Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The monthly gathering for the Monticello Community Prayer Breakfast on April 6 was hosted by the First Baptist Church of Lloyd. Pastor Jered Day welcomed the group and blessed the meal, a delicious buffet of eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, juice and coffee.
After a time of fellowship, everyone joined in singing "God Bless America" and "The Old Rugged Cross." Next Rev. John Hicks offered the prayers for the sick and distressed. Then the program began with event organizer Gary Wright introducing the guest lay speaker, Travis Richards.
Richards, a North Florida native born and raised in Lake City, has been proud to call Jefferson County home since 2005. He was educated at both the University of Florida and Florida State University and now leads the transportation and engineering division for WGI, Inc., a national design and professional services company. He and his family are members of the First United Methodist Church in Monticello.
To begin his talk, Richards acknowledged, "I know that there's no need to preach to the choir. This is a body of believers here. I don't need to convince you guys about the greatness of our God. I don't need to convince you about the joy that we receive from being in an active relationship with him, but I do want to take my time here this morning to bring up one word. Let's focus on this one word: persevere."
This word had captured Richards' interest during his Sunday school class as they were studying the book of James, which has many references to perseverance woven throughout it.
"Let's back up and take a definition, just an academic definition of that term," said Richards. "Persevere is to continue in a course of action, even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success."
Then Richards shared a harrowing story of a time when his own perseverance was tested, and how this experience planted a seed of faith that would later take root and grow.
It all happened when he was a freshman in college, and for spring break he met up with a buddy to go fishing and camping at a remote little boat ramp on Rocky Creek in Dixie County. A series of delays – first being called away to try to recapture a loose bull and then stopping along the way to help drivers with a van full of children change a flat tire – put them arriving at camp much later than expected. Finally, they turned onto "the road to nowhere" that took them through sawgrass swamps down to a primitive campsite by the creek.
That night, the rains began, so they abandoned the tent and instead rigged a tarp over the truck bed and moved up in there. As the night wore on, the rains became so heavy that they found themselves in a flash flood situation. It was time not only to abandon the tent but camp itself, and they re-hitched the boat to the truck and tried to drive out. Unfortunately, before they could reach the highway, the water had risen enough to kill the engine, and the vehicle began to float. Now they had to abandon the truck. Jumping out and slogging in the current, the rolled into the boat, released it from the hitch and continued on their way out.
Richards says this was the first time that he had really prayed, because he was so afraid for his life.
In the boat, they were able to make it to a bridge, and at that point abandoned the boat as well, to try to find help on the road, which was not yet covered with water. To add to their misery, the temperature was dropping, and all Richards had on was a t-shirt and shorts. No shoes. On top of it all, it was actually starting to snow! Yes, it was now March 13, 1993, the "Storm of the Century," and they were right in the heart of it.
Thankfully, a helpful person gave them a ride to his house a few miles away, where they rode the storm out. Then, when the tide turned and the water started receding, they were able to get into town and call for help. Richards noted later that that storm took over 300 lives as it marched up the east coast.
Although Richards had prayed fervently during the ordeal, and had seen his prayers answered, he says he didn't accept Christ at that point, due to hardheadedness. Through various situations as his life carried on, he says he would beseech God in his own space but then turn his back.
Still, he recalled, "No matter how hard I tried to walk away, I could not deny Christ, that I was a son of God, that I was created by him for a purpose."
One time, Richards told, after he was married and raising a family, there came a time when his wife also was struggling, and she asked him how he was able to face adversity: "How do you go through those things and come out of the other side?"
"I don't do it alone," he had replied. "I have someone who helps me. I pray."
Not long after that conversation they came to the decision together to begin attending church regularly, and "from there it's history," he said. "That's my faith walk. That's where I started learning to pray. That's the path I took to start developing a relationship with God that I am still working on today."
Richards said he hoped his story would be memorable and provide encouragement and comfort.
"I want to encourage everyone here to persevere. Keep spreading the word of God. There's people that don't know it. There's people that don't believe it. There's people that don't feel it yet. Don't give up on them. Don't give up on your friends. Don't give up on kids who aren't doing the way you would have them do. I thank my mom for not giving up on me. I gave her plenty of challenges. She still loves me. God still loves you. God still loves us all. Let's just continue to persevere. Take this great thing that we have – that relationship with God – and share it. It's the greatest thing you can do."
With that message in mind, the Prayer breakfast ended with recitation of The Lord's Prayer.
The Monticello Community Prayer breakfast, which started meeting in 1994, includes participants from many different area churches and welcomes folks from any church. Meetings are the first Thursday of each month from September through May. That means the next Monticello Community Prayer Breakfast will conclude this cycle and, after a summer break, will resume again in September.
So don't miss the opportunity to join in on Thursday, May 4, from 7-8 a.m. The May gathering will be hosted by Rotary International of Monticello on Thursday, May 4, at the First Presbyterian Church, located at 290 E. Dogwood St. Mary Madison is scheduled to speak.
For more information, contact Gary Wright at (850) 933-5567 or gw4120@outlook.com.
Mary Madison will speak at the next Monticello Community Prayer Breakfast
Thursday, May 4 at the First Presbyterian Church located at 290 E. Dogwood St.
You must be logged in to post a comment.