When the profit Elijah faced a three-year drought, as told in I Kings 17, he was told by God to go to Cherith, a brook where he was fed and nourished.

This is the goal of Fayette-based Cherith Ministries — to feed and nourish those in need.

The principal mission of the organization is to encourage and support pastors and their families and to provide counseling to both pastors and their congregations.

It reaches out into communities to draw people together regardless of their individual faiths.

Gray N. Harwell serves as its executive director and can be found assisting in mission programs in Fayette County, the United States and a number of places around the world.

First Thursday Praise and Worship is one of the local missions that praises the Lord through community worship. Usually conducted at Sams Auditorium in Fayetteville, it draws a nondenominational group of Christian followers. Harwell invites pastors from various faiths to assist in leading the noontime worship hour.

Recently the Rev. Timothy M. Hepburn and the Rev. Tom Zaworski, deacons of the Catholic Church of Saint Gabriel's, were on hand.

Cherith is active with the Fayette County pastors' breakfasts, each Tuesday morning at 8 at the IHOP in Fayetteville.

It conducts a prayer summit each year, at which time a three-day retreat is offered for pastors, and also sponsors an International Renewal Ministries.

The next event Cherith will participate in is the National Day of Prayer, conducted each year on the first Thursday of May. This Thursday, on May 4, several different events will be at Heritage Park in Fayetteville.

A breakfast will be at 8 a.m. at Grace Evangelical Church on Flat Creek Road; at noon and at 5:30 p.m. a prayer gathering will be at Heritage Park at the fountain.

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