I hope to see a great crowd of supporters show up this Friday morning, March 18 at the Fleur de Lis Center in Mandeville where the annual St. Tammany Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast will be held.
This is positively not an “east side” or “west side” event. It is a St. Tammany event and certainly one of the excellent ways our parish leaders try to unite the parish.
Considering the hard times many of our residents were hit by this week due to flooding of area rivers I can think of nothing better than to get together for prayer, and I have felt blessed to live in an area where our political leaders have not been afraid to stand up in the name of God for all we have and hope to do in our lives and in our community.
The prayer breakfast is open to the public and costs only $25 per individual, or $180 for a table of eight. It will be held from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and is sponsored by the Christian Business Men’s Connection and Life Resources, Inc. and will have an outstanding guest speaker in Tim Barton who is associated with a national pro-family organization known as Wallbuilders. The group presents a message of America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our religious, moral and constitutional heritage—which is what America was truly built on.
Parish President Pat Brister has promised to be there and the mayors of every community or city in St. Tammany are scheduled: Abita Springs Mayor Greg Lemons, Madisonville Mayor Peter Gitz, Covington Mayor Mike Cooper, Mandeville Mayor Donald Villere, Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan, Pearl River Mayor David McQueen, Folsom Mayor Bettye Boggs and Sun Mayor Richard Kivett.
I can’t tell you what it means to live in a parish where we have so many men and women of faith, and particularly those who willingly say so in the public eye.
In this day of pressure to be “politically correct” I have marveled at the way so many of our local public leaders stand up for God with no embarrassment or shame. It is probably more unusual than you think considering the way the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) parades around looking for some city, small town or public official to bully.
And don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to discount the rights of all Americans in our country to stand up and speak about their own faith. I am not trying to intimidate any people of any religions or faith to publicly state what they believe in—it is the right for all of us to do it.
But I also don’t think any of us should be barred from stating our opinions about what we believe in, and that is what so many of our public leaders in St. Tammany are willing to do. It doesn’t hurt others to hear the name of Jesus, or whoever you might believe in. It doesn’t mean that forces someone to believe what you say.
America was founded on the principles of freedom to speak what we believe, and if a local organization wants to have a prayer breakfast that is honoring the Jesus Christ we all know from the Bible, then there should be no reason we can’t do that.
And if it just so happens there are many leaders in St. Tammany who happen to believe in that same Jesus Christ, and the Bible which teaches about Christian history, then so be it. We should all be allowed say what we believe in.
For me, it is the faith in Jesus that has carried me through the roughest times in my life and the older I get the more thankful I become to have such a foundation to help me.
I seldom go a day without thanking God for something, and it is my faith which has carried me through the challenges in my life. It is also that same God who I thank for the incredible blessings I have had in living 61 years.
So I hope to see many of you at the prayer breakfast Friday in Mandeville at 1645 N. Causeway Blvd. Let’s show our community that we truly are “one St. Tammany” as Pat Brister continues to promote.
You can get tickets by going online to liferesources.net, or calling Barry Haindel at 504-450-8198.
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I know our attentions have been focused elsewhere for the past week or so with the rains and flooding situation, but I am urging you one last time to show up at Heritage Park sometime this weekend, beginning on Friday for the first annual Festival Bonfouca.
This is the first attempt to hold a three-day music festival in Slidell and the success of the initial year will pave the way for this becoming bigger and better in years to come. Who knows? Maybe we could have Keith Urban or Adam Levine or Justin Bieber coming to play the “huge” Festival Bonfouca in 10 years. It could happen!
Organizer Jared Zeller has set very low ticket prices–$5 for Friday night, then $10 for Saturday or Sunday, or $20 tickets for the weekend. And believe me, there is much outstanding music to be played throughout the festival after starting Friday night at 6:15 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at festivalbonfouca.com.
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.