Saturday May 18th, 2013 • 10:22:19pm
Centenary United Methodist Church will host a neighborhood picnic today at Union Park, Southwest 6th Street and Avenue I, as part of the Change the World weekend program.
Lawtonians living in the neighborhood bordered by Lee Boulevard on the south, Gore Boulevard on the north, Fort Sill Boulevard on the west and 2nd Street on the east are invited to Union Park for the picnic from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Hot dogs and refreshments will be served while they last and games and music will be available. Centenary's Connect Band will provide the music.
Centenary is holding the picnic as part of a worldwide Change the World weekend.
"We came up with the idea of the picnic before the Change the World event was announced ... I call it a Holy Spirit moment," said Pastor Norma Quinn.
Whether it is a community picnic in Lawton, a "clean up a shelter" event in Tennessee or a Habitat for Humanity build in Austin, Texas, churches across the U.S. and around the world are holding large and small community events, each designed to make a difference.
"In dozens of ways, thousands of people will work together to build community and address social issues ranging from hunger to housing, health care, education, and deaths from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Every effort counts as together we seek to Change the World!" according to the program's website, www.rethinkchurch.org/impact-event/change-world-2013.
The community is invited to an interdenominational "Sing Spiration" today to recognize Pentecost weekend.
The event will begin at 2 p.m. today at Bridge Park at Sheridan Road and D Avenue.
Pentecost the coming of the Holy Spirit as recounted in Acts 2:1-47 "in my 55 years of ministry, has been terribly neglected," said Brother Samuel Arvitt. "The Holy Spirit isn't preached these days."
As a retired minister and a member of Northside Baptist Church, Arvitt has been preaching about Pentecost for many years. He and Peter Marcias decided to invite the entire community to hear more about Pentecost and its meaning.
"I have asked many people what is the most wonderful gift God gave the world and its people, besides Jesus Christ. You should hear some of the answers I get," Arvitt said. "Only one person gave the right answer the Holy Spirit, the grace of God."
Bethel Assembly of God, 1115 SW D, will hold a church yard sale from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the church yard.
A $6 lunch including beans, cornbread, drink and dessert will be available. All the proceeds will go to the Children's Church Department for Vacation Bible School.
Registration for kindergarten through third grade Summer Enrichment Program's free tutoring will be from 6-8 p.m. Monday at the St. John's Missionary Baptist Church's Family Life Center, 1504 SW N.H. Jones Ave.
Certified pubic school educators will offer free tutoring in reading and math skills for children who will be attending kindergarten through third grade in the fall. The summer program will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays from June 3 through July 25 at the church. Lunch will be provided each day of the program.
An international religious movement aimed at bringing men closer to God is coming to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Johannes Hoefnagel and Gideon in 't Veld have been involved with the 4th Musketeer group since its inception five years ago. Hailing from the Netherlands, the pair travels the globe, participating in various events, including character-building weekends. These 72-hour getaways take a group of around 125 men into a remote wilderness area where they are pushed to their physical limits. The weekend is interspersed with spiritual moments that ultimately help the men discover their connection to God.
"It is like a roller coaster after 70 hours when you are ready," Hoefnagel said. "You come to a physical and spiritual place."
Kent Susud, 4th Musketeer U.S.A. director, said everything done physically during the three-day weekend is meant to prepare the man.
"Every physical thing has a purpose," he said. "We have these 20 spiritual moments to help evaluate man and help him relate to the Lord and become closer to the cross."
Despite the religious overtones of the character-building weekends, Susud said any man is welcome to participate regardless of their religious affiliation or faith.
"This weekend is designed for any man, no matter how strong they believe," he said. "This is about the body and mind."
Crossroads Baptist Church. 11422 NE 75th, Elgin, will hold Crossroads 5K and 1-mile races beginning at 7:30 a.m. today in front of the church.
The 5K entry fee will be $20 and the 1-mile fun run fee will be $15. Proceeds will benefit Crossroads Baptist mission activities. Individuals and groups are welcome to participate. The 1-mile fun run will start at 7:30 a.m. and the 5K at 8 a.m.
For more information, visit www.wix.com/crossroads5krun/elgin or call Curtis Erwin at 492-4408.
One local pastor is taking a stand against the rising tide of violence in Motif Manor.
Salt of the Earth Ministries pastor Roderick Jackson and his wife, Chiara, returned from a visit to Chicago earlier this year and saw how much of a detrimental impact violence can have on a community. So they put the resources of the church behind an effort to improve morale and reach out to families living in the Motif Manor neighborhood. Their project began more than a month ago. They host an afternoon each week for children and their families to have a community gathering where they can have fun, eat and enjoy the day.
"It was important for us to do something to help these people here," Jackson said. "We have volunteers and church members that help prepare food that has been donated by several businesses. We have inflatable jumpers out here and reading time for the kids. There's gospel music playing. It's a great time and it gets their mind off of things."
The ministry cleared a large lot behind the Candlewood Apartments complex in preparation for their weekly event. They mowed the grass and cleaned up an excess amount of trash. Jackson said it will give parents and their children a safe area to play even when the ministry isn't hosting its weekly event.
"This gives them a place where they can play together during the week," he said. "It gets them out and gets them active."
"Pray for America," the theme for the May 2 National Day of Prayer, is very appropriate, said Dwayne Hall, event coordinator for the Lawton Fort Sill National Day of Prayer.
Current events make the theme more pertinent and the call for prayer more relevant, he said. "Bombings, droughts, layoffs, murder, terrorism ... we need to pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways."
The event will be marked with an all-day event, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday on the lawn of the new Lawton City Hall, 212 SW 9th Street, and community members are welcome to come by and pray anytime during the event, Hall said. The all-day event for Lawton-Fort Sill has grown in the last few years to be "the biggest program in the state ... most of the programs are just one-hour programs."
There will be two special programs the noonday program from noon to 1 p.m. and the evening program from 6-8 p.m. The scheduled times in the morning and afternoon "are for intercessory prayer," Hall said. "Intercessory prayer is interceding on behalf of somebody or someone, petitioning and supplicating to God."
The program will have more emphasis on prayer.
"The focus this year is intercessors and intercessory prayer, as opposed to speaking pastors ... it is the National Day of Prayer, so I want to make sure that we are praying."
During the noonday program, Mayor Fred Fitch will give a proclamation and the Fort Sill Installation chaplain will speak, along with other pastors and singers.
"There will be about 20 minutes of speaking, 15 minutes of song and the remainder will be prayer. This will include prayer led by the speaker and corporate pray, where those attending break down into small groups and pray together," Hall said.
The evening program will also be very different with Hall "layering in" two national and international prayer and praise movements "Burn" and IHOPKC or International House of Prayer Kansas City.
"There will be this musical undertone ... These Burns are going on globally. You have worshippers doing two-hour musical sets over a period of 6 to 48 hours ... what they are doing is praise and worship as if no one else was around," Hall said. In additional to Burn-style of music, "we are layering the IHOPKC-style of prayer. At www.ihopkc.org, they have a live, streaming prayer room, that they have been doing intercessory prayer since 1999."
Lawton Citywide Brotherhood will hold the monthly meeting of Christian brothers at 7:30 a.m. today at New Zion Baptist Church, 2101 SW N. H. Jones Ave.
Christian brothers from various fellowships and denominations will meet for fellowship, planning and teaching of the word of God.
Call Brother Jimmie Lyons at 536-4024.
Married, or about to be married couples, have a new, free resource to help them navigate the troubled waters of marriage the LFA NAME Center.
Open since March, the Lawton First Assembly National Association for Marriage Enhancement or LFA NAME Center 2407 NW 82nd Street, will hold an open house from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday. Certified marriage specialists, directors Gary and Debbie Pratt and Lawton First Assembly Pastor Don Barnes will be on hand to answer questions and meet visitors.
The rise in the number of troubled marriages was noticeable for the last few years and impacted Gary Pratt, executive pastor for the LFA adult ministry, and Debbie Pratt, pastor of LFA women's ministry and congregational care.
"There has been such a high divorce rate here and across the nation. We had so many people coming in for counseling that it was really stretching us. The load fell on Debbie and me," he said.
A few years ago, the couple attended a pastors' school at First Assembly Church in Phoenix, Ariz., and learned more about NAME, which is a network of churches and couples committed to biblical marriage ministry both nationally and internationally. The NAME network has helped more than a quarter of a million people during the past 18 years, Debbie Pratt said.
The couple realized that the program would work well in Lawton at their church because of the "growing need to help marriages in our community and at our church."
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