Prayers for the nation’s unity were heard downtown as community members gathered outside the Liberty County Historic Courthouse Thursday for the annual National Day of Prayer Observance.

The event was hosted by the United Ministerial Alliance of Liberty County. Pastor Richard Hayes of New Day Community church and UMA president said he was excited over the diverse crowd of people who came to pray.

"There are people around the nation that will be joining in prayer. There’s conflict, confusion, wars, rumors of wars, all kinds of things to distract us from our relationship with God. But today we have the unique opportunity, gathering various races, various churches, denominations, social statuses, coming together in one place, in one opportunity to pray together."

Pastor Tommy Crutchfield, of Life UPC, spoke on the theme "We pray, let them see what we see" from 2 Kings 6:14.

"Prayer changes things, your vision, dreams, goals, brings you closer to God, invokes healing, changes cities, changes the outcome of war," Crutchfield said. "How do you perceive things? What is your perspective? Do you see that you have nothing? Do you see more problems than blessings in our country? We need to take a second look and say, ‘God let them see what we see.’ If we start looking, not through humanity’s eyes but through the eyes of God, things might start to change for us."