Community prayer service held in Lexington following explosion
LEXINGTON, Mo. (KCTV) - Dozens in Lexington ed together in prayer at 12th and Main, several days after a deadly gas explosion rocked the town.
“There is a variety of feelings people are probably experiencing right now, such as loss,” said Russell Peirce, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church. “In the Bible it says to mourn with those who mourn. There are some people who are scared, and they don’t know what’s ahead. We want to be a to them. Lastly, there are some people that might be angry. There are people hurting right now and that should be our focus.”
The explosion killed 5-year-old Alistair Cunningham and severely injured his 10-year-old sister, Cami, and his father, Jacob. Both are still recovering in the hospital.
“We were at First Baptist Church having choir practice and the big boom happened,” said Aubrey Burk, a resident of Lexington and former pastor at First Baptist Church. “The lights all went out in the church and we’re a mile down the road. We began hearing what had happened. We have been in prayer for that family.”
Burk believes Alistair and Cami may have attended the church’s vacation bible school last summer. They knew Cunningham worked at the local grocery store.
“We have been lifting them up in prayers, contributing everything that we could to be able to help them in that way,” said Burk. “We’ll continue to pray for them.”
The prayer service was put together by the Lexington Ministerial Alliance, a group of pastors from local churches. Each took a few minutes to pray with people for different things: healing, rebuilding, and unity.
Beside the area where people gathered sits a gazebo. Inside, the community has set up a memorial for Alistair with balloons, flowers, toys, stuffed animals and more. Peirce says that solidarity is needed in the community as they move forward.
“We need to rally together and say, you know what, we’ve got differences, but we have more in common than we have in difference,” said Peirce.
A GoFundMe and private bank have been set up for the Cunningham family. The Lexington Ministerial Alliance is also accepting donations for others impacted by the explosion.
Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.
