The Surprising Reason OneVoiceDC Stopped Midway and Changed Our Prayer Focus
For the third year running, OneVoiceDC prayer gathering served to kick off the events surrounding the annual March for Life. Sound technician Brian Busch shares what he observed from his vantage point.
I had the honor of running audio and sound with my friends at Whisper to a Roar Promotions for Thursday’s activities of the March for Life in Washington, D.C., last week.
We capped out the evening with OneVoiceDC 2017, a prayer gathering co-hosted by Ryan and Bethany Bomberger (of The Radiance Foundation) and Matt Lockett of Bound4LIFE International. More than 600 people of many different ages, ethnicities and diverse attire showed up to worship, pray and speak life over our nation.
When your focus is on ensuring everyone can hear the words broadcast through the sound system, it can be difficult to focus on the actual words being spoken. But one thing really struck me strongly during the stressful day: They care for everyone!
We were in the middle of a prayer event with hundreds of folks from all walks of life and denominations. In the middle of a transition between segments, Matt Lockett came on stage and gave an impromptu message.
“While we were in here praying tonight, a lady was walking by,” Matt began. “She caught my wife’s attention and asked, ‘What are you people doing? Are you praying about abortion?’ My wife said yes, and then the woman gave her a note.”
The order of service literally stopped as he read the note: “Please pray for Christopher, who wants to commit suicide. His child was aborted.”
A young man in the audience came up to pray fervently for Christopher, at times shouting: “You will not die, you will live!” The rest of us erupted in prayer for an unknown young kid.
No one asked, “Is he white? Black? Hispanic? Is he gay? Straight? Trans? Is he from my church, or one that I approve of? Is he poor? Rich? From a rural area? Urban? Did he ‘deserve’ depression due to his own bad decisions, lifestyle, or using drugs or alcohol?”
No, they stopped the event and prayed hard for this kid. Love for an unknown kid named Chris rippled through the building. I cried from an overwhelming sense of concern for this man I will probably never know.
We may never know what becomes of Chris, but we all stopped to lift him up because we’re pro-life—all life, all ages, all backgrounds, all stages of life. We recognize that suicide prevention is a pro-life issue, just as adoption, pregnancy care, fatherhood, foster care and ending abortion-on-demand are.
I like that. Too many people in my family fight depression and fight these thoughts. To know that a group of earnest, thoughtful and compassionate people might someday lift my dearest up to God fills me with hope. The march for life goes on.
Watch the complete prayer event in a Facebook Live video, including prayer leaders Eric Metaxas, Catherine Davis, Pastor Bill Shuler, Tony Perkins, Pastor Kate Costa and Bishop Vincent Matthews, among others. For the clip referenced by Brian, advance to 02:34:40. {eoa}
Brian Busch is a computer programmer and a sound technician with Whisper to a Roar Promotions. He and his wife, Lynn, live and work in Leesburg, Virginia.
Reprinted with permission from Bound4LIFE.
