The Hastings Prayer Breakfast Thursday, May 4 drew a record crowd of 175 for the event, held by the Hastings Ministerial Association and hosted by the Starkson Celebration of Life Chapel.

The event is meant to lift community institutions, organizations, businesses and families up in prayer, with the side bonus of the comical banter of emcees Pastor Randy Berg of Cavalry Christian Church and Pastor Paris Pasch of The Journey Church. The two were referred to by separate presenters as both Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy.

Pasch took note of the crowded room, thanking the Starkson and Regan families for providing breakfast for the crowd gathered to mark the National Day of Prayer.

“It’s such a great gift they give to us,” he said.

Mayor Mary Fasbender was invited to the podium.

“We want to pray for our city,” said Pasch.

“I have been privileged to be able to be here for the last five years as your mayor, and this year, as every other year, is very exciting for our community,” Fasbender said. “As you see, there’s building going on. There are activities going on. Our community is coming together on many occasions and that is the heart of Hastings.”

“Today we are not only here to express our faith and exercise our freedom in prayer but to unite our hearts and voices, personal prayers and public gatherings, through our cities and across America,” said Fasbender.

In between each speaker, a member of the Hastings Ministerial Association led a prayer. Steve Hatter, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church presented Fasbender with a cloth.

“We pray over this as a church, and I want her to take this as a token. I know that many of us are in some sort of leadership role, or we have been at one point, and there are a lot of critics out there. And it takes one to kind of ruin your day,” Hatter said. “I want her to take this cloth and use it as a bookmark. Put it somewhere she might see it and know that there are a number of people in this community who are holding her up in prayer.”

Pasch then noted the large contingent of law enforcement and emergency services personnel from the city and Dakota County who turn out annually for the event.

We’d like to focus on our extraordinary community of law enforcement,” Pasch said. Then he joked, “We really have the privilege every year at this event that they swallow up the majority of the tables for our free breakfast.”

Police Chief David Wilske said, “As you know, law enforcement has had some hurdles in the last couple weeks. We’ve lost some officers in Wisconsin. We’ve lost some officers in Minnesota. Most recently, we lost an Inver Grove officer to a medical emergency. Can we just please pray for our brothers and sisters in law enforcement, that they be safe, that they do what’s right for their communities, that they make it home to their families, that they have a fulfilling career, and they have support and are strong through the struggles they see every day? Once again, thank you, it’s a great community and we’re happy to serve.”

The pastors asked for prayers for the military before turning back closer to home with prayers for local teachers and educators.

“We have a champion of education in our room along with others who see the value of a full life investment in our families and young people,” Pasch said as he introduced Hastings School Board Director Carrie Tate.

Tate said she started considering running for school board “because of the controversial things that we’re seeing happening across the country.”

“My passion lies with kids, because I want to make sure that they have the absolute best for them that they can move forward and become the absolute best people that they can become in our communities, in our state in our world. And they’re the future, right? We need to invest in them and make sure that we are focused on high quality academics, and, honestly, we need to get the politics out of the schools and just focus on academics,” said Tate.

She asked for prayers for students’ safety and the graduating class, as well as for staff, teachers, administrators and school board members.

Scott Urban, administrator of Pine Harbor Christian Academy pointed out the Pasch has a background in education, as he was the school’s first administrator. At that time, Urban was in kindergarten.

“The reality is the news shows a lot of negative things happening, and I just want to say there’s so much good happening in Hastings, public schools, private schools, home schools. They’re all doing great things here,” he said.

Berg invited Li Ta, owner of the new Bimi Thai Restaurant in Hastings to share some thoughts.

“I met Li, and it was really quite selfish that I met him because I like Thai food. I’ve only been there about 10 times,” Berg said.

Ta said the community has been very supportive.

Turning toward Hastings Churches, Berg said, “Paris and I are pastors because we believe that the church is the hope of the world, not the particular church but the message of the church that Jesus is still alive, and he is still working. Right now, the church around the world is healthier than it’s ever been,” he said.

After the gathering lifted up churches in prayer, the event closed on the theme of families, with Amy Sutton, director of Hastings Family Service at the podium. The organization has been helping Hastings families for 53 years.

“We don’t do it alone,” said Sutton, citing a quote from noted author and paster John Maxell: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

“And that’s what this community does, right? We go together. We do that. And we’ve never been alone. That’s the reason that the work continues in Hastings Family Service. God has been with us every step of the way, and so has this is community,” said Sutton.

She noted that April was the busiest month ever in the organization’s history. “And not by a little, but by a lot,” she said.

She said Hastings Family Service is helping twice the number of families every month than it did before the COVID pandemic.

“The need is greater than ever, and that’s why your prayers are so important today,” she said. “I just want to say thank you. Everything that happens in Hastings Family Service is because you make it possible.”