"Thanks, Officer"
Julia Duin
The sight of a policeman walking toward you sometimes causes heart palpitations. But the night the police invaded Bible Temple in Portland, Oregon, it was a heart-warming, not a heart-thumping, occasion.
The event was a "Law Enforcement Appreciation Banquet." Because the nature of police work puts such stress on family life, and the demanding schedule makes regular church involvement difficult, Bible Temple and cosponsoring Portland churches invited over 1,800 city police, sheriff's deputies, state troopers, and FBI officers to what has become an annual fete.
For the past several years, more than 400 officers and wives have attended the free first-class banquet featuring prime rib and cheesecake served by candlelight. Church members dressed in formal black and white wait on the tables. Afterward, everyone moves to the church sanctuary for a program of patriotic, country-western, and black gospel music, comedy, and testimonies of appreciation.
At the 1982 event, Don Baker, pastor of Portland's Hinson Memorial Baptist Church, was the main speaker. Baker, who has spent time riding in squad cars and even received a letter of commendation for assisting an officer during a street fight, "was able to experientially express appreciation for the commitment of the officers," says B. J. Johnston, Bible Temple's assistant pastor.
"In addition, his vivid, real-life illustration of a man falling five stories to his death because he refused to accept a helping hand drove home the fact that God's helping hand is needed by everyone, even law enforcement officers.
"But the officers weren't preached to," says Johnston. "Our purpose was to encourage a group that's too rarely appreciated, to assure them of church support."
"I thought it was pretty ...
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