Yellow ribbons and photographs of Lance Cpl. Christopher Fowlkes are being distributed locally as a show of support and a sign of prayer for his recovery. Fowlkes, the third member of his family to join the Marines, was in the middle of his second overseas deployment when he was critically injured last Thursday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. As his father and mother headed to Germany on Monday to be at his side, relatives, friends and neighbors of Lance Cpl. Christopher Fowlkes gathered at a Gaffney church Monday evening to pray for divine intervention.

"One of our own has been hurt," Pastor Joseph James of Buford Street United Methodist Church told those in attendance. "What I'm encouraging you to do is lift up the prayers in your heart."

The 71 people there did just that, praying aloud for a healing hand, for the gift of wisdom to the doctors and nurses attending to the 20-year-old Marine, and comfort for four other military families and communities suffering the same heartache.

Fowlkes, who was in the middle of his second deployment overseas, was critically injured Thursday when his fiveman unit exited their vehicle in Afghanistan and one of the servicemen stepped on an improvised explosive device.

Two of the servicemen, a Marine and a Navy corpsman, were killed in the blast while Fowlkes and the two others suffered major injuries.

Fowlkes was transported to a U.S. medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany, on Sunday. Surgeries were performed Sunday and again on Tuesday. He remains in critical condition.

His father and mother, Steve and Donna, headed for Germany on Monday morning, first stopping in Washington, D.C., to obtain emergency passports. The trip to Washington was arranged by the Marine Corps.

"I want to express my gratitude on behalf of the family," said Mike Fowlkes, himself a Marine, who addressed the attendees at the Monday prayer service for his nephew. "I want to thank each and every one of you for coming out tonight."

Fowlkes relayed that he had an opportunity on Monday to speak with the families of the two servicemen who were killed in the Thursday blast.

Talking about his conversation with one serviceman's mother, he said, "I told her we've been praying for them (too)."

Fowlkes said the mother replied, "Please do that. I'm afraid they're going to be forgotten."

That's not going to happen among the Fowlkes family, or among those who came out to pray at Buford Street United Methodist Church.

Attendees at the prayer service, which lasted about an hour, were all given the opportunity to offer any prayer they wanted.

"Dear God, be with Christopher," one said. "We know you have a plan for him."

The same person asked that Christopher be allowed to come home.

"We'll take care of him."

While Christopher was foremost on their minds, he wasn't the only one as the other families of the five servicemen involved, as well as all servicemen remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, were all remembered in prayers.

Mike Fowlkes said Tuesday afternoon that the surgery performed on Tuesday was meant to clean his nephew's wounds and guard against infection.

As they have been since news of the incident broke Thursday, Fowlkes said the family, which is thousands of miles removed from their loved one, has been waiting for updates.