‘I am a product of prayer’

More than 200 gather for National Day of Prayer

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

* Photo gallery

ROCKINGHAM — Sandi Hollon wasn’t going anywhere.

At 14, she was homeless. At 15, married. At 16, a mother and, at 21, at drug addict and alcoholic. Statistically, she was off the map and pursuing an inevitable death.

“That’s how I lived for 10 years,” the first-year Richmond County resident told more than 200 people of all ages and races gathered Thursday afternoon on the former Richmond County Court House steps and lawn as part of the National Day of Prayer. Organizers noted the turnout was a sizable increase from the 2014 event.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Sandi Hollon said God and His salvation helped redeem her and put her on a path towards a healthy, productive life.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Sandi Hollon said God and His salvation helped redeem her and put her on a path towards a healthy, productive life.

Then she met a married, whom she later married. The man “drug her to church” opened up a new world of understanding and enlightenment. He fell in love with her, but she didn’t know how to love him back.

One morning, Hollon said, she told her husband she was headed to church. He didn’t believe her, but that’s where she wound up anyway.

“I walked in alone,” Hollon said, “and I walked out with Jesus and salvation on my side. I’ll never be alone again.”

Hollon is fully committed now to her faith, but for a time, Joseph Griffith wasn’t. The two-sport standout at Richmond Senior High School said he was all but going through the motions. He was toeing the line with minimal effort.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Joseph Griffith said faith is something you have to which a half-hearted effort goes unnoticed.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Joseph Griffith said faith is something you have to which a half-hearted effort goes unnoticed.

Griffith, with many of his Fellowship of Christian Students and classmates in the audience, said he was watching the Christian film “Courageous” when a character in the film talked about faith being more than one’s good acts outweighing the bad.

“That’s how I lived my life,” Griffith testified.

In school, he gave effort for 100 percent grades and never was satisfied with a low A. In baseball and soccer, he gave 110 percent and if a coach told him to run through a wall — well, he’d give it his best shot.

That wasn’t the same approach he offered his faith, Griffith said.

“We can’t settle for good enough,” Griffith said.

Rev. Allison Farrah, of First United Methodist Church in Rockingham, noticed all the young people in the crowd and indicated the turnout of so many young people bode well for the future.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Members of the Mount Olive Baptist Church Pre-school performed a song and pledges for the crowd while Mount Olive Youth Pastor C.J. Smith provided a scripture reading. Rev. Ronnie McLean led the devotion while singers Rev. Ronnie Moore and Alyse Player, of Richmond Senior High School, performed for those gathered.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

 

 

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