Before the first students walk through the doors of Southern Gap High School, a group of local ministers spent last Friday morning walking its halls for a different reason — to pray.
Seven area ministers gathered at the newly constructed school Aug. 7 to pray for the students, teachers, administrators and staff who will soon fill the building.
The group included Larry Thornsbury, Donnie Breeding, Roger Null, Nathaniel Deel, Jerry Ward, Tim Owens and Olivia Willson.
They began together in the school’s foyer, where they offered an opening prayer before making their way through the building. Along the way, they stopped in different areas of the school to pray for those who will learn, work and spend their days there.
The gathering came less than two weeks before Southern Gap is scheduled to welcome students for the first time Aug. 21.
Opening day will mark a new chapter for public education in Buchanan County as students from Council, Grundy, Hurley and Twin Valley come together under one roof.
For generations, those schools built their own traditions and identities in communities across the county. This fall, students who once wore different school colors and competed against one another will walk the same hallways as Southern Gap Eagles.
Last Friday’s gathering was an opportunity for the ministers to come together before that transition and pray throughout the new school.
Their prayers focused on the people who will make Southern Gap more than a new building — the students who will enter its classrooms, the teachers preparing lessons, the administrators leading the school and the staff members who will help keep it running each day.
As opening day draws closer, preparations continue throughout Southern Gap High School for the beginning of its first school year and a historic first day.
