Georgia Gets Rain Day after Gov. Leads Prayers to God

Rain fell in parts of Georgia this week, one day after Gov. Sonny Perdue led a prayer service on the steps of the state Capitol to ask God to ease the drought.

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(Photo: AP Images / John Bazemore)

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and his wife Mary pray during a prayer service for rain on the steps of the Capitol Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007. 'We've come together here simply for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm,' Perdue said. The state's appeal to God for rain showers came as Georgia is mired in an epic drought, threatening the region's water supply.

A cold front coming through the Southeast brought a half-inch to an inch of rain fell to northern parts of the state Wednesday night and some precipitation early Thursday. But the showers did little to alleviate the drought, according to the National Weather Service, which had forecasted the rain.

“We're thankful for the rain and hopefully it's the beginning of more,” said Perdue, who is on a trade mission in Canada, according to The Associated Press. “Frankly, it's great affirmation of what we asked for.”

On Tuesday, the governor was in downtown Atlanta where he was joined by more than 250 ministers and lawmakers, landscapers and office workers in an interfaith prayer vigil for the state’s historic drought.

"We have come together, very simply, for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm,” said Perdue, a Georgia Baptist church member.

One minister addressed the crowd with a message centered on repentance for neglecting God.

“We've been so busy industrializing that we've forgotten how to spiritualize," Gil Watson, senior minister at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta, told the crowd.

"We've been so busy with our economy and what we can have and what we can possess that we've forgotten that You possess it all,” he prayed. “Great God, this is Your land. We till it for You. We are entrepreneurs for You, dear God."

Perdue later took the stage and asked the crowd to join in holding hands for prayer.

During his prayer, the governor asked God to forgive them for their wastefulness and appealed to Him for a miracle.

“It is Your power and Your miracles that we need,” prayed Perdue.

“We acknowledge that we have done many things we should," he said later. "But we're doing better. And I thought it was time to acknowledge that to the Creator, the Provider of water and land, and to tell Him that we will do better.”

One group of demonstrators protested the event, saying it violated the separation of church and state.

As the drought worsened, Perdue has ordered water restrictions and pressed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which determines how much water is sent via river, and the government for more water.