At noon on Thursday, Pike Countians will have an opportunity to join with other communities around the country that participate in the National Day of Prayer.

The prayer service will be held at noon at the Gazebo on the square in downtown Troy and will begin at the ending of the Bible Reading Marathon, which started at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 3.

The National Day of Prayer is a day designated by the United States Congress as a day when people are asked to come together and pray, especially for their country. It was created as a floating holiday in 1952 and fixed on the first Thursday in May by President Ronald Reagan.

Linda Adams, administrative assistant for the sponsoring Salem-Troy Baptist Association, said the community prayer service will be led by David Zorn, pastor of Goshen Baptist Church with music presented by Shelia Jackson.

“We’ll also have a collective prayer time and we’ll ask that everyone especially pray for our local, state and national leaders,” Adams said. “We’ll also praise God for the privilege of reading His word, which we will have the privilege of doing over the past 90 hours from Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’ through Revelation 22:21, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.’”

Everyone is invited to participate in the National Day of Prayer service and the Bible Reading Marathon by being a good listener.

“We only have a few opportunities to read remaining and those are at the late hours Wednesday (tonight), Adams said. “We should complete the reading of the entire Bible sometime after midnight. When we do, we will start over with Matthew and read from there until noon on Thursday when the National Day of Prayer service begins.”