A group of area church leaders have organized an extended weekend of “spiritual healing” later this month in Alvord, a community very much in need of mending in the wake of a string of tragedies since November 2012.

”There is a lot of hurting in our community,” said Apostle Quint Burks, one of the organizers of the four-day event. “It almost seems like there’s a lot of division. It would be so much easier if everyone came together to support each other through the healing process.”

The extended weekend’s events at Elm Creek Park Thursday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 16, include music, worship and speakers, including Alvord youth who have lost friends and parents who have lost children in the string of tragedies since November 2010.

A breakdown of events, performers and worship leaders are as follows:

• Thursday, 7 p.m. – J. Reed Project Band, Pastor Phillip Weitner of Living Word Assembly of God
• Friday, 7 p.m. – The rEVOLution Band, worship led by Rob Avera of Unchained Bikers in Chico.

Events Saturday kick off with a bike run at 10 a.m. from Full Armor Church in Alvord to Elm Creek Park around 2 p.m. The day continues with:

• noon – kids activities (bounce houses, a mascot, clown), concessions by the Living Word Men’s Group, performances by Divine Calling, Broken Chains, Common Denominator, Righteous Blues Band and 10th Leper
• 7 p.m. – worship led by Pastor Doc Dennis of Full Armor Biker Church in Alvord.

There are two services planned for Sunday, the last day of the event.

• 10:30 a.m. – New Vision Praise and Worship, Apostle Quint Burks speaking
• 6 p.m. – Dunamis Power Band, Mark Porter with New Vision speaking.

“We invite every other church in Alvord to get involved,” Burks said. “We want everyone to set their denominational differences aside and come together for the community.

In less than two years, the town of about 1,300 has lost five teenagers in a series of tragic events. Samantha Rogers, 17, and Delaney Mancil, 15, were killed in a four-vehicle accident on U.S. 380 in Denton County in November 2010.

In May, Aisha Bryant, 16, who would have been a senior, died in a car accident on U.S. 287, just north of Decatur.

Then two months later, classmates Marcus Silletti and Cheyanne Dollins, who would have been freshmen, were killed by trains 22 days apart.

“This is far too much for any community to handle, much less a small one,” Burks said. “We want to do something to bring our community together after all that has happened. This will give us an opportunity to share, an opportunity to move forward.”