Prayer Meeting 'Miraculously' Pops up in Ferguson for Seriously Wounded Police Officer

A miracle in Ferguson, Missouri. That's how one pastor is describing a spontaneous prayer meeting for a police officer who suffered a serious head injury at the hands of a violent protester.

Officer Travis Brown, who joined the Ferguson Police Department this year in hopes of making a difference, remains in a coma as citywide prayer continues for his recovery from an act of violence on August 10.

Officer Travis Brown is in a coma (Photo courtesy Ferguson Police Department)

New to the Ferguson Police Department, Officer Brown was shoved to the ground by an alleged protester at a rally that started as peaceful and then later turned violent.

The assault on Officer Brown, an African-American who was sworn in this January, coincided with the 10-year anniversary of 18-year-old Michael Brown's death. The unarmed, black teen was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. 

National news media visited Ferguson this summer to cover the tragic anniversary of Brown's widely reported death and events remembering the mayhem that followed the teen's death.

One of the commemoratives – a gathering by activists in front of the Ferguson Police Department – began peacefully on Saturday evening, Aug. 10 with interactions between officers and a large crowd of people.

After 11 p.m. when most Ferguson residents had left the gathering, some protestors assaulted a police-imposed barrier fence in front of the police station, according to Civil Righteousness, a Ferguson-based ministry working for reconciliation and restoration through spiritual, cultural, and economic renewal. 

Officers were forced to arrest some protesters, which precipitated heightened violence against law enforcement. A few officers were injured but none as seriously as Travis Brown.

In an email from Civil Righteousness Founder Pastor Jonathan Tremaine Thomas, he said Officer Brown's critical condition and the violence directed at Ferguson police has rocked the city again. 

A decade of intentional, directed and unified reforms by police and city leaders – improving relations between law enforcement and residents – seemingly disappeared 10 years after Ferguson was first traumatized by the shooting of Michael Brown.

Only this time, a Ferguson officer is battling for his life as citizens once again grieve and pray.

Led by Pastor Thomas and the Co-Director of the Ferguson Prayer Furnace, a prayer vigil for Officer Brown led the police department to initiate a much broader call to the Civil Righteousness ministry to lead citywide intercession.

Invited to headquarters by the police chaplain on Tuesday, Aug. 13, Pastor Thomas learned the City of Ferguson was publicizing a call to prayer that evening – assuming the pastor was leading the gathering.

Ferguson Police Chaplain Jose Aguayo told Thomas the police chief preferred a week's delay to give officers and city staff time to recover from tense 10-hour workdays following the violence.

Civil Righteousness, however, was not involved in organizing the prayer event promoted by the city and covered by local network news broadcasts, according to a Civil Righteousness email.

That evening hundreds of people convened for prayer, and multiple media outlets dutifully covered the event.

Arriving on the scene, Pastor Thomas was surprised to learn media and prayer warriors assumed that Civil Righteousness – a well-known and respected ministry in Ferguson – had called the meeting to pray.

Experienced at convening prayer along boulevards, monuments and city fixtures named after civil rights leader and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Pray on MLK – Thomas did not organize what he calls a supernatural gathering.

"With no human leader present to take charge or to take credit, it appears that God Himself called the city to pray and repent," Thomas relayed on social media.

In that moment, Chaplain Aguayo and Pastor Thomas assumed direction of the gathering with other Christian leaders who prayed in power and humility as the city returned to the Lord. 

After consecrating the land as Holy Ground, the mayor sang about the redemptive power of Jesus' blood, according to Thomas.

"We watched in awe as the Spirit of the Lord governed the gathering, which is what one would expect," Thomas pointed out.

He called the gathering a miracle. "I truly believe it was a moment for Ferguson – and possibly American – history that we will point to as a turning point in the years to come," Thomas wrote on Instagram.

Even before the attack on Officer Brown and the miraculous gathering that followed it, the Ferguson Prayer Furnace – an outreach and intercession ministry of Civil Righteousness – has served its neighbors uniquely this summer.

Drive-through prayer for Ferguson residents has drawn hundreds of people since July, according to Hannah Herum, co-director of the prayer and outreach expression of CR.

God is moving through the Tuesday night prayer outreach to the city, Herum believes. The effort continues through August.

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