Hundreds of citizens gathered around the Hays County Historic Courthouse in Downtown San Marcos Thursday night to pray for an end to violence in the city. In response to the multiple shootings during Halloween weekend, church leaders came together to uplift the spirits of the community. Organized by Promise-Land Church, the prayer focused on unity, healing and renewal.
Multiple church leaders from across San Marcos were present and each led a prayer for the town and its people. This included PromiseLand Church, the First Baptist Church of San Marcos, Sozo Church, Abundant Life Christian Church and The Well community church. “We have a beautiful collection of many different congregations that have come here, and so we’re calling upon God that he would help us, and that he would not only deliver us from evil, but allow us to be the light in a dark place,” Steele said.
Each pastor prayed for the city and encouraged the audience to continue prayer.
“A couple years ago, there was an increase in violence, and Chief Standridge came to several of the church leaders, community leaders, and said, we need to pray. And so for 40 days, we gathered every morning on the square, and we begin to pray that God would end the violence, that there would be an end to it, and that became a really transformative time for our community,” Lead Pastor of Sozo Church Joel Lowry said. “There was an absolute drop off of violence in that season. And so what we’re doing now is we’re gathering and we’re saying, Jesus, would you do it again?”
The prayer gathering ended with a group singing of “It Is Well With My Soul.”
