Meet the south Louisiana pastor who gave prayer at Day 3 of RNC on Wednesday

The Rev. Patrick “Packy” Thompson has a good deal of experience praying and preaching in front of large groups of people.

But the Bayou Blue pastor had his biggest audience ever Wednesday night, when he gave the closing benediction on Day Three of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“There were over 1 million people watching on Newsmax, and people watching all over,” said the pastor of Bayou Blue Assembly of God on Prospect Street near Bayou Blue Road during a Thursday morning telephone interview. “I've gotten emails, texts and Facebook messages from all over the world this morning, people that were watching it who are missionaries and statesman. And they were just thanking me for the prayer. It is really just kind of overwhelming.”

Thompson, a native of Jena who has lived and preached in Houma for more than three decades, held the stage at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, the convention’s main venue, for two minutes and forty-one seconds. Although there is no way to specifically determine how many people were at the site itself when Thompson gave the closing prayer, its capacity is about 17,000.

Thompson said he is a registered Republican, although he does not let party loyalty get in the way of what he considers to be just, and consistent with his God’s message.

“I always vote the Bible,” Thompson said. “When anybody stands contrary to the word of God, I can't vote for them. I vote with (what) the Bible teachers on stuff, and I don't think that's a contradiction in anything because the Bible tells us about justness and holiness and about sanctification. And so I think that as Christians, we have first obligations to God.”

Prior to his ministry Thompson labored in the oilfield, where he led Bible studies among men he worked with. He later attended Bible school and with his wife, Janet, co-ministered a tent-revival church in Eunice.

Ministry in Houma, where they have been for 31 years, followed.

He recently published a book, “The Divided Kingdom: The War That Rages Within,” which he describes as a work about “the struggle that people go through after they get saved.”

There was no struggling for the pastor when he took to the RNC podium Wednesday night,

“It was already on my heart, praying for our country and praying for the future,” Thompson said. “So, the prayer was not difficult.”

In a clear, steady voice, just as if he was doing a Sunday service back home, Rev. Thompson offered thanks to presidential candidate Donald Trump, then thanked God for “giving us a man to stand in the gap for us a man who has… protected our nation from those who would harm us.”

Thompson thanked God “for raising up President Donald J. Trump to be the 47th president of the United States.”He then referenced the attempted assassination of the candidate April 13, intoning thanks “for protecting him from the evil that was perpetrated.”

Thompson prayed for the nation to be united and for God to “help us elect leaders that will help us become the lead country in the world… To hold the values that our forefathers intended for us when they crafted the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights … help us to elect men and women of God who will protect the rights that were promised to every American. Protect us from tyranny and restore truth back to the public square.”

Thompson said he would personally witness Trump’s Thursday night acceptance speech. He was impressed, he said, that Trump met for hours with families of U.S. service members who had been killed in Afghanistan.

“He’s quite a guy,” Thompson said. “He’s real controversial I know. And I tell somebody if they’re having issues because, you know, he's not a perfect person, right … And, and I tell them I'm not voting for him to be my pastor. I’m voting for him to be my president.”