From left Father Rob Holman from St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Mark Williams, Al Nunez, Pastor Andy Wilson, Debbie Kollgaard, Ron Ricketts, Brent Kuszyk, Michele Fernandez and Dan Wall.

By Brandon HENSLEY

Higher and higher is where the people of La Crescenta hope to go on May 2. Spiritually speaking, of course.
On that day, La Crescenta Presbyterian Church will hold a prayer circle, called “Lift Up La Crescenta,” in hopes of coming together on the streets of the town and praying about anything and everything.
The event will start at 2:15 p.m., when participants will pray for 15 to 20 minutes, then head back to the church for a “pray-off” that will last about 30 minutes.
“I wanted to somehow come up with a way to get a lot of people involved praying,” said Al Nunez, one of the event coordinators. “I’m a big proponent of prayer as a mover in this world.”
Nunez is on the church’s mission and outreach program and recently became an elder. He will be one of the street captains, located on Montrose Avenue. There will be eight other street captains people can meet up with around town. A full list of meeting places are available on the church’s website, www.lpc.net. There is also a link there to sign up.
The intent of the event, which is a tie-in with the National Day of Prayer on May 6, is to pray for various troubles in the world, including the recent problems in Crescenta Valley, such as the
Station Fire and the floods.
Participants will meet with their street captain and then spread out in each direction. Members from St. Luke’s Anglican Church and First Baptist will also be there. Nunez said he hopes 300 to 400 people show up. That won’t be enough to make a circle around La Crescenta, but he said that is the eventual goal.
“That’s our long-term goal,” Nunez said. “We need about 6,000 people ultimately if we want to circle the whole La Crescenta [area].”
Nunez said anyone is welcome to join, including other churches in the area.
“It’s really about the power of prayer,” he said. “To let the community know that we care about them, that we love about them, and that there’s help at these churches.”