“By the blessing of the influence of the upright and God's favor [because of them] the city is exalted. . .”

Proverbs 11:11 (Amplified Bible)

More than a year ago, the LORD used James Christianson (a young man of God) to bring this passage of scripture to our minds.  The Holy Spirit has affirmed this message to our hearts several times throughout the past year, and during the past month has further unveiled His purposes for drawing us to this text.  Many faithful warriors have spent hours and hours in prayer over the city of Oroville in the past decade.  And, several have worked diligently to pray for and build relationships with City Officials.  Among them was Pastor Don North, our dearly loved pastor and friend, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2004.  One of Pastor Don’s greatest desires was to help build bridges of friendship between people, among members of the body, among races and among denominations.  He lived the latter years of his life being a bridge and inspiring others to do the same.  One of the last projects he had his sights on was to see a sidewalk poured on the school side of Martin Luther King Park for the safety of children walking to and from school or the park (a park in South Oroville).  After his death, several community leaders wanted to see the sidewalk poured in his memory and orchestrated a fund raising event to make it happen.  In 2005 a day was set aside, Building Bridges of Friendship Day in Memory of Pastor Don North, to bring this vision to fruition.  Several churches met in Martin Luther King Park, shared fellowship and a meal, and donated money to build the sidewalk.  The event was repeated in 2006 and sufficient funds were raised to complete the sidewalk.  By the time the B.B.F. Steering Committee met to plan for 2007 two more pastors who were devoted to seeing walls broken down and bridges built among the Body and with the community had passed away: Pastor Carl Fowler and our beloved friend, Pastor Adrian Hills.  It was decided to continue the tradition of gathering churches together in fellowship and to extend the scope of the mission to bless the community of South Oroville.  The name was shortened to Building Bridges of Friendship Day and we gathered and worked in honor of Pastors Fowler, North and Hills.  Small teams consisting of members from 15 different churches helped a handful of home owners with landscaping & repair projects and also removed brush and rubbish from two alleyways for the City.  In April a meeting was scheduled to discuss the future of B.B. F. Day and the afternoon of the meeting, the LORD spoke to Ron’s heart to contact Pastor Sam Tillery.  Pastor Sam has been leading a community blessing effort in Santa Rosa, California for the past ? years.  The concept came out of the community pastors weekly prayer meetings.  The LORD has blessed it mightily and this past year over 2,000 people from the churches, business community and the community at large came together to bless the city of Santa Rosa by cleaning up a variety of areas the city requested.  Blessing the city in this way has had such an impact that the City Manager of Santa Rosa was saved as a result of it.  Ron shared the idea with the B.B.F. Leadership; stating that this is just building on what we did last year.  The leadership team received the concept with great enthusiasm and has since met with some Christian Oroville City Officials to discuss the idea.  Pastor Sam has agreed to come and share with the Building Bridges Leadership, City Pastors, City Officials and members of the Christian Business Alliance in Oroville what God has been doing through the Bride in Santa Rosa.  Everyone is eagerly waiting to hear their report and very much anticipating what God is continuing to unveil in Oroville.