June 9, 2015
Hunger Walk Sunday, aside from the Warriors loss to the Cavaliers, was a wonderful Sunday from start to finish. I think that if a researcher was studying LABC in order to understand and describe us it would be mandatory for that person to observe Hunger
Walk Sunday. All the verbs of our Mission Statement – worship, witness and work – can be readily observed and experienced and to observe and experience them is a great joy. Thanks to all who played a part in the day.
This coming Sunday will be another day of celebration as we honor our graduates and promotees. Education is a high value at LABC. On the 14th we will lift up that value as a gift from God that leads us back to God, to God’s world and to God’s people. 2015 high school graduates, Joshua Ross and Angela Sherman, will join Pastor Tanner and I in the sermon.
In worship the central Scripture will be Ezekiel 17: 22-24. In this text the prophet speaks to the people of Israel for God promising them growth and restoration. He uses the imagery of a seedling planted high on a mountainside where, under the watchful eye of our Creator, it grows into a mighty cedar that inspires with its beauty and provides homes to the birds of the air with it branches. The promise of this text is that our Creator plants each of us in places where we can grow, flourish and bless those around us.
Prayers of the Congregation
- Dave and Sheryl Gattey as they mourn the death of their nephew Phil
- Ann Fields and family as they mourn the death of her former mother-in-law, Bertha Miller
- The family of Demouria Hogg who died on Saturday morning after a confrontation with the Oakland Police Department as well the OPD officers involved in the shooting. We lament the gun violence that threatens to define life, even as it brings so much death, in our city.
- Helen Harrison for Mike Casey who has been diagnosed with cancer
- Pam Claassen for Lena and the Chin family
- Mary Karne- prayers of concern for her daughter Maryla and prayers of thanksgiving for the birth of her fifth great-grandchild, Rory Matthew Lappin
- Al Johnson and Roy Browner
- All who are traveling
- Michael-Ray Mathews and the PICO delegation that is meeting with Pope Francis’ advisors at the Vatican this week
- Thanksgiving for Joe, Cindy, Monica, David, Eleanor and Reba – our visitors in worship this past Sunday
- Thanksgiving with Kay Baxter that Stacey has found safe lodging and that Jamie continues to be clean and sober
- Thanksgiving with Gail Carter that her husband, Dennis, continues to gain strength
- Thanksgiving for the ministry of our Lakeshore Children’s Center (Kinder Haus Graduation is on Wednesday)
- Wisdom for the people and leaders of California as we respond to the ongoing drought
- Phil and Gloria Meads for June, Alice and Jean
- Paige Bence and John Lee as they remember their friend Bradley Harrison
- Rowena Jackson for the mentally ill, especially those who are homeless
- Alice Butler for her friend Hans
- Joan Thatcher, health concerns
- Karen Okusu as she cares for her mom
- Angela Glann for a friend recently diagnosed with HIV
- Linda Earl for her sister
- Carol and Steve Leichter
- Thanksgiving for all the lives the Hunger Walk has touched over the years
- The Picou-Broadnax family
- Bettigene Johnson
- Ted and Doris Evans for the Evans and Leche families
- Larry Sims for the Sims family
- Myra Saxton for her mother
- Sandra Dunn for her father
Ceasefire Walk in West Oakland this Wednesday Evening, June 10, 6:30 at Center Street Baptist Church, 940 Center Street. I hope a good number of Lakeshoreians will join me. Call or email for more information.