Mail services suspended in some towns ahead of Hurricane Laura
August 25, 2020
Hurricane Laura continues to strengthen; no major changes to forecast
August 25, 2020
UPDATE: The Citywide Call to Prayer and Worship event has been moved to inside Living Word Church. Seating will be available for up to 1,900 people to allow for social distancing. It will still start at 7 tonight.
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As the world deals with wildfires, civil unrest, hurricanes and a pandemic, among other afflictions, local faith leaders are calling for the community to unite in prayer and worship.
The “Citywide Call to Prayer and Worship” event is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, August 28 at Houma Christian School’s (HCS) football field, 1916 Highway 311 in Schriever.
“My heart for this event is unity: that we have to come together. There’s so much division in our world. Especially for those who love the Lord, he calls us to be one body, and he’s the head,” shared Victoria Bergeron, event organizer.
For the event, Bergeron said they put together a citywide worship team, consisting of singers, pastors, musicians and choirs from churches in different areas of the community. “…So we can come together and we can start to give an example of what unity looks like — that it’s not this church versus that church, but it’s the body of Christ together. And together, we want to reach our community, love on our community and cry out to the Lord,” she explained.
She also highlighted that Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet will be in attendance as well.
Although it is held at the HCS football field, which is on the Living Word Church campus, Bergeron noted that not one specific church is producing the gathering, and that the venue was chosen as a neutral location. She also added that the field was selected so attendees can comfortably social distance. “We wanted to make sure we accommodated all those things as well,” Bergeron said.
The Houma native shared that she discussed having the event at a later time but felt a sense of urgency that it needed to happen as soon as possible.
“We all know that our world is kind of in a crazy place right now,” Bergeron said. “Isaiah 61 says: ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.’”
“So I believe that’s what we’re doing,” she continued. “So all those who are in fear or depression, who lack empathy, who are in sin — which is all of us, who suffer from sickness or loneliness, we want to come together and bring that to the feet of Jesus because the Bible says that he hears us when we pray.”
Bergeron went on to say that they want participants to leave with “joy and faith and having repented and being washed clean — to leave with a spirit of unity, love and Jesus.”
She believes that’s how people can change the world, Bergeron shared, and every person was created in the image of God. “I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each person on this earth,” she continued. “And so he’s asked his people, those who love him, to be the hands and feet to show his love and bring people close to him.”
More on the “Citywide Call to Prayer and Worship” can be found here.
“It’s just an open invite. You can come if you want. You don’t have to come, but we hope you do,” Bergeron said. “And we’re ready to pray for you and show you the freedom that there is in Jesus.”
