Cleveland County CROP Walk

Thank you to Rev. Pam Normile of First Presbyterian Church for leading the invocation for this year's CROP Walk.  Due to weather conditions, we did not have a good sound system available for the prayer and announcements, so we are sharing Rev. Normile's beautiful prayer here for those who may have missed it.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us! For God has anointed us to bear good news to the world – the afflicted, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the prisoners. This very day, by participating in Norman’s CROP WALK, we are helping to give such freedoms to God’s precious yet troubled world. We are walking not only to help free those from hunger, thirst, poverty, and despair, but to free ourselves from the tyranny of our status quo and complicity in global poverty.

Lord, our presence affirms our calling and secures our hope that we are not alone as we walk for those who journey wet and flooded roads as well as dry and dusty roads for water and food. Today, we are encouraged to meet so many like-minded people with a passion for justice, and a ministry of solidarity! Compassion and justice are our companions as we walk. For we walk to understand those within the isolation of poverty – not just those who have been pushed aside in the wake of competition, but those who are losing self-confidence; those who are victims of a system they helped to build; and those who have never experienced rest from daily labors.

So, it is with a healthy appetite for change that we are eager to walk. Whether we are able-bodied, wear well-cushioned shoes, been fed a satisfying lunch or look forward to a late afternoon of resting our feet, we are aware of our chosen calling. We are the chosen ones who have been filled but oddly, we are not satisfied. We are not satisfied because we know it is our responsibility to better the economy of those who aren’t able-bodied, who don’t have comfortable shoes, who haven’t been fed a satisfying meal for lunch, who haven’t experienced a day of rest in their lifetime!

O God, as we walk the next three miles, unite us as only you can do, that our work may bring joy, our conversations may bring us laughter, our hope may bring solace, and our very lives may bear witness to a world which you so love. We pray this in the name of the God who uses our hands and feet to show fathomless love to every being on this planet.  In God’s name we pray, amen.