2008 Peoria Gun Exchange On The Horizon

The Peoria Assn. Of Pastors is planning the 2008 Peoria Gun Exchange event for sometime early Spring of 2008. This may be the first of 2 events but the Pastors will make their final decisions after the new year.

There will be some modifications to the 2008 event. The 2007 event went well but ran into some administrative problems due to funding, business participation, and retail gift card provider issues.

Possible modifications may include following:

• For 2008, provide a $100 Visa or MasterCard Debit card in exchange for a qualifying weapon. In 2007 the assn. provided retail cards from individual merchants. This was restrictive for many exchange participants who wised to use the cards for multiple purposes. With the help of Rev. Mr. Vance Henry, Special Asst. to the Chicago Mayor, Peoria will be able to change the way that benefits are delivered to the participants.
  
• There will also be a greater fund raising efforts to provide the necessary cash for the complete exchange this year. Last year there were 15 IOU’s issued during the last event. There are yet 5 IOU’s that must be paid out and many of the businesses curtailed support until 2008. The Pastor’s Assn. wants to make sure this time that every participant is able to receive a gift for a qualifying weapon, so fundraising for 2008 is essential.

The Assn. is open to public and community ideas for fundraising and solicits the participation and support of both businesses and individuals. If you or your business would like to help in the fund raising efforts for 2008 or you would like to be a contributor and sponsor, please call, email or contact us in the following manner:

• Peoria Assn. Of Pastors
  P.O. Box 6167
  Peoria, IL. 61601
  (309)688-6599 New Bethel COGIC
  (309)655-0500 Kingdom Temple COGIC
  (309)673-9594 Higher Dimensions Praise & Worship
  Dunamis1@netzero.com

Peoria Journal Star Recognizes Peoria Gun Exchange As 2007 Top Story

On Sunday Dec. 30th 2007 the Peoria Journal Star recognized the Peoria Assn. Of Pastors for Community & Spiritual renewal’s 2007 Gun Exchange as the 7th out of the areas top 10 news events of the year.

The gun exchange event was also recognized in conjunction with the Peoria Mayor’s request for the community to engage themselves in prayer in order to spiritually combat the antagonists that facilitate violent crime and other behaviors harmful to our community.

We give our special thanks to the Peoria Journal Star for helping to spread the word about the Gun Exchanges and for accurately conveying the Peoria Assn. of Pastor’s role in helping to serve our community. We feel that the best is yet to come.

2007 Image Award Recipient

The Peoria Assn. Of Pastors For Community & Spiritual Renewal were one of the proud recipients of the 2007 Sigma Image Award provided annually by the Epsilon ETA Sigma Chapter of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. to organizations and individuals who have impacted the area in a positive manner through unselfish service to the Peoria Community.

The award was received by Pastors Assn. Exec. Director Pastor Harvey Burnett on Nov. 11th 2007 at Sigma’s 18th annual Scholarship Banquet dinner held at the Peoria hotel Pere Marquette.
Pastor Burnett cited the following in his acceptance speech:

• "Although we are not finished with our mission by any means, we are pleased that our community is now experiencing seemingly all time highs for volunteer and community service, and a desire for prayer through grass roots efforts such as the Peoria Prayer Furnace and the Peoria transformation Celebrations. Now, even our Mayor has confirmed the need for the Christian community to involve themselves in unified prayer and fellowship"~ 11/18/2007

Special thanks to Ms. Tamara Butler and everyone that recognized our efforts and made this award possible.