Special to Iredell Free News

Local author and pastor the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Lee recently released a new book of prayers and litanies for those who find themselves in need of prayer during the hours of solitude and quietness during the night.

A Statesville native, Lee is the author of four other books that range in topic from adoption and foster care to reckoning with racism in the south. His newest book, with Smyth and Helwys Publishing, is titled “Night Owl Prayers: A Prayerbook” and covers topics from insomnia, working third shift to facing crises during the nighttime hours.

Lee, who also works as a night auditor at the Hilton Garden Inn in Statesville began the book as a companion for those who, like him, find themselves working or waking during the night while others sleep.

“After we adopted our girls I took an overnight job at the hotel so I could pick them up after school and be in proximity to them,” he said. “For me it’s about modeling the proximity that God is after with us to my girls. I want them to know they have a God who is both with and for them.”

The book also contains blessings from everything to new sleeping spaces to midnight snacks, and prayers modeled after hymns about night and nighttime experiences.

Dr. Lee is a graduate of Appalachian State University (BA, 2015), Duke University Divinity School (MTS, 2017), and most recently Pacific School of Religion (DMin, 2023). He is an ordained minister in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship with standing in the American Baptist Churches, USA, and he is an active associate member of Broad Street United Methodist Church in Statesville. Rob lives in Statesville with his wife Stephanie and his two daughters.