President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have joined a prayer meeting with a group of 700 pastors as they look to lead the United States through the Coronavirus crisis. They asked the huge group of Christian leaders to "pray for the strength of the United States" and "for those who are sick".
The Trump administration is currently working on numerous fronts to tackle the Coronavirus outbreak engulfing not just America, but much of the world.
The president and his team are working with scientists and advisors to coordinate the healthcare response to slow the spread of the Covid-19 disease, and at the same time formulating an economic response to try and help businesses and millions of workers whose incomes have been hit hard. However, despite being busier than ever, Trump has ensured that he has taken time out to pray.
Family Research Council leader, Tony Perkins, helped to organize the prayer conference with hundreds of other pastors. He explained that when the president found out that he was holding the mass prayer gathering, he insisted to join.
Perkins has described: "When I told the president I was going to be speaking to all of you he was in the midst of an extraordinarily busy day. [But] he looked at me and said, 'I have to find time. I need to find time'."
Perkins also said that the prayers of the pastors meant everything to Trump.
"So despite everything facing America, the two most important leaders of this nation stopped everything to pray with the people on the ground, who are ministering to their communities," Perkins said.
The virus, Trump said during the prayer meeting, "came upon us so suddenly. And we were doing better than we've ever done before as a country in terms of the economy — and then, all of the sudden, we got hit with this. So we had to close it down."
Trump added, "We're actually paying a big price to close it down. Never happened before."
But he insisted, "I think we're going to come back stronger than ever before."
Perkins described that Trump asked the pastors to pray for the strength of the United States.
The president said on the call, "I want to thank you for praying for our country and for those who are sick. You do such an incredible job."
"You're very inspirational people. And I'm with you all the way. You know that you see what we've done for right to life and all of the things that we've been working so hard together. I've been working with many of the people on the call. Many, many of the people. We've had tremendous support. But we are going to get over this," Trump encouraged.
