GEORGE NEWS - Members of churches from various congregations and denominations in the George area gathered in prayer at the George show grounds on Saturday 22 October during a worship picnic for Voëlklip.
According to one of the organisers, Herman Pienaar, the event was an intervention by the churches and police in an effort "to do something" about Voëlklip, not only because of the amount of suicides that have occurred there, but also other deaths in that area.
"The day of prayer was requested by senior police officers who are part of Operation Divine Intervention (ODI)," said Pienaar.
ODI was created in 2016 by the then Eden Cluster Commander, Maj-Gen Oswald Reddy, to create meaningful liaison between the police and faith-based organisations through a steering committee in the Garden Route district.
"The original plan was to gather at Voëlklip, but it would have been too small for the number of people who attended. And despite the cold, at one stage we had more than 150 people attending. Smaller groups also went to Voëlklip to pray," said Pienaar.
He said people from between eight and ten different congregations attended throughout the day.
"It was a fantastic day and it was nice to see our churches working together. Some say prayer will not help, but we as the church believe that there definitely is power in prayer."
At times more than 150 gathered to pray at the George show grounds.
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