Facebook page started to keep educators covered in prayer

With questions still looming and anxiety high as the school year begins, two friends have taken it upon themselves to make sure all of the teachers and school employees in St. Charles Parish can count on at least one thing – that they’re covered in prayer.

Friends Kelly Bourgeois and Lynn Edwards, both of whom are parishioners of St. Anthony of Padua in Luling, started the Facebook group “Praise and Pray for our teachers!” recently.

“Seeing people so negative on the school parent page, even down to pointing out every minor typo, made me quite upset because I know how hard teachers and administrators have been working all summer so that the students will get the best education possible in these circumstances,” Edwards said of her inspiration to start the page.

A conversation with Bourgeois confirmed each’s desire to make a difference and bring positivity, and thus the Facebook page was born.

“I hope to bring positive affirmations to teachers amidst all the negativity that others choose to spread so that they know they are appreciated,” Edwards said.

“This new school year will be unprecedented and will present many challenges for our teachers and students,” Bourgeois posted on the Facebook page. “We feel it is so important that our teachers know they have our support. What better way to do that than to pray for each one of them?”

Each week, Bourgeois said page moderators will pick 50 teachers or faculty members from a school to focus prayer efforts on.

“We will do this for each school until everyone is prayed for, and then move to another school,” she said. “Sometimes people are unsure of their words when they pray and like to look at words when they pray, so I wrote out a prayer that people can use if they want to.”

Looking at teacher’s and faculty members’ names, she said, will hopefully lead to a more personal and meaningful prayer experience for participants.

“Our goal is to get as many people in our parish as we can to come together and pray,” Bourgeois said. “It is critical, in these challenging times, that we turn to God to pray, for our teachers, administrators, every single member of the faculty and our students. I just think the power of prayer can do anything … can achieve anything.”

She said she hopes the knowledge that people are praying for them boosts the morale of educators.

“I have a few teacher friends, and they’re just anxious and nervous about all of the uncertainty,” Bourgeois said. “It’s hard to watch them suffer. We just need to do something, and we know that prayer is the best thing to do.”