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Every year, Suffolk hosts a Leadership Prayer Breakfast on the National Day of Prayer, modeled after the National Prayer Breakfast inaugurated by the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Suffolk’s breakfast was held on May 1, marking the event’s 41st anniversary.

The Prayer Breakfast is meant to encourage citizens around the world to publicly recognize and speak about the privileges and responsibilities of a nation under God. 

The breakfast was moderated by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s award-winning journalist Paul Petitte and Larry Wayne Morbitt provided music from Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera.”

Mayor Michael Duman welcomed everyone on behalf of the city, stating the National Day of Prayer is a “testament to our country’s foundational freedoms.”

“Today we gather not only as individuals of faith, but as a united community,” he said. “As I look around, I see business leaders, public servants, educators, first responders, neighbors and friends with each of us bringing our hopes, burdens and prayers to the table.”

The event’s keynote speaker was Major Joshua Mast of the U.S. Marine Corps. He shared the story of how he and his wife adopted a young girl from Afghanistan, and how God has provided them with a miracle.

Sparrow — as she’s known publicly to protect her true identity — was found at six weeks old during a U.S. raid on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Mast and his wife have gone through all the legalities to adopt her and bring her to the U.S. 

Now, the Afghan couple who brought her to the U.S. and currently live here are suing the Mast’s to annul the adoption of Sparrow because they claim her biological father is alive and wants guardianship of her. However, after having seen birth certificates and refusing DNA tests, it’s fairly certain there is no biological connection between them.

“And my objective today is to acknowledge God’s hand in our family’s life, our daughter’s life, but also to acknowledge, on this National Day of Prayer, when we’re forming ourselves as a nation, asking God to be involved in our natural life, in our personal lives,” Mast said. “We’re, acknowledging the source of our rights, that life, liberty, pursuit of happiness … because it’s so important to recognize God, the Father, has a hand in our lives, that he uses those miracles that we see in our everyday life with building back this happiness to bring us to discipline.”

Sparrow is named after the song, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount. While Mast was still on his mission, his wife was at home “praying for baby Sparrow” with their four boys. 

“It’s so appropriate that this portion of the program is entitled ‘One Million Little Miracles,’ … because it’s so impossible that we’re here today with the story telling you it’s a God thing,” he continued. “Because she should not have survived that engagement, she was the only person who did, from that side … That’s the first miracle I can point to.”

Colonel Jesse Enfield of the U.S. Air Force provided greetings from the Military and asked for prayers for those who died serving our country, those who have served, and our service members’ families.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares spoke about the different things that guide his faith and how he believes there has been a disconnect between America’s young generations and their faith in God.

“This generation should be the happiest generation in American history, if you judge success and happiness by how the world judges success and happiness,” he said. “Because on paper, this generation of young people are the most financially secure generation America has ever seen. On paper, this generation is the most highly educated generation America has ever seen. And yet … this generation has the highest levels of addiction, depression and anxiety.”

He went on to say that everyone is “beautifully, and wonderfully made by our Creator,” and the history of the universe can be summed up in one message from God: “I love you, and I lost you, and I have come to bring you back.”

Originally from Kenshasa, Congo, Jemeres Essandjo presented a prayer for the persecuted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its “seemingly endless war.”

“We pray that order will not be far-fetched. May the concept of constitutional rights become more common amongst them. May their semi-presidential system be a system that democratically integrates all. Let the members of the branches of government be not corrupt or compromised, no, but in the name of Jesus, oh God, let them be leaders of integrity, and may they be influenced strictly by your Holy Spirit,” he prayed. “So, Father, we know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, principalities, against movers of darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places.”