OCEAN CITY – The 25th Annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast will close out the year with its final event.
The Ocean City Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast will be held next Friday, Dec. 12, from 7-9:15 a.m. at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on 101st Street.
“It is the 25th year, and I think it is time to move on. Twenty-five years is a good number to leave in good standing,” event director Bruce Spangler said.
Spangler, who is a retired Ocean City police officer, started the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in 1990. It was originally held at the Dunes Manor, but with the success of the event growing to over 400 attendees it moved to the larger space at the Clarion.
Twenty-five years ago, Spangler was approached by two friends of his who organized the Easton Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast and the Delaware Governors Prayer Breakfast. After approaching the Ocean City Mayor at the time, Fish Powell, of the concept, the town’s Mayor Prayer Breakfast was created.
Each year the event invites a public speaker. This year’s speaker is John Abent of Faith Baptist Church in Berlin.
“This year’s breakfast will have another topic that many people find fascinating,” Spangler said. “Since this is our last breakfast, it was decided that the speaker will focus on the return of our Lord. You may wonder what exactly does this mean? We have to look at what the scriptures say are the events throughout the world pointing to his return.”
According to Spangler, the Bible has over 1,800 references to the Lord’s second coming. In the Old Testament, there are 17 books referring to the second coming along with 23 books of the New Testament. However, a vast majority of people do not believe it will ever happen.
“With everything going in the world and in nature, this is all part of the scriptures that have forecast it all,” Spangler said. “These are all signs from the Lord, the Bible and its scriptures. The Lord is trying to get our attention.”
Spangler furthers the Bible refers to events taking place before the Lord’s second coming, such as upheavals in nature, earthquakes, strange weather, wars, rumors of wars, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation, pestilence and plagues. The Bible also says there will be signs in the heavens — in the sun, moon and stars or constellations.
Spangler used examples of such events being the recent sequence of earthquakes in Oklahoma and Arizona, 36 active volcanoes around the world currently, which is the most ever recorded at one time, the plague of Ebola and Isis attacks on Israel.
Additionally, for the third time in the last 500 years, according to Spangler, earth is amidst a Tetrad of Blood Red Moon Eclipses with two more Blood Red Moons coming within the year.
“It [Prayer Breakfast] is to have people focus on what is going on and learn about the scripture, and what God is trying to tell us. Things are changing so fast not a day goes by that something else happens the Bible forecasted … it is exciting times and he [Abent] is going to connect the dots,” Spangler said.
Tickets for the Ocean City Mayor’s Breakfast must be purchased in advance for $16 at the following locations: Long and Foster Realty, 118th Street and Coastal Hwy., Ocean City; Town Hall, 3rd St. and Baltimore Ave., Ocean City; Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, Route 50, West Ocean City; and Cropper Oil Company, Route 50, Berlin. Tickets are also available by mail 204 Graham Ave., Berlin, Md. 21811.
Spangler recommended purchasing tickets as soon as possible as they are going fast. Tables of eight to 10 guests can be reserved.
For more information call Spangler at his office at 410-641-1300 or his cell phone at 443-235-2669.