PROSPECT – “…Last year in July, I was riding along the road and, you know, I got to thinking about the fellowship and I started praying, I started asking the Lord, I said, 'Lord, we need a revival here in (the) Prospect area. We need to bring all the churches together. We need to bring everybody together, not just the black churches, but all churches together.' And I start praying about it, start asking the Lord, show me what He would want me to do. -Rev. Robert Clark, Pastor First Rock Baptist Church

Rev. Clark didn't tell anyone about his desire, his prayer. Then, out of the blue in the middle of January, he received a call from Rev. Furman Joye, a nearly 83-year-old minister who regularly speaks at The Woodland. The two men had known each other for about two years, had crossed paths and called each other. Rev. Joye asked his fellow minister what he thought about getting all the churches together for a revival.

“And I said 'Wow,'” Rev. Clark recounted. “I mean, I paused for a minute-I paused for a minute, I said, 'Wait a minute…' and I had told no one this. Absolutely no one. Absolutely, not even my wife. And I said, 'You know, Rev. Joye, I've been asking the Lord to send us a revival in the Prospect area.' And he said, 'Well, that's what I have gotten, too.' And so I said, 'Well we need to go ahead and get this thing going.'”

Rev. Joye, who had been a lay speaker for years before settling down locally and becoming ordained, had been thinking about it, too-the need for a revival in Prospect.

“I see so many people that need revival and the churches are so separate on Sunday morning,” he said.

He reflected on a similar community revival around 2002 in Floyd, Virginia where he noted it worked “beautiful,” adding that about 35 were saved that week.

A member of Glenn Memorial, Rev. Joye had visited First Rock a few times and felt welcome, just like he belonged.

“I just believe in bringing people together. It's not a great integration move, it's…bringing people together to worship God in the way that we should without any hesitation,” Rev. Joye says.

It didn't take long-a few phone calls and a few yeses, and starting next week, several area ministers and choirs-both white and black-will share in a series of special services.

Rev. Clark said he noted that all of the churches weren't fellowshipping together like they should.

“The most segregated places in the country is at churches at 11 o'clock,” Rev. Joye adds.

Noted Rev. Clark, “We work together all the time. Eat together. But on Sunday mornings, we are separate and segregated and we're just being segregated…But we all serve the same Lord.”

There won't be a theme for the week; the only agenda is to bring God's people together to worship, Rev. Clark said.

What is planned to be the first annual Prospect Community Revival (though all are invited and welcome) is scheduled for June 9-14 at First Rock, located just off of U.S. Route 460 west of Farmville. Refreshments and a fellowship time are scheduled for 6 p.m. with nightly services beginning at 7 p.m.

Participating ministers include Pastor Raymond Ackers of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church who will speak on Sunday, June 9; Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Daryl Brown on Monday, June 10; Pastor Robert Clark of First Rock Baptist Church on Tuesday, June 11; Glenn Memorial Baptist Church Pastor John Baldwin on Wednesday, June 12; Pastor Otis Johnson of Peaks Baptist Church on Thursday, June 13; and minister at large Rev. Joye on Friday, June 14.

While the speakers are Baptist, it is open for other denominations. There is no specific theme or text encompassing the messages; that will be up to the individual ministers.

“I'm hoping that everyone will come together as Christians like we're supposed (to)-everyone would come together and that everyone will learn from each other the love of Christ,” Rev. Clark says.

He offers, “We need revival and God…tells us like he told Solomon … what we have to do in order to receive the revival,” Rev. Clark said. “And I'm hoping, I'm hoping that that week, that everyone will get their heart right with God and receive the revival, because God wants to do, He wants to do marvelous things for this community. The thing of it is, we have to make that step to receive those things. He's not gonna give us when we are not ready to receive and I'm hoping that this revival will let people know who God is and to draw them back to God.”

Perhaps something, as hoped, that could spread though the area, state and nation.

All churches have revival, Rev. Joye points out. On any given day, any given revival or any given time, 99 percent of it will be one color.

“And that's not right,” Rev. Joye points out. “There's no black aisles or white aisles in heaven…and we need people to be of one accord.”

Adds Rev. Clark, “One voice, one praise, because we all serve one Lord.”