The Blessing Center Church Presents Community Block Party

The Blessing Center Church hosted its community block party event on Sept. 28 with live entertainment, free food, prize raffles, and a yard sale featuring everything from antiques to classic vinyls. The block party aimed to provide a day of fun and free festivities but also to present unity among churches in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. International pastors from Belize, Indonesia and the Philippines also attended the event. With the serving of free hot dogs and drinks, live worship music by Soteria, “an outreach band for His Light Assembly of God,” a Prayer Wall (Muro de Oración, the Spanish word for prayer) was made for anyone who was interested in submitting prayer requests. Pastor Marguerite Santiago, wife of Pastor Lázaro Santiago of Riverside’s Sunnyslope Community Church, explained, “We think about the prayer wall as it is in Jerusalem and how out in that country people will write their prayer requests on paper and stick them between the crevices of the wall. We wanted to do something like that as well. We have prayer warriors who come together and pray daily for those who have and have not put in requests on the wall.” Pastor Marguerite then added, “It is just very important the we have an outreach and help those who are in need of anything they may be struggling with or just want prayer, whether it be for strength, healing, or faith … we will all pray.” Roxanne Helbling, mother of Pastor Andrea Arévalo who preaches with her husband Haroldo Arévalo of The Blessing Center Church, stated, “We sing songs of praise in three languages: English, Spanish, and in Swahili. I am so happy to see that we all have come together to share this day with each other.” As church members and the community begin to enjoy themselves and come together, Metro Kidz performed a dance along and engaged in story-telling. Ending the day, Blessing Center Church members and other volunteers gave away free gift bags of food and school supplies to families.