Volunteers to take flight, pray for Buckeye State

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BLUFFTON, Ohio -- If you notice a small airplane circling your neighborhood around noon on Good Friday, raise your eyes to the heavens and say a prayer for its occupants.
Chances are, they will be doing the same for you.
A group based at the Bluffton Airport has organized PrayerFlight, a plan to put small aircraft full of Prayer Warriors in the air over the entire state Friday to pray for "our fellow man, cities and nation."
They've done it twice before, and the project is growing, said Kenny Wortman, group spokesman.
The first flight was just a single airplane with four occupants flying around the Lima area last fall.
Wortman recalled that a friend approached him and said he wanted to "pray over Lima," and the idea took off.
The second flight, in December, grew to eight planes with 26 participants, including six volunteers from the Teens for Christ program in Lima, that covered seven Ohio counties.
The group plans to cover the entire state Friday, dividing it up into 15 districts and seeking local participants from each of those areas.
No local volunteers
Wortman said no volunteers with aircraft had come forward in the Mahoning, Trumbull or Columbiana county area as of midweek, but that won't stop the project.
Enough airplanes and volunteers have been arranged for the Bluffton area to get at least one aircraft over each of the 15 districts, Wortman said.
The flights will last about an hour.
The flights are ecumenical in nature. Volunteers from any religious affiliation are welcome, he said.
In addition to prayers for mankind in general, the participants pray for any needs, including specific requests.
"We're letting God lead us," Wortman said.
Why use airplanes?
"I've been in churches where the pastor has said, 'The fields are ripe for the harvest.' In a plane, you see a lot of fields, a lot of towns, places where people need help," Wortman said.
The project has grown beyond just Ohio, he said, noting that airports in Florida, California, Alaska, Indiana and Michigan will have PrayerFlights at the same time Friday.
Anyone interested in volunteering, whether as a pilot or a Prayer Warrior, can reach Wortman at (419) 358-7045.