back to God like never before,” Jentezen Franklin said. “It’s time to fast and pray and break the back of COVID. We must see a divine reversal. We must see a turnaround,” added the host of the weekly television program “Kingdom Connection.”
In May, GO 2020 invited thousands of churches and ministries worldwide “to dedicate the entire month … to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Through the outreach, 50 million Christians shared the Gospel reaching 248 million people, according to estimates by the organizers.