Tony Baughman 
Gathering On Edgefield Square Joins Thousands
Two grieving young mothers here in Edgefield County are adding to the chorus of voices crying out in prayer for a nation stunned by last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Amber Lee Bledsoe and Kayce Locklair Calliham are organizing a “Prayer Vigil for Charlie James Kirk and his family” on the Square in downtown Edgefield this Wednesday night, September 17 at 6 p.m. The event flyer, which appeared last weekend across social media channels including the Edgefield County Republican Party’s official Facebook page, urges interested citizens to “let’s honor Charlie and praise God.”
“We’re just two moms who believe in God and believe in what he was doing,” said Bledsoe, whose two small children’s voices could be heard in the background as she held back tears and talked about the inspiration for the prayer vigil. “We don’t want his voice to die with him. He truly was just one of God’s workers, and to be silenced over preaching the Word and truth has been so hard for me to process.”
The planned gathering stems from the horror Bledsoe felt when she saw the graphic online video of Charlie Kirk’s murder last Wednesday during a rally on a Utah college campus. “I think that really lit the fire in my heart. It’s not right. It’s just not right,” she said.
Suzy Spurgeon, chair of the Edgefield County Republican Party, said the political organization is not directly involved in organizing or sponsoring the event, but she was asked to share the event flyer Sunday night on the local GOP chapter’s social media.
This vigil in Edgefield County, miles away from the site of Kirk’s slaying and the activist’s Turning Point USA base in Arizona, joins countless such events across America. In communities large and small, followers of the Christian conservative media personality and advisor to the Trump Administration have gathered by the thousands to pray and demonstrate their solidarity with Kirk’s political views.
Organizers Hope Folks ‘Come Together Peacefully’
For Bledsoe, the gathering planned for Wednesday is not so much a political statement as a loving gesture from two mothers in South Carolina to a grieving widow and parent in Erika Kirk and her children who have lost their Daddy.
“I feel like he needs some recognition. His two small children, his wife – it’s unfathomable,” Bledsoe said. “I couldn’t imagine going out and preaching the Word and being shot because of it. It’s insane.”
Bledsoe and Calliham know there are some who are strongly against hosting a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk in small, rural Edgefield County. They’ve even heard from some of those naysayers, but Bledsoe and Calliham are committed to their mission to honor his memory – and to worship the Lord.
“I’ve invited people who were opposed to it. I’ve had several people very upset that we’re doing this,” she said. “But I’ve offered for them to come so I can pray for them. That’s all I can do. I will not feed into the negativity. This is all for the greater good. It doesn’t matter if you believed everything that he said or you liked him as a person. He did not deserve to be assassinated.”
No one can predict how many people might attend Wednesday’s vigil. Across the country, crowds for similar events have been larger than anticipated. In nearby Aiken, at least a couple hundred people attended a vigil staged Monday night on a streetside plaza in front of a local bank. (The bank itself disavowed involvement in the vigil.)
“I know the following that God has is going to show up and show out,” Bledsoe said. “We’re just going to have a good time, and everybody’s going to be happy, and we’re all just going to get along.”
Above all else, these two young mothers are praying this small gesture on the public square in Edgefield will be an agent of change in an increasingly troubled and divided America.
“I want everybody to come together and pray. That’s all we want,” Bledsoe said. “I just want to pray for him, pray for his family, pray for his followers and pray to God to protect us in our future endeavors. And we want to thank God for all we have and that we were able to wake up today and tomorrow and hopefully the next day. I just want everybody to come together peacefully.”
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