FROM THE PASTOR
Faith & Blue Weekend
Most of you know that I have been a Park Ridge Police Chaplain for the past five years. It has been an honor to serve in this capacity. During my tenure, I have been responsible for being an “on-call chaplain” when police officers seek to have spiritual support during a “call”. I have also had the privilege to organize the 9/11 Remembrance services during the past several years at the request of the Park Ridge Police Chief, Frank Kaminski.
I am part of the organizing committee for the first “Faith and Blue” Weekend in Park Ridge.
You might ask what “Faith and Blue” is about? From their website – www.faithandblue.org – you can understand the purpose of the organization: Faith & Blue was launched to facilitate safer, stronger, more just and unified communities by directly enabling local partnerships among law enforcement professionals, residents, businesses and community groups through the connections of local faith-based organizations. The initiative aims to re-calibrate police-community relations through solutions-focused, in-person, socially distanced and/or virtual activities that are organized jointly by faith-based or other community groups and law enforcement agencies.
This year the event will be celebrated in two events. On Friday, October 8th, the Park Ridge Police Chaplains will be hosting a cookout for the all the police personnel at the PR Police Station from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. The chaplains will be cooking and serving the wonderful police officers of our community.
You can help support this effort – as I am looking for 6 salads (serving 12) made by members of St. Luke’s congregation – they can be fruit, vegetable or pasta salads. If you are willing to make one – please text Pastor Johnson at 224-688-3229 or email him at rjohnson@stlukespr.org. Please deliver the salads to the church by 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
In addition – on Saturday morning, October 9th from 9 – 11:00 a.m. we will be hosting a table at the Park Ridge Farmers Market in Hodges Park. We will be collecting food donations for a local food pantry in honor of our police department. We will also have a banner that we will ask residents to write messages of encouragement to our police force during the Farmer’s Market. We will hang the banner at the police department as a constant reminder of our love and support for our police personnel.
Please let me know if you can help with a salad – and be sure to offer your message along with others from our community at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, October 9th!
I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to serve our police in this way – it has been a rough several years for police personnel – and it is more than overdue that we extend our gratitude to these women and men who serve in such a sacrificial manner to protect the residents of our community!
Sincerely,
Pastor Johnson
