Churchgoers Join in Massive Christian Prayer Event : Religion: Local participants in ‘March for Jesus,’ which originated in Europe, carry balloons and banners as they trek in 92-degree heat.

About 1,000 people from churches throughout Saddleback Valley on Saturday joined a two-mile “March for Jesus,” part of a worldwide Christian evangelical event that this year spanned more than 500 U.S. cities and 170 countries worldwide.

The participants carried balloons and “praise Jesus” banners as they trekked in 92-degree heat through the city.

Dan Lickel, a Harvard University student home on summer break, wore a Mexican sombrero to keep cool.

“There’s a lot of people out there that march for other things and when people get together and march for something spiritual, it’s great,” said Lickel, 20, of Mission Viejo. “We’re not some nutsos.”

The march was one of three such gatherings in Orange County Saturday, which included an estimated 2,000 people at separate events in Irvine and Huntington Beach.

Organizers said that “March for Jesus” is a massive prayer event designed to spread Christianity in the “least evangelized areas” of the world. It originated in Europe in the mid-1980s and spread to other countries in 1991.

Leigh Ann Mayfield, the Saddleback march coordinator, said that more than 10 million people participated worldwide last year and even more were expected this year.

Saturday’s hourlong progression began and ended at Saddleback Community Church in a giant white tent, where marchers gathered afterward to pray for the United States, Japan and the local community, Mayfield said.

“We stand up for what we believe,” said Duy Pham, pastor of Mission Viejo Southern Baptist Church, which has an all-Vietnamese congregation.