ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Area residents gathered in St. Clairsville on Thursday to mark the 74th annual National Day of Prayer outside the Belmont County Courthouse.

The National Day of Prayer is a yearly observance held on the first Thursday of May that invites people to pray for the nation. According to the National Day of Prayer website, the occasion was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S Truman.

Emmanuel Baptist Church Pastor J.D. Baugh was the keynote speaker Thursday and talked about what led him to find religion.

The U.S. Air Force veteran said he was deployed in an undisclosed location shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and believes that the only reason he returned stateside was the grace of God.

“When God poured His grace out on me, it was prior to me ever coming to know the Lord Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I served in the Air Force for over 25 years and was at an undisclosed location deployed right after 9-11 and, unfortunately for us, there were some people that were looking to harm us. I narrowly escaped, not by anything that I did, but it was all God’s grace … as a there was a bullet hole less than 18 inches from where I was, where I was working on an aircraft. But that’s how God poured his grace out on me that day,” Baugh said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t come to know the Lord Jesus at that time as my Lord and Savior. It wasn’t until nine years later, when he again continued to pour his grace out upon me, and at that time is when he saved me. The Lord Jesus saved me from myself. He saved me from a pit of depression that I was wallowing in.”

In addition to Emmanuel Baptist Church, East Richland Evangelical Friends Church, Christ the King Lutheran Church and Harbor of Hope Assembly of God Church all came together to celebrate the day when people across the nation lift their voices in prayer.

Baugh said that members of the different churches gathered at the courthouse as believers in Jesus to lift up the local community with prayer.

Community member Jim Dietz said he participates in the event in hopes of building bridges across the county and bringing people together outside the church.

“There’s a church for everybody, which is great, and we want to find more people in the streets to help lead them to those churches,” Dietz said.

Harbor of Hope Assembly of God Connections Pastor Nikki Smithberger said she believes that the National Day of Prayer is important because it is vital for the community to come together, not just ministry leaders or political leaders, but for everyone to come together and lift up the community to God.

She thanked everyone in attendance and encouraged them to continue to praise God every day.