Moses Lake Ministerial Association hosts first United Community Worship Night
GABRIEL DAVIS | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 3 months AGO
Jon White, worship pastor at Moses Lake Presbyterian Church, Ekko Nash of Restore City Church, Restore City Church Worship Pastor Jim Balli and a choir consisting of members of multiple churches in Moses Lake and Ephrata worship on stage at the United Community Worship Night Friday at Restore City.
COURTESY PHOTO/DAVIE SAWYER/PHOTO BY EDGAR CHEN JR.
The Moses Lake Ministerial Association’s United Community Worship Night event attendees worship Friday night at Restore City Church. Grace Harvest Church Worship Leader Davie Sawyer estimated a turnout of about 250 people at the worship night.
Campus Coordinator at Youth Dynamics and Worship Leader at Grace Harvest Church Davie Sawyer plays the guitar during the United Community Worship Night at Restore City Church Friday.
Gabriel Davis is a resident of Othello who enjoys the connections with his sources. Davis is a graduate of Northwest Nazarene University where he studied English and creative writing. During his free time, he enjoys reading, TV, movies and games – anything with a good story, though he has a preference for science fiction and crime. He covers the communities on the south end of Grant County and in Adams County. | September 19, 2023 5:12 PM
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Ministerial Association presented the city’s first inter-congregational United Community Worship Night Friday in the sanctuary of Restore City Church.
Campus Coordinator at Youth Dynamics and Worship Leader at Grace Harvest Church Davie Sawyer, who was part of Friday’s worship team, explained the goal of the event.
“It was a community-minded thing, where we were trying to bring everybody together, just so we can worship together and kind of set aside any sort of differences,” he said.
The worship and prayer team leading the event consisted of members from five different Christian churches involved in planning and managing the event, including Moses Lake Christian Church, Grace Harvest Church, Restore City Church, Moses Lake Presbyterian Church and Bethlehem Chapel in Ephrata.
“We had a choir that was an ensemble of people from all those different churches,” said Sawyer. “We ended up doing eight songs, and then we had pastors from different churches come up in between and pray for our community.”
Sawyer said that part of the reason for holding the event was that there haven’t been any inter-congregational Christian worship events in Moses Lake, and the Ministerial Association wanted to start one.
The event had a successful turnout, said Sawyer, with somewhere around 250 people of varying denominations and congregations attending. Sawyer said the attendance was about what event organizers were expecting.
“Obviously, we're always hoping for more,” he said. “It was at Restore City Church, and their sanctuary is huge. They have a really wide open sanctuary. So, for me, I was hoping to pack it out, but basically what we did was we filled most of the chairs that we set out.”
Sawyer said that the Ministerial Association Worship Team came together for a conference for married couples and the general consensus among the worship team and the Association was that they needed to do more collaborative events.
Sawyer then elaborated on the Moses Lake Ministerial Association’s purpose.
“So I, along with other worship leaders and pastors in town, we belong to the Moses Lake Ministerial Association, where we meet monthly,” said Sawyer. “The Christian pastors in town meet at a designated location and chat about what's going on and encourage each other.”
The Association also facilitates community events like the worship night with the intent of strengthening the community.
“Our goal is to get to where we actually feel more like a community,” said Sawyer, “to bring people together under one banner.”
Sawyer said that the banner includes more than just Moses Lake.
“Even though we're called the Moses Lake Ministerial Association, It's the only ministerial association in our area, so all of the pastors that are in our area are obviously welcome to come to that too. And it’s the same thing with the worship nights; anybody that wants to really be involved, we would love that. You know, the more the merrier.”
The Ministerial Association Worship Team is hoping to put on another community worship event in the first quarter of 2024, said Sawyer, who was also hopeful they could make inter-congregational worship a regular event for the Moses Lake community and surrounding areas.
“I feel like our community, we do a really good job of not really being mad at each other and I think this is just one of those instances,” said Sawyer. “It was really fun just to be with other churches and planning this and acting as one body of Christ, you know, so it was really, really good.”
Gabriel Davis may be reached at [email protected]. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.
ARTICLES BY GABRIEL DAVIS
Work-based learning lets students build their own futures
MOSES LAKE — Work-based learning provides education opportunities for the workforce to receive hands-on training and technical education and prepare themselves to enter various industries. Educators and workforce development professionals from Eastern Washington discussed some the training they offer and the benefits of their programs. Next Generation Zone, an affiliate of WorkSource based in Spokane, provides job training opportunities for youth and young adults ages 16 to 24. Program Coordinator Kate Martin said there are multiple benefits to the program. “One of them is a paid work experience, and that’s where we reach out to area employers who are willing to take a young person and train them,” she said. “This is a short-term learning experience, so it’s typically about 240 hours; sometimes it could be longer or shorter. We’re the actual employer; we cover all of their wages, taxes, the L&I, and the employer just agrees to give them the experience and train them in whatever field it is that they’re wanting to go into.”
Serving schools: ESD superintendents reflect on operations, priorities
MOSES LAKE — Educational service districts are government-mandated agencies put in place to provide services to school districts across the state. ESD Superintendents discussed what they do and their priorities in operating their districts. ESD 105, led by Superintendent Kevin Chase, serves four counties, including Kittitas, Yakima and portions of Klickitat and Grant counties and provides support for 25 school districts – including Royal School District and Wahluke School District – and more than 66,000 students. “We help them collaborate with each other as well or collaborate with other partners,” Chase said. “(It’s) a lot of advocacy work, either regionally or across the state, or even federally, working on different issues that impact our education. And we provide very specialized services in certain situations in order to meet the needs of our students in our region and of our school districts.”
Columbia Basin Project making headway through Odessa Groundwater program
CASHMERE — The Columbia Basin Project is making gradual progress toward completion with particularly significant accomplishments for the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program in the last six months or so, according to Columbia Basin Development League Executive Director Sara Higgins. “When we’re dealing with a project of this size, advancement is kind of like watching paint dry, but yes, there have been (developments),” she said. “There are a lot of exciting things happening right now.” There are more than 300 miles of main canals, about 2,000 miles of lateral canals and 3,500 miles of drains and wasteways in the irrigation project, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation website. The CBDL advocates for the operation of those waterways and for the project to continue “build-out.”