Churches planning prayer walk

Saturday event marks fourth walk

by Manville Reformed Church and others
By:Alec Moore
   Residents are invited to join the Rev. Steven Strickler of Manville Reformed Church and Pastor Willa Rollins of Faith in Action Church for a spiritual prayer walk through the borough on Saturday.
   The walk will begin at 3 p.m. at the Manville Reformed Church, located at the corner of South Fifth and Pope streets, and finish at Faith in Action Church, 224-228 S. Main St., where a service will be held.
   "This is a chance for anyone and everyone to come together and pray for God’s blessing," said the Rev. Strickler, who has been organizing the prayer walk with neighboring churches in Manville and Bound Brook since 1997.
   "We want to bring the church to the people and this is a way of doing that," said the Rev. Rollins, noting the prayer walk takes about one hour.
   "We get a sense of community, we walk and we talk and we pray and that gives us a sense of connection," she said, adding that in the past the walking group has picked up a few more people as it made its way through town.
   Although originally planned for August in warmer weather, the walk had to be postponed because both churches were busy with other activities at that time.
   "We just couldn’t pull it off then," said the Rev. Rollins, who indicated that the Sept. 11 tragedy and recent hardships Americans have had to endure recently prompted the two churches to come together for the walk. "We’ll focus on the people who lost their lives, the walk will be our memorial to them."
   For more information on the prayer walk, please call the Manville Reformed Church at 575-0174.