‘WE PRAY SAN DIEGO’ JOINS PEOPLE IN PRAYER FOR FIRST RESPONDERS

Rock Church’s virtual prayer rally brought 1,800 together

From her home in Chula Vista, Leilani Mcguire, an intensive care unit supervisor at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, used her phone to virtually pray — and heal — alongside others from all over the county.

Mcguire was one of 1,871 people who Saturday morning simultaneously streamed the one-hour prayer rally known as “We Pray San Diego.” The event was hosted by the Rock Church and focused on prayer for San Diego hospitals, health care staff and other medical first responders.

The remote gathering, the nurse said, was the “healing balm” she needed to recover, in part, from secondary trauma brought on by her regular proximity to death.

“In my 25 years of nursing, I’ve never seen anything like this. This pandemic has brought us in the health care industry to our knees. We’ve had to very quickly figure out how to care for these patients. And not only care for the patients, but do some self care so we can continue to do the work that we’re doing,” Mcguire said. “For me, personally, this was so needed.”

An outdoor and sociallydistanced gathering in the past, Saturday’s We Pray San Diego moved to the virtual realm out of necessity, Rock Church Senior Pastor Miles Mcpherson said. The first rally took place in June at popular street intersections in several San Diego communities with more than 7,000 people showing up to show unity during a time of civil unrest. In September, the second event also brought together thousands who spread out across 50 San Diego schools to offer support for students, teachers and administrators.

Mcpherson had hoped participants would be able to once again convene outside, this time out front of area hospitals to demonstrate appreciation, but recognized that the region’s growing number of COVID-19 cases made inperson gathering impractical. Instead, the spiritual leader worked alongside two dozen other San Diego County churches to virtually adopt hospitals around town and pray for them both individually and collectively. Event organizers also collected specific prayer requests through the We Pray San Diego website in advance of the event.

Those who tuned in were guided through an hour of prayer with specific prompts every two minutes. Hosts instructed viewers to pray for a wide variety of hospital-related needs, such as the mental health of frontline medical workers, the health and financial well-being of patients, and women giving birth during the pandemic. Those who streamed the pre-recorded session were also encouraged to participate in a live chat feature, which was active throughout the morning get-together with prayer requests and messages of gratitude.

“(We wanted to) make it simple for everybody and give people an easy guide, because praying for an hour ... it’s a long time,” Mcpherson said. “It’s pretty awesome. It is a very fruitful, powerful help and assistance in prayer, because it just guides you along and the music keeps you going.”

Mcguire, the ICU nurse, characterized the event as a much-needed reminder that caregivers need care, too.

“Having global prayer like this for us is phenomenal,” she said.

jennifer.vangrove @sduniontribune.com Twitter: @jbruin