In many places around the country, students gathered at the flagpoles near their schools this morning at 7 AM local time to pray for their school, friends, families, churches, and communities, The Lion’s Roar reports from Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia.
This morning at Menchville H.S. (Ethan Mattews / student newspaper)
Kelly Ritenour and Ethan Mattews report in the student newspaper that students at the school, teachers, and even a local Christian youth pastor, David Godwin, met at the flagpole in front of the school and joined their hands in prayer. After Mr Godwin led the group in worship, individuals were given time for their own reflection.
The annual Prayer at the Pole Day is a Christian tradition that dates back 27 years, the first such day having been organized on September 12, 1990, when more than 45,000 students hosted a morning of prayer at their flagpoles.
Accounts of the beginning say a group of teens in Burleson, Texas, drove to three different schools to conduct the activity one September morning. It caught on and, within a year, reportedly had about a million students meeting at their flagpoles.
