Officers, ministers join forces in prayer

“We’re just happy to do this with everyone across the country,” Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said.

“People are taking time out to pray for us and we pray for them,” he added.

The event was part of the Faith & Blue weekend, which was started in 2020 by MovementForward Inc. The purpose is to bring communities and officers together with the support of faith-based organizations.

Faith & Blue weekend was held across the country on Oct. 6-9.

To celebrate Faith & Blue, the sheriff’s office hosted a time of prayer at 9 a.m. Monday.

“It just means a lot to see law enforcement partners here. Just to hear the prayers, to hear the true prayers of the citizens. They’re not just saying a prayer that they remembered, but a prayer that they really mean. It means a whole lot and I hope that they continue and I hope it spreads,” Ravenell said.

Sheriff’s office Chaplain Jerry French said, “Faith & Blue is a very important time, but it’s not just for a period of time, it’s for every day that you all go out in the county doing the things that you do.”

“And as we go to the Lord in prayer, I want you to think about not just prayer itself, but what it really means. What it really means to us individually, collectively and why it’s so important to us,” French said.

“We’re praying for it to mean something to us every single day of our lives,” he added.

Evangelist Carlesha Bair said, “I pray that God would allow all of us – the community, state troopers, sheriff’s department – to be like links of chains, fire starters. As I connect with them, they connect with you and it’s like starting a fire, that it will leak out into the community and leak out into the world because we know that Christ is coming back so we need to be ready. So we thank God for this type of setting.”

Minister Elijah Reed said, “We appreciate y’all’s service. We pray that y’all continue to help one another, whether you’re in the sheriff’s department, police department or state patrol.”

The Rev. Jerome Anderson and Orangeburg resident Shereeka Whetstone also led the group in prayers.

Other law enforcement agencies who joined the sheriff’s office for the event include the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety and S.C. Highway Patrol.