Police chief shares his hopes for
community healing at prayer breakfast
The only way to heal the community is “to see people as Christ sees them,” Tallahassee’s police chief said at the 19th annual Prayer Breakfast for nonprofit Good News Outreach on Oct. 24.
“I’m not concerned about being politically correct. I’m concerned about being biblically correct,” said Chief Lawrence Revell, a seminary graduate and founding director of the city’s police chaplain program.
His remarks followed months of gun violence and racial unrest locally.
Revell was keynote speaker at the breakfast, which aims to thank God and the community for support of its ministries during the past year.
The celebration included recognizing three outstanding volunteers.
Fifty people observing coronavirus safety recommendations gathered at the St. Louis Catholic Church social hall for the event, with additional supporters attending through a livestream presentation on Facebook and YouTube.
Good News Outreach is a nondenominational, faith-based organization that offers a food pantry, grocery deliveries and companionship for older folks, a home with services for men reentering society from prison and a residential rental community for families with low incomes.
Police Chief Revell told the breakfast crowd: “The things that you are all doing, are being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.”
Virginia Glass received the Guardian Angel award for her spirit of service and for sharing her time, treasure and talent in many ways. These included securing laundry appliances for the Maryland Oaks Crossings residential community that GNO operates, and attracting more volunteers from her church and her supper club. No stranger to supporting non-profits, Glass confessed that GNO could be her favorite: “The diversity of their ministry is just amazing.”
This year, husband-and-wife team Steve and Marilyn Hammond shared the Dove Award, which typically is given to a person who volunteers a substantial amount of time over a period of years, to Good News Outreach. The Hammonds were introduced to prison outreach in 1979. Their service includes ministering to prisoners on Death Row and helping people re-enter society after incarceration. For GNO’s Mercy House, they’ve assembled an interfaith team of volunteers who share food, conversation, prayer and fellowship regularly with former inmates.
