Navajos are being asked to stop whatever they're doing Thursday afternoon to pray for the Navajo Nation for at least an hour.
"During this time, prayers would be said on behalf of the Navajo Nation and carried on radio to every home, chapter, church and gathering place," said tribal Council Speaker Kelsey Begay, who is pushing Navajo Nation Prayer Day. "Mothers, fathers and families would gather together, and they too, would pray along with us."Begay wants prayers to begin at 1:30 p.m. Thursday and last at least an hour. He said he planned the prayer day with Christian pastors, Navajo traditional medicine men and Native American Church leaders.
Tribal members are being asked to give thanks and pray for the young, for the elderly, for the government and for rain.
"We need not only pray more, but we need to unify in prayer a lot more as Navajo people," Begay said. "The notion that one group is better, or above the other, must stop. We must unify in prayer and together begin to address issues that face our nation."
Navajos have been discussing the need to return to prayer after an elderly woman in Rocky Ridge, Ariz., said in April she saw a vision of two Navajo deities who told her they were saddened because Navajos have stopped praying, forgotten their language and culture and neglected the land.
That is why the sky has not blessed the thirsty land with rain, the dieties' message said.
"I feel that as God's people, we are all precious jewels in God's sight and we are also the precious offering that is being neglectful," said Begay, a Christian. "We should each do a soul-searching and begin to find our place on this earth."