DAY OF PRAYER HAS GROWN LOCALLY THROUGH THE YEARS

Small crowds that needed encouragement and enthusiasm to grow were the impetus for Sherri Mehner's involvement in National Day of Prayer.

Five years ago, Sherri and Jack Mehner started organizing the event in Cape Girardeau. Now they've turned that one-day effort into a week's worth of activities.

"It just needed momentum to keep it going," Sherri Mehner said. People needed to feel good about getting together in unity.

The National Day of Prayer service became the tool to get churches together and working on common causes instead of noticing differences. "We celebrate what we do have in common, and that's the basics of believing in Jesus," she said.

The National Day of Prayer in Cape Girardeau and Jackson began with services prior to the Thursday observance. Prayer groups began meeting as early as January to plan and pray for the May event.

This year the group began praying for a speaker at the breakfast. Jack Mehner said the group felt strongly about inviting a black leader to speak about Christian unity.

Through people at Focus on the Family, an organization that supports the National Day of Prayer services, the Mehners found the Rev. LeRoy Sullivan, pastor of an inner-city church in Kansas City, Kan.

Sullivan's goals are the same organizers in Cape Girardeau were seeking.

In its beginning, the National Day of Prayer service in Cape Girardeau started small with just a few people gathering on the steps of City Hall. It grew to include a Mayors' Prayer Breakfast that drew 800 people to the Osage Community Centre at 6:30 in the morning.

"I feel good about it," Sherri Mehner said. "Sometimes it seems too big, but when it's too big for us then you know it's God."

The National Day of Prayer began 50 years ago when President Harry S. Truman declared there be an observance of prayer across the country. President Ronald Reagan set aside the first Thursday in May for it.