Faith and patriotism created a dynamic blend Thursday during the 34th annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast at the Owatonna Country Club.
Mayor Tom Kuntz led the Pledge of Allegiance during the annual prayer breakfast and offered words of togetherness, faith, and love to bring to each other every day. (Emily Kahnke/southernminn.com)
The breakfast, hosted by the Exchange of Owatonna over the last several years, was attended by Owatonna Mayor Tom Kuntz, several local veterans, club members and other guests.
“One Nation Under God” remained the theme as it has for many years, keeping with the club’s focus on Americanism. Kuntz led the Pledge of Allegiance and offered a few words of his own about Americanism and faith.
“Let us all strive to maintain thankful attitudes, practice the golden rule and leave an example for the next generation that is worth following all to honor God,” he said.
Mayor Tom Kuntz looks on as Reverend Mike Walerius speaks at Thursday’s annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast at the Owatonna Country Club. (Emily Kahnke/southernminn.com)
Reverend Mike Walerius was the guest speaker for the breakfast. Raised in Owatonna and ordained in 2013, he currently serves at the First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie. He said when he was asked to speak at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, he was surprised and humbled.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a presentation or a sermon,” he said. “After talking to my wife she said ‘you’re a pastor’ and that I should preach. Preaching is a way that I can share myself and the word of God, which is what I wanted to do today.”
Walerius shared his background and how he as his family came it Owatonna when he was three-years old. He said although he was not born in Owatonna, he still considers himself a lifelong Owatonnan, because even though he didn’t anticipate settling down here, he ultimately did with his family and now can’t imagine being anywhere else.
Walerius joked with no guidelines or topics on what he should talk about, he was excited and slightly intimidated, but ultimately decided to share one of his favorite scriptures from the book of John in the bible.
He recalled buying his home, which was built in 1991, and he said it very much looked like a home built at that time and he and his wife began making some cosmetic upgrades to the interior and, more specifically, the landscaping.
At the farmers market, Walerius said he discovered a man selling a dwarf lilac tree that was a relatively new breed of tree grafted together, and because of that it needed to be wrapped and staked to ensure the trunk and the roots were able to grow healthily.
“What stood out to me was that it was grafted together,” he said. “It was two sources that became one to grow this tree. Jesus in this reading today was talking about grafting … We can all go out and do the things that we want to do, but without that base that is Jesus, we can’t grow and produce fruit that lasts.”
He concluded his sermon by speaking about coming together as a community, loving each other and supporting one another in any way possible with the hardships being faced all over the world with coming out of the pandemic, war, inflation and divide.
“We need love. We need to get back to starting there as our basis,” he said. “We’ve lost that I think and we get stuck in ourselves and just love one another.”
The breakfast concluded with a community prayer, benediction and a patriotic song.
Reach Reporter Emily Kahnke at 507-444-2376. ©Copyright 2022 APG Media of Southern Minnesota. All rights reserved.
