(Community Matters 186) An Annual Spring Morning of Prayer and Unity Returns in Calhoun County

An icon event in Battle Creek returns this month. Battle Creek Community Prayer Breakfast Co-Chairs Ryan and Esther Leonard share why the event has become one of the city’s most enduring gatherings: a room filled with neighbors choosing prayer, unity, and hope at Kellogg Arena. For a lot of people, it marks a turning point in the season, a way to step out of winter and into spring with a better outlook on our community and each other. 

We also reveal this year’s keynote speaker: Major League Baseball legend. His talk goes far beyond stats and championships, tracing a path from public success to addiction, loss, recovery, and a faith-centered purpose. 

Get tickets, donate, or reserve a table and consider the reception the night before as a way to help send area high school students to the breakfast at no cost. 

The Battle Creek Prayer Breakfast is Tuesday, May 5 at 7:25 AM at the Kellogg Arena in downtown Battle Creek. Doors open at 6:50 AM

Episode Resources

Battle Creek Prayer Breakfast Website

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Welcome And Event Preview

Richard Piet 0:02

This is Community Matters. Richard Viatt here, a service of Lakeview Ford Lincoln. Happy to be with you on the radio. Saturday mornings, 95.3 FM, Battle Creek Podcast.com whenever. And you can also listen whenever on your device. Just follow us where you get podcasts. Community Matters, Calhoun County. It is one of the icon events, I suppose you could say, in Battle Creek. Happens every year, the Community Prayer Breakfast. Coming up next week, Tuesday, May 5th, 725. Until 9. Not 7:30, 725. You have to be in your seat and ready for the community prayer breakfast. This is the 44th annual. And it will happen at Kellogg Arena in downtown Battle Creek. If you know a little about this, you know that the co-chairs each year rotate. So every year there are co-chairs who are new to it, or at least it's been a while. This year it's Ryan and Esther Leonard, and they join us today. Welcome to you both.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Hi there. Hello, everyone. Good morning.

Richard Piet 1:11

Thanks for this opportunity. By the way, wait till you hear who the speaker is, the keynote. We'll get to that coming up in uh just

What The Prayer Breakfast Means

Richard Piet 1:19

a minute. So, what does it mean, the community prayer breakfast? Or maybe I should ask, what do you think it means? What would you like it to mean to our community?

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Well, it means a lot to a lot of people. We have uh over a thousand people attend every year. And a lot of people like myself, we look at it as the beginning of spring. After a long, dark winter, here is spring and hope, and unity, and all the good things, right? So uh that's what it means to me. It's the sign of spring and the sign of unity and coming together for Battle Creek.

Richard Piet 1:54

Yeah, Ryan, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 1:56

I agree with that 100%. A lot of people have come for different reasons, I suppose. You know, the main thing is to celebrate prayer and unity and and things like that. There, but you know, there is a usually always a great keynote speaker to listen to. Some people maybe come just to be seen. This year, we really want to move them with our music, with the speakers that are speaking, and bring people together and uplift them and just help us to all understand that we all serve the same God. You know, we're all in God's kingdom together, and I think our city needs that. I think like our city needs people to walk out the door that morning, just everybody loving each other and and sort of getting a good head start on this spring summer with the way they interact with folks.

Richard Piet 2:38

You anticipated what I was going to say next, which is you may be co-chairs this year, but certainly not your first event. And and what does it feel like when you walk out after this hour and 35 minutes that uh has an opportunity to maybe start a day differently than many? Is that what you get when you walk out? You're feeling that?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

You absolutely walk out um with a greater appreciation for our community in general. There's always great coffee. Uh, shout out to Cafe Rica there. So um, we all need good coffee to get our day started, at least the majority of us, myself included. So, what is better than a great cup of coffee with a community of like-minded people that want to see hope and good things and encouragement? And that's what we need here in Kelvin County in general.

Richard Piet 3:26

All right, I won't uh hold

Daryl Strawberry Keynote Reveal

Richard Piet 3:28

on any longer. We'll talk about who the uh keynote speaker is if you haven't heard this.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Drumroll, please.

Richard Piet 3:33

Yeah, drumroll, major league baseball legend, former all-star Daryl Strawberry will be the speaker, yeah, at the uh Battle Creek Community Prayer Breakfast. What do we think we're gonna hear about from him? Do we know?

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Yes, we're gonna hear his story of what he calls becoming a man when he met Jesus, and because before that he had it all and basically, you know, gave it all away with you know, via drugs and alcohol and trying to do life on his own. And he found the Lord and the Lord was there looking for him, and so it's about redemption, God's grace, and how it affected his life. And if it can affect somebody like him, you know, God can fix all of us. He will. That's true.

Richard Piet 4:19

Yeah, he calls it out of the dugout, into the light, yeah, and uh talks about this journey Ryan's alluding to. Uh baseball stardom, of course, then addiction, cancer, yeah, recovery, faith, purpose. This is a lot, and he's going to share this with us at the uh community prayer breakfast. And we love a good uplifting story, and this is gonna be it, right? We believe so.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

I love that it's it's not just the classic rags to riches story per se. It is that and then so much more. Like he feels he he came into his own and he became a man after the rags to riches story happened.

Richard Piet 4:59

The richest part wasn't that threshold.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Right.

Richard Piet 5:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Richard Piet 5:05

Right. We associate that with uh dare I say, heroism or something uh when this happens. But take a look at these stats, right? Played for the Mets and the Yankees, 335 home runs, winning four World Series titles. Daryl Strawberry. So you sort of revolve around that and you say, wow, that's uh pretty impressive. He says that's not the major turning point in his life.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

Wow.

Local Testimony And Recovery Support

Richard Piet 5:34

Yep, absolutely. There's other parts to this program, of course, right, Esther?

SPEAKER_03 5:39

That's true. Every year it follows somewhat of the same agenda, I guess you could say. So there's community participants every year. There are certain prayers and certain readings and all of that that happens um every year. And one of our favorite and most looked forward to portions is the This I Believe testimonial, which is always a local story from the Battle Creek area. And this year it's um Raul Masonette from Hood Church and Hope House.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Pastor Raul runs Hood Church, which is sort of a street ministry. He comes from um Los Angeles, gang life, prison, drugs, and alcohol himself, broken family, and God hailed, and God has showed him some major grace, and he's got his life on track. And and um I'm not sure exactly how he ended up in Battle Creek, but he's here in Battle Creek, and so he also runs the Hope House, which is it's an aftercare house for men who successfully complete the men's life recovery program. Some of them qualify to go to the Hope House. I think they hold about five men at a time for a year, and it's basically just to uh help them, you know, that next step to get back on their feet. I personally, um, and this is one of the reasons I'm drawn to Pastor Raul, and also one of the reasons we took Daryl Strawberry to be her speaker is because my past consists of um drugs and alcohol abuse. And so I can can relate to all that when you're in the middle of that disease of drugs and alcohol, you know, it totally consumes you so much that and and it can go on for for years that you can really you forget how to do the basic, basic things, like you know, well, and you know, usually you've got a big mess to clean up when you get clean and sober. You may not be as hirable as you were, so they help teach a Christian-based way, men how to apply for jobs, balance a checkbook, be better fathers, you know, that sort of thing, um, at the house. So he's gonna tell his story, but I think it's gonna be be a great thing.

Richard Piet 7:43

We love an uplifting story, right? So the Daryl Strawberry part is great, but when we hear a local connection to that, boy, yeah, here you go. And if there's gang activity connection, LA has it, right? Where it's known for it. So he's he's come right out of that, right out of that story and and to hear, and and we'll hear about that as well. I'm lingering on your remarks, your personal remarks, because I'll just say uh we've done a hundred episodes with Summit Point as part of our daily routine, and we have heard a number of folks who have made a career out of helping people go through what you describe, and uh they've been through it themselves. And everything you just said has been resonant because I've heard it from other angles, from other folks who've done that. Do people understand, generally speaking, what kind of a journey that is?

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Unless you're one of them, I think it is hard to understand to relate to why would somebody choose to do something that's gonna that the doctor just told them was gonna kill them if they do it again. But that's just how powerful drugs and alcohol can be. And it is it is hard to take that first step. And for me personally, one of the hardest things about taking that first step was I've got a big mess to clean up one, you know, and it's just easier to to medicate myself again today than it is gonna be to start digging into this mess, you know. And that's why I think it's important to see people that have done it themselves, yes, and realize that hey, their mess was bigger than my mess, and if they did it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

And they made it to go on the side. So yeah, definitely a message of hope.

Richard Piet 9:28

Yes, and that is exactly why I lingered on that for a second. I know we didn't talk a whole lot about the idea that we would be talking about that, but you see the connection here, folks, right? The this I believe portion, the Daryl Strawberry portion, and now uh the Ryan and Esther Leonard portion, it's clear how this all fits.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Yes, absolutely.

Richard Piet 9:49

Especially so, perhaps this year. There's some other parts of this special event that will take place. It it's a coordinating. So, how does what do the co-chairs have to do? I mean, this there's a lot here.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

There is a lot. Um, we couldn't do it without Helen Royal, um, who sends her greetings to you also. Um, she's a rock star in our our local community and she is the coordinator extraordinaire. So she keeps us all on track. But as far as our parts of it, it's been our absolute honor to reach out to our local circle and our local community and people that have impacted and encouraged us through our journey and invite them to um to share uh on a stage in front of a decent sized crowd, which not everyone wants to do. Uh but I'm so proud. I'm so proud of our people that um that have said, you know what, I my knees might be shaking a little, but I am going to do this.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah. Yeah, we've no problem finding people to fill those positions with our circle. So it's been an honor to be able to be able to put our touch on on the event this year, I guess you could say.

Richard Piet 10:55

Yeah. And by the way, I'm well aware of what kind of a job it might be to get folks to speak publicly when they know there's a crowd.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

I've never spoken in front of 1200 people or 900 people, however, many people are going to be there. I've spoken in front of a few, but this is gonna be a first for us.

Unity And Hidden Hurts In Town

Richard Piet 11:13

The purpose of it, we talked a little bit about, but you talked a little bit about the notion of unity and trying to uh focus more on that which which we have in common than that which we don't. This seems like a particularly uphill slug this time around. Does it feel that way?

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Uh it doesn't really. I mean, if you read the headlines, it looks that way. But we have such great people in Battle Creek. We just do. And when we all get our eyes off ourselves and our our current challenges and our current soapboxes, if you will, there are bigger problems to handle, there are bigger victories to win together. And I feel like this event goes a long way toward that. One of our friends is Robin Boltz. She's the director of Unsilenced, which is Battle Creek's anti-human trafficking coalition. And she's a survivor of local human trafficking. And that's people like myself, when I still heard about it at the beginning, were like, what? That happens in LA? That happens in Boston, maybe, does not happen in Battle Creek. Having now being on the board of that organization, I can tell you it certainly does happen here. But she's going to be reading an Old Testament passage in honor of survivors in our community. And I think that's just one piece, not about us, each of us. It's about us all helping each other and recognizing the victories and the survivorship for whatever it may be. It might be surviving alcoholism in your home. It might be surviving domestic violence. It might be surviving, like her, human trafficking locally. And we're the same family looking upward for rescue and for hope. And I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

You know, the big impact that I'm hoping to see happen is we all have our stories. We all have our, you know, addictions, our struggles, you know, like Robin and the human track, all of that. And the answers, the rescue to all that all points in the same way. It all points is to God. You know, God rescued us, God gave us hope. And, you know, I think that there's going to be a lot of people. I hope that there's a lot of people there who might be in that for the first time at the prayer breakfast this year, who might be in that position where they're struggling with alcohol or just their own, whatever their own personal demons are, feeling lost, feeling like they don't have any hope. And then look, they'll look around and look at all of these people in the community who are saying the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

You know, God will help you, and that it would change his lives that day.

Richard Piet 13:40

Yes. And uh Robin's been here and told that story quite a bit, and it leaves you just flabbergasted. And I think you're right, Esther. We have this notion that uh that happened somewhere else. Guess what? It happens here too. And she tells that story. So uh look for that community matters story from Robin and uh the unsilenced group. This goes back to 1982,

History Sponsors And Student Seats

Richard Piet 14:07

the prayer breakfast in Battle Creek, Esther, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:10

That's correct. This started as a collaborative effort of several community prayer leaders. Dr. Russell Moby was then the CEO of the WK Kellogg Foundation, and Dr. Paul Geyser, I believe, was a local physician and a Colonel Ben Gomez from the Federal Center. The story goes that they met to discuss expanding the current annual prayer breakfast for the federal center employees to include not just federal center people, but the whole Greater Battle Creek community. And they modeled it after the national prayer breakfast event. So it follows the same format as it did 44 years ago, and it accomplishes great things every year, just like it did back then.

Richard Piet 14:49

1982 seems like it ought to have been yesterday for some of us.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Doesn't it?

Richard Piet 14:55

But it isn't, folks. Hate to tell you. But what a great uh history to look back on. And we should take a minute too to uh thank the number of volunteers and supporters that uh have been part of this as well, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:08

Absolutely. We always have such great community sponsors and and supporters. The WK Kellogg Foundation has remained a tremendous contributor. Um, our local cereal companies, even through the mergers locally, have stayed involved in our are donating products. Lots of local individuals and companies have made financial donations. A lot of companies provide in-kind services or donate things for a nominal cost. Even the firms that are at the podium every year, they're donated by Lowe's, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Yes, Lowe's gave us a great discount. Which is so famous. And I think it's uh not Dollar General, but Dollar Tree lets us use their grocery carts every year for the setup. The event is gets set up the day before, and it involves a lot of people putting things out at a lot of tables, and we use we need grocery carts to do that, and so it's a pretty seamless process.

Richard Piet 16:02

Yeah, well, that's uh one of the things you wouldn't even think of, I would imagine, and uh just one of the ways behind the scenes, even that uh folks are helping. There, you mentioned individuals, there are individuals who have made financial donations, and that has allowed area high school students

Tickets Reception Details And Timing

Richard Piet 16:20

to attend at no cost. How many? About 250. That's an incredible number. So there's just an another way this has uh helped. So you can get your tickets and donate online. We'll put the link in the show notes, of course, but uh bcpraybreakfast.org is the website, and it's as easy as that. 20 bucks, and you're in. Tables of eight go for about 160, so that'll reserve a whole table if you're so inspired to do that. And you can also get tickets in person at the Battle Creek Community Foundation, of course, on uh West Michigan Avenue. You can get them at the door, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Yes, you can also get them at the door if there's any available.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

The other thing uh is you buy a table that that gets you admission to the night, the reception the night before, or you can just purchase a pass for that for $100. And we would really love a lot of people to take part in that. What that is at the Kellogg Foundation, uh Mr. Strawberry will be there. It'll be uh snacks and a bit of a chance to talk with him one-on-one, hear a little bit about his story and what he's gonna say the next day, maybe get your picture taken with him. Great networking, and we would love as many people as possible to donate and to go to that. And that's one of the ways that we can send the students for free.

Richard Piet 17:42

And that hundred dollars gets you to that meet and greet, and that's uh Monday night at the Kellogg Foundation. All right, so now you have it. So this is the 44th annual community prayer breakfast that's coming up Tuesday, May 5th. So we said 725 to 8. But if you want to get your ticket at the door, as Esther said, probably want to be there before 725 and uh healthily so uh in order to doors open at 6:50 a.m. 650, so 10 minutes to seven is when the door is open. It's an early thing. They don't call it breakfast for nothing because that's the way it is. Congratulations to you both, and uh thank you for having done this and sharing your story.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Thank you.

Richard Piet 18:24

Ryan and Esther Leonard, the co chairs of the 2026 Community Prayer Breakfast in Battle Creek here on Community Matters.