Members of the congregation gather at the alter to pray with Huntington mayor Steve Williams and Dr. Allen Reasons at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Huntington as part of the OneSunday campaign Sunday, September 7, 2014.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — On Monday, Sept. 8, it will have been one year since David and Ann Niday found out their 26-year-old son, Michael, had passed away in Florida due to a drug overdose.
On Sunday morning after the handbells rang out their somber song, the couple joined Dr. Skip and Linda Turner on stage at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church to read prayers for our city as two couples who have lost loved ones to drug addiction.
The special prayer at 11:05 a.m. — which had most of the congregation packed down front linked by comforting hands on shoulders — was part of Huntington Mayor Steve Williams’ OneSunday effort.
Started with a passionate video that went viral (with an estimated 1 million views), the OneSunday effort asked congregations around Huntington and around the world to pray for Huntington to be healed of the scourge of drug addiction.
“I want you to feel God’s presence in this room right now, and next I want you to think of someone you know who is suffering from the disease of addiction,” David said, fighting back tears. “It may be yourself, a family member, a close friend, a coworker or it might be someone you don’t know every well. I want you to lift that addict and his family up to God, and I want you to pray like you’ve never prayed before…