28 Jan Community Prayer for Drug Addiction

“It was a really powerful God-thing,” says pastor Greg Voight of the Prayer Meeting for Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse. This special community service was held Sunday, January 16, at Lancaster UB church in Lancaster, Ohio.

The purpose was to rally local people to pray about the heroin and prescription drug problem in Ohio. Fairfield County ranks high nationally with prescription drug and heroin addiction.

“The church was absolutely full,” says Pastor Voight (right). Though they didn’t take an actual count, he estimates that over 400 people attended. “It’s the largest crowd we’ve had since I’ve been there.”

The attendees included the mayor, police chief, county sherrif, drug court judges, persons from various organizations, and a number of pastors.

The event was a cooperative effort of various churches of all flavors. Greg and another pastor spearheaded it.

After a brief time of worship, they showed a locally-produced video called “Hooked,” which included interviews with former addicts, the police chief, mayor, doctors, and others. The typical pattern is that addiction begins with prescribing pain medication, and when they can no longer afford it, opiates are a cheap and easy-to-find substitute. There was a tesimony from a woman whose daughter was “raised in the right way in all forms,” says Pastor Voight, yet she ended up addicted to heroin.

Each participating pastor prayed over a different aspect of the problem–root causes, law enforcement, medical fields, community awareness, civic organizations that work in this area, etc. Another time of worship ended the event.

Says Pastor Voight, “I think God is revealing to us that this the epidemic of our time, and God is calling the church out and calling the church together. The system won’t fix the problem. The only answer is God’s power unleased in the community in people’s lives.”