If you ever doubted the power of prayer, you should have been at the New Beginnings Community Church's annual Easter Extravaganza and egg hunt Saturday at J.F. Gregory Park.

Pastor Steve Lane said he and the other church members working at the Easter egg hunt watched the skies open up Saturday morning and drop torrents of rain on the park grounds before the scheduled start time of 11 a.m.

"We knew that we had a lot of people coming. We prayed for a break in the rain so the families could enjoy the fun at J.F. Gregory," Lane said. With less than an hour before throngs of children would scoop up the eggs, the rain stopped, the skies temporarily cleared a little and the hunt started for the thousands who attended.

"We had a perfect window. After the hunt was over, the skies opened back up and the rain started back up," the pastor said with a smile.

The big news, however, wasn't the weather, but rather the smiling faces of thousands of children who hunted 30,000 candy-filled eggs, or had their picture taken with their favorite Easter bunny or played a myriad of games.

None of that would have possible without the hard work of dozens of volunteers, the pastor said.

"We had more than 50 volunteers filling eggs. We started filling them the first week of February. We called them 'egg stuffing' parties. None of this would have been possible without their hard work," Lane said.

See more in the April 23 edition of the News.