The Clanton Advertiser

A group of devoted prayer warriors gathered for seven consecutive days to walk around the Chilton Medical Center’s premises to pray for the hospital’s future.

Pam Hall, who was previously employed by the hospital, organized the event by inviting anyone interested to join her in a seven-day prayer walk around the physical borders of the hospital.

Although the individuals that walked varied on different days beginning Nov. 28, many made it a goal to repeatedly show up and pray around the hospital borders.

“Each day we started with prayer, scripture, a word of devotion, a song of praise and then we walked,” Hall said.

Hall said those who showed up for the prayer walk during one or all of the seven days included Courtney Brock, Brandi Lawrence, Hailey Smith, Barbara McGinnis, Joann Bartlett, Steve Henderson, Donna Perdue, Gary Tate, Dawn Smitherman, Charlotte Dunkin, Sharon Jones, Tina Atchison, Alissa Atchison, Maricris Escalante, Hannah Wang, Isabel Escalante, Gerard Nolen, Denise Norcross, Luke Hall, Pam Hall, Diane Patterson, Oscar Mims, Teresa Nance and Ted Chapin.

Hall said the Lord impressed on her heart to prayerfully walk the borders of the hospital property after the hospital closed Oct. 29.

Hall encouraged those who might be interested in walking with her to know that the purpose of the walk was to unite together in prayer around the hospital.

“I felt that it was important for us to continue to wage war in prayer for the next seven days while physically walking the borders of our hospital,” Hall said.

The walks started each day at 10 a.m. and consisted of previous employees of the hospital, relatives of those employees or concerned citizens who all remain optimistic about the hospital’s future.

Former CMC medical technician Maricris Escalante diligently showed up every morning to walk the hospital grounds with some of her former colleagues.

“I have hope that the hospital will re-open,” Escalante said. “I have learned that despite all of the tough times there has been a lot of good that has come out of the hospital closing.”

Escalante said walking around the hospital was not necessarily challenging but taught her different things to be appreciative of including her sight to be able to see where she was going.

“A couple of times I have closed my eyes to pray and realized how difficult it is to walk with my eyes closed,” Escalante said. “Walking has allowed me to be able to appreciate the little things.”

As each participant walked a lap around the hospital on Tuesday, they placed a red marble in a clear glass jar to represent a drop of the Lord’s blood shed and to show how many laps each individual had walked.

Hall said the walk was to raise hearts in unity and praise the Lord who can and does win the war.

“My prayer is that the Lord raises us up to minister to our community in new and wonderful ways,” Hall said. “We will be different when we re-open. All the chains that have kept us bound and enslaved for these many long years will be broken off. The Lord is going to do something beautiful.”

Hall said the people in the community are blessings as they are friends and family.

“It is our privilege, our honor and our humble prayer going forward that we serve as a blessing to them in new and wonderful ways,” Hall said.