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Published Monday, January 05, 2009 in Religion

Photo by Winston Skinner

Roland Gagnon talks with Ryan Gray, right, as he packs to go to Mexico City to do mission work. The two spearheaded a weekly “pray for rain” project that has ended — with the drought gone.

As drought washes away, prayer sessions end

By Winston Skinner

The Times-Herald

The people prayed, and the rains came.

Almost exactly a year ago, weekly gatherings to pray for rain began at the Newnan Church of Christ. The prayers began after months of worsening drought and dire predictions from experts that it could take years before water levels returned to normal.

As rain fell from the gloomy skies over Thomas Crossroads on Monday and ran down culverts into gutters, Roland Gagnon reflected on the experience of praying for rain during the past year. The last prayer service was held Dec. 17 after it was clear that Coweta County's drought was gone.

On Dec. 18, 2007, some 99.6 percent of Georgia had some degree of drought, and almost half the state -- 49.9 percent -- was experiencing the highest intensity of drought as measured by the U.S. Drought Monitor program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The report on Dec. 16, 2008 showed 69.3 percent of the state with no drought and no part of the state in the most dry category.

"The official call for the prayer for rain is done," said Gagnon. He noted that the positive numbers from the Drought Monitor program "don't include all the rain we got this weekend."

Gagnon, who will be retiring at the end of January, and Gray, who is headed back to the mission field in Mexico next week, both were deeply involved in the week-to-week prayer project. "God has blessed us tremendously. We got more rain than we got the previous year," Gagnon said.

"We feel that God deserves the credit for this," he added.

"I think it made a big difference," Gray said.

"We have been completely faithful with our prayer sessions," Gagnon said. The doors of Newnan Church of Christ were thrown open for the weekly prayer project. There were few, however, from outside the congregation who took part.

Joshua Hickman, a local Baptist minister, did connect with Gagnon and Gray, attended some of the services and is working to involve local congregations in overall conservation efforts.

"We never had high numbers, but the prayers were there," Gagnon said. "I think there were a lot of people praying but not necessarily coming here."

Gray said he would like to have seen more people involved in the gatherings to pray for rain, but he said God had a plan for the whole process. "I think Roland and I needed to see it was OK the way it turned out," he said.

Gagnon said regular notices about the prayer effort in The Times-Herald helped remind people of the need for prayers for rain.

Gagnon grinned as he remembered some unexpected calls that came during 2008 when it rained for several weekends. The essential message of those calls was: "Please stop."

"It was interfering with people's golf games," he said.

Gray, taking a break from packing his office for the move to Mexico City, said he found the prayer for rain experience personally beneficial. "Knowing there's a time you're going to pray" provided a disciplined framework for enhancing his approach to prayer, he said. "It helped my prayer life."

While rain was the focus of the prayer times, other topics and concerns were broached. Gray said it also was constructive to pray -- over a sustained period of time -- for the same thing. "It's done something -- just getting us together every Wednesday," he said.