King breakfast speaker says connecting with God is crucial
Connecting with God is key, says M.L. King prayer breakfast speaker
It’s great to have a dream, but it takes spending time with God to bring it to reality, says the Rev. Lee Henderson, pastor of Second Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga.
“I’ve got to take everything that God gave me and give it back to him,” says Henderson. “He’s going to give back to me what he would have me to do, and that’s when I can go into action.”
Henderson is scheduled to speak next Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Unity Group’s 48th annual Martin Luther King Jr.
Week celebration prayer breakfast, starting at 9 a.m. at Second Missionary Baptist Church. Donation for the breakfast is $25.
The breakfast is among hundreds of events across the country celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., who lived and died trying to end racial segregation and bring equality. This year, the federal holiday falls on King’s actual birthday, Jan. 15.
The theme for this year’s observance is “The Dream: Delay Is Not an Option.” Other local events celebrating King include a birthday party, a children’s conference, a memorial march and the culminating program with civil-rights leader Lonnie King Jr. as the main speaker. Lonnie King Jr. marched with Martin Luther King (they are not related) and is the founding president of the Atlanta Student Movement.
Also in honor of Martin Luther King, the city of Chattanooga is coordinating 50 community service projects to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s death in 1968 and the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Participants will meet at the kickoff location at Chamberlain Pavilion on UTC’s campus and then spread into neighborhoods for landscaping, clearing debris, trail maintenance, painting,
deep cleaning, project repairs and more.
It’s been nearly two decades since Henderson worked in Chattanooga as the former education director of the African American Museum/Bessie Smith Performance Hall now called the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. He is also a former WNOOAM radio personality.
“I’m so excited about someone even thinking of me,” says Henderson. “The occasion is almost sacred, the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration of his life, his legacy. And the prayer breakfast is so important because we cannot accomplish anything without first consulting God.”
He says he learned to listen to God from some mistakes he made in Chattanooga.
“There were so many times when God would give me a commission, but because I went out on my own to do it without consulting him about what to do, how to do it and with whom, I fell on my face,” he says.
People may have flashes of brilliance. Those ideas become reality when they connect with God about how to achieve them, says Henderson. He also emphasizes the importance of taking action.
“As long as we just dream without action to back it up, it means nothing,” he says.