SIKESTON -- A new Sikeston church pastor's quest to become acquainted with the community has evolved into an afternoon to honor local law enforcement and fellowship.
A "Back-the-Blue" law enforcement appreciation event will be from 4-6 p.m. Sunday at Legion Park, 115 E. Front St., in Sikeston.
John McHaffie, who is the new pastor of Sikeston First of Assembly of God, said his philosophy of ministry is "get to know the people in your neighborhood."
With the Sikeston Department of Public Safety located near the church on Kingshighway, McHaffie said he introduced himself to his new neighbor.
"They have over 70 police officers and I know with all the stuff going on in the news, one of the great things our church can do is simply support those families who go in the line of fire every day and protect us and help keep us safe," McHaffie said.
With DPS headquarters so close to the church, McHaffie said he wanted to present Bibles to officers.
"These are Bibles specifically for police officers, and we thought: why not do that and put their names and badge numbers of the front," the pastor said.
A local jeweler volunteered to put the names on the Bibles, and officers were asked to sign up if they wanted to receive one.
"It's begun to be a community effort," McHaffie said. "We thought we'd do something at the police station and it kept growing and more people were getting involved."
It was decided to do a ceremony at Legion Park, he said.
"With all the politics and all of the negativity from the local to national to the world level, a thought came to be: What if we got the community together and supported the blue and spend an hour just enjoying each other and laughing," McHaffie said.
From 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday the event will be more of a fellowship, McHaffie said. Attendees are asked to bring desserts to share.
"And I'm asking for the desserts to be blue," he added.
A ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. when there will be prayers for the nation and the upcoming election. The national anthem will be sung by the Chamber Choir of Sikeston High School, and the colors will be presented.
"We've invited the police officers from Miner and Sikeston and we're going to pray over them," he said.
Attendees should bring their lawn chairs, McHaffie said.
"After the ceremony is over, we'll turn it over to a comedian and hopefully we can get several people sitting in lawn chairs on a beautiful day -- and just laughing, enjoying other's company, eating blue desserts and honoring police officers," McHaffie said.
A comedy performance by Jaron Myers of Springfield begins at 5 p.m.
"We'll laugh for an hour and hopefully when people go home, they'll feel a little more joy in their lives," he said.
There will also be a collection for the Sikeston Bulldog Pantry, which assists Sikeston R-6 children with supplies they need. Items needed include Pop Tarts, cereal, soups, tuna fish, fruit cups, vegetables, Ramen noodles, potatoes and ravioli, but any nonperishable items are welcome.
McHaffie said Sikeston DPS officer Brent Mullin, who helped organize the Sikeston Bulldog Pantry, will also share information about the Bulldog Pantry on Sunday.
"I'm proud to work in a community where we are respected and shown support many more times than we are criticized or frowned upon," Mullin said. "I receive many thank yous while I'm on patrol or talking to the citizens. I'd also like to say thank you to our citizens for the support they show us daily."
Lyndsey Weiss, member of the church who is helping coordinating the event, said the event will be "short and sweet."
"We're hoping we get plenty of police officers out there and it will be a good time," Weiss said. "We're going to have a police car there so kids might enjoy looking at the police car."
McHaffie said creating this event has been a leap of faith.
"The heart of it is for people to just reach out and love the people in their own neighborhoods and bring a deep level of hope in the community," McHaffie said. "With this event, we're hoping to bring hope."