By Brandon HENSLEY

On May 1 people all across the valley could be seen praying on Foothill Boulevard, Honolulu Avenue and elsewhere all for the hope of lifting up the community.
It was “Lift Up La Crescenta,” a prayer event inspired by Al Nunez, a member of La Crescenta Presbyterian Church.
Nunez came up with the idea couple of years ago, and last year was the first ever event in the community.
People gathered together at several designated local spots where street captains from several churches were located at 2:30 p.m. and prayed for about half an hour. They prayed for anything, be it the youth drug problem in the foothills, law enforcement, the firefighters or for the catastrophe in Japan.
Some of the churches involved this year were First Baptist and Montrose Church.
Nunez was a street captain near his church on Honolulu Avenue. Cars driving by could see those attending the event wearing yellow shirts that read “Lift Up La Crescenta.”
The event is in accordance with the National Day of Prayer, which falls on the first Thursday of May. Nunez said it was hard to organize it this year because Easter came late, and Mother’s Day soon followed, so he didn’t get as many participants as he would have liked.
“It was still a success, I mean it’s not just a numbers game,” Nunez said. “We try to get people out there praying and we did do that so it was exciting to be part of it.”
Still, around 200 people in all joined in, including some from the Sunland-Tujunga area.
Debbie Taylor, who is a member of Open Bible Church in Tujunga, organized her area’s prayer event. The Tujunga side had seven churches participate, including Joyce Fellowship Church, Community Christian and Verdugo Hills Church.
The Tujunga side went from Lowell Avenue down to Oro Vista. Taylor said,
“It went great, it was awesome.”
She noted several people walking around town saw what was going on and decided to join in.
“A couple of them had people [come] off the street that came to the prayer team and started praying with them. It was great,” she said.
The goal now is to expand to places like Glendale and La Cañada for next year.
“Next year we want La Cañada so we can do it around the whole valley,” Taylor said.
Nunez echoed Taylor: “We’re looking for a person who would like to take on the challenge of developing the prayer circle in La Cañada.”
Nunez even said maybe someday it can become national, just to get communities in tune with the power of prayer.
“I think it’s a good goal and it’s not hurting anybody and it can really help a lot of people,” he said.

  Brandon Hensley, May 12, Religion