Praying for relief at the pump

Tapping into Alaskan oil reserves won’t solve the national fuel crisis. But tapping into the heavens sure will, at least according to Rocky Twyman.

Because, in his assessment, politicians refuse to solve America’s energy problem, Twyman turned to someone he was certain would listen: God. The Maryland resident brought his Pray at the Pump movement to the Sam’s Club gas station in Albemarle County on Friday.

Clad in a bright purple “Prayer Warrior” shirt — as he put it — Twyman, 59, along with five local people, asked God to lower gas prices and thanked him for the recent decrease — a reason to believe that God is truly listening, he said.

“Prayer is powerful,” Twyman said. “We have felt the impact of this movement all across the country.”

According to AAA, the average price nationwide for a gallon of self-service regular has decreased from $4.114 one month ago to $3.771 on Friday.

But to credit the movement to Twyman would be false. It belongs to God, the Seventh-day Adventist said.

“The idea really came from God,” Twyman said, adding that it was the Lord who impressed him to travel to Charlottesville.

As Twyman prayed, onlookers stared; but the six-member prayer group kept going. Soon they were singing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” with an added verse of “He’s got the lower gas prices in His hands.”

“I don’t think it’s silly,” said Pastor Jack McCrary Jr., of the Bethany Seventh-day Adventist Church, who joined Twyman in prayer. “If the economy and gas prices are affecting our overall budget, we need to pray for everything.”

When he saw how skyrocketing gas prices had workers threatening to leave at a soup kitchen in Washington, the disgruntled Maryland consultant decided that at this point, prayer was the only option. He took the volunteers to a gas station across the street a couple of days later and started to pray.

The movement, which started on April 23, is not an organized one and does not have a certain amount of members who travel from station to station, Twyman said. He usually travels from state to state and recruits locals at the pumps before he begins praying. Usually, between 10 and 20 join his cause, he added.

But Friday’s prayer session at 3 p.m. only yielded six believers and five, including Twyman, at 5 p.m. Twyman approached several at the gas station asking them to join him in prayer. While some joined, others seemed somewhat suspicious.

Yet, Twyman expressed no disappointment over the low number.

“When you have God on your side … it’s really not about the numbers,” Twyman said. He cited the battle between the Israelites and the Midianites as an example. Despite the Lord cutting their army from 3,000 to 300, the Israelites still managed to win, he said.

Twyman has taken the movement all across the country — as far as San Francisco and as south as Huntsville, Ala., where the gas attendant lowered the prices by three cents as soon as the group had finished praying — a true “hallelujah moment,” he said.

But why travel, why not simply pray from anywhere? “By actually going there, it does give us a good media story,” Twyman admitted.

He said he isn’t trying to attract attention to himself or his movement, but rather to the notion of prayer. Through the movement, Twyman said, he has the opportunity to let people know that prayer, and not politicians, is the answer to every problem.

“Our elected officials are just asleep,” Twyman said. “What God is trying to do with this movement is turn everyone back to God. We don’t depend on him anymore. We depend on McCain and Obama, [but] McCain doesn’t own the world, Obama doesn’t own the world … God owns the world.”

Politics is the reason Twyman has a problem with comedian Jay Leno. “The Tonight Show” host referred to the Pray at the Pump movement as the Bush energy plan. And Twyman does not want the movement associated with any sort of political party, asserting that people of all political ideologies and faiths have participated.

As he prayed Friday afternoon, he held up a sign that read, “Jay: Prayer is the answer to every problem” and asked him to join the movement. Yet, prayer is not the sole answer, Twyman said. Prayer without good works will not be enough to cure America from high gas prices. He encourages people to carpool, use public transportation and plan out their daily routes to save as much gas as possible. He even drafted a petition to Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi Arabian minister of petroleum, asking him to send more barrels of oil to the United States.

“They say that they believe in the holy Koran,” Twyman said. “They should practice those principles because the holy Koran talks specifically about compassion for the poor.”

He said if OPEC were to release 1.2 million additional barrels of oil a day, the economy would greatly benefit.

Twyman plans to return to the Charlottesville area, specifically to the University of Virginia, in hopes of holding another prayer session.

As for when Twyman will end the movement … he believes that only God can answer that one.