Community leaders and residents of the Cleveland area gathered on Monday, Feb. 12, at the Cleveland Civic Center to observe the National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting in a communal quest for spiritual renewal and divine guidance for the nation.
Cleveland Mayor Danny Lee, Chaplain Lance Blackwell, City Manager Scott Swigert, Cleveland ISD Superintendent Stephen McCanless, and both State Rep. Ernest Bailes and his challenger, Janis Holt, along with local pastors, led the assembly in a series of fervent prayers.
Blackwell, who led the event, explained that the National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting was an initiative of President Abraham Lincoln, who recognized the need to recognize the supreme government of God. To honor the memory of Lincoln, the National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer events are held each year on his birthday – Feb. 12.
“In January of 2019, [the late] Mayor Otis Cohn put [the National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting] on the city council agenda and all five of our council members, including Danny Lee, who is our mayor today, voted yes. The City of Cleveland wants to identify every year the Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,” Blackwell said. “We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have different mothers, but we have the same Father, and we’re coming in unity.”
Those in attendance were provided with free crosses to place in their yards recognizing that Christ is King. Blackwell has given out many of the crosses at Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce luncheons in recent years.
He explained that the crosses were fabricated in Lufkin, Texas, through the ministry of Vic Bass, who started making and giving away the crosses 20 years ago. Blackwell said he himself has distributed several hundred of the crosses in the Cleveland area, though more than one million have been distributed across the nation.
