Once known as the “Pain Killer Capital” of the nation, Manchester, Ky., is now known as the “City of Hope.”
On a recent night here, hundreds attended the world premiere of “An Appalachian Dawn” – a documentary that tells the story of how God transformed a region held captive by corruption, poverty, and drugs.
Churches Band Together
The story began in 2004. The citizens of Clay County, Ky., were desperate. Their children were dying in record numbers from drug abuse. Drug dealers were rampant.
But desperation turned into prayer, followed by unity as people laid aside their denominational differences and staged a march through Manchester. They told the drug dealers to get saved or get busted. Local church pastors repented for not working together and for letting evil take over the land.
“First of all, when 63 churches in a small county marched through town together — for us, that was bigger than the parting of the Red Sea. That just never happened. We never worked together,” Doug Abner, Manchester Community Church senior pastor told CBN News.
“And today you can talk to the 3,500 or 4,000 people that were there, start talking about the march and everybody tears up.” Abner explained. “It was just an awesome thing that happened and then from that, it’s like all of the sudden the church had a voice in our community. We thought we had a voice before, but we really didn’t.”
