Since May 2011, The National Day of Prayer has been a special day for the Bridge at Highland, a time for celebrating the diverse faith traditions of our elders, family members, and stakeholders. We encourage them to honor their beliefs and respect the faith traditions of others by embracing our spiritual tenant–Pray Your Way–a celebration of individual freedom to choose worship participation.
We understand prayer is very personal and we are also aware of the rich blessings–even miracles–that can happen through collective prayer.
Faith, hope, and love–the greatest of these–are the medicines we seek to employ to bind up brokenness, sooth distress, and bring true healing.
For NDOP 2016, The Bridge at Highland celebrated collective prayer through three separate services. Our theme verse was “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet” (Isaiah 58:1).
Our first service was an offsite Prayer Breakfast at Portland’s First Baptist Church. At this well-attended event our very own Elder Chaplain Jerry Davenport led a special prayer for all elders across our great nation. Jerry prayed “Our old bodies cannot interfere with our true strength that comes from above…”
Following the prayer breakfast we had a special prayer service onsite at The Bridge. Local Ministers Bill Sloan (pastor of the Portland Church of God), Victor Creasy (pastor of Hall Town General Baptist Church), and Mike Smith (pastor of Oasis Seventh-day Adventist Church) joined myself, along with two of our own onsite elder chaplains, David Crews and Jerry Davenport, to lead the service. The prayers were interspersed with testimonies and our spirits were raised through corporate worship in song.
Our third service of the day was an afternoon service where we were able to share the rich experience of Signature HealthCare’s Home Office NDOP “The Power of the ASK” event. During this third event elders and stakeholders were able to witness several different faith traditions represented at our corporate location while enjoying root beer and ginger ale floats, celebrating the refreshing sweetness that the expression of faith brings to all our lives.
We at the Bridge at Highland count it a privilege and special blessing to join our local and national faith communities in prayer in all its forms, lifting up our hearts and voices to the power that is greater than any one of us. We are grateful for the time we spent together freely expressing our faith through prayer. May we all be blessed in the year to come as we lift up our voices aloud together.