A Heavenly Bond : Group Gathers to Seek Divine Assistance With Financial Crisis

By MATT LAIT

May 12, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SANTA ANA — God help us.

At least that was the message from more than 500 people who gathered Thursday outside the Hall of Administration to say the solution to the county’s bankruptcy will not be found in new taxes and more layoffs, but rather from a little divine intervention.

It appeared that the faithful had lost faith in the ability of government leaders alone to pull the county out of its financial abyss.

“Man’s wisdom got us into the problem, God’s help will get us out,” said Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa.

Under gray and breezy skies, residents from throughout the county assembled in the plaza to join hands, sing songs and ask for heavenly help. They listened and applauded as Smith and other county and community leaders asked them to summon God’s assistance in ending the worst municipal collapse in U.S. history.

“The county has retained the assistance of the best minds in the country to find solutions to problems. But today, the greatest power of all will be petitioned,” said Nick Berardino, a spokesman for the Orange County Employees Assn., which helped organize the event. “The power of prayer can transform fear to courage, selfishness to unity, weariness to strength . . . and despair to hope.”

People were asked to pray for the many who have lost their jobs, those who led the county into the crisis and those who will lead it out.

“This is a great day,” said Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez, who spoke to the gathering and promised that the county will survive the bankruptcy and become stronger for it.

“The tests of life are sent to make us, not to break us,” he said. “And Orange County will make it.”

John Bayard, 71, who biked eight miles from his home in Orange to attend the event, said he made the trek to “pray for the restoration of the county. We definitely need some outside help.”

Julie Perry, an accounting assistant in the county auditor’s office, said she attended the session because she was on her lunch hour and she “had nothing better to do.” Nonetheless, she said she was happy to be there.

“This may be what the county needs to pull together,” Perry said.

John Parsons, 45, of Aliso Viejo, who is on jury duty, said he left the courthouse on his break to support the gathering.

“We need this in the county and country,” he said. “We have forgotten our morals and values.”

But not everybody was so sure that the prayers would be enough.

“It’s gonna take a lot more than God to get us out of this mess,” said Will B. King, a county gadfly and frequent critic of the county’s recovery effort. “This is a joke.”

Pastor Smith, however, said he was “overwhelmed” by the number of people who showed up. “This is far more than I anticipated. This is the beginning of the answer to the county’s problems.”

For Lucini Rivas, who works a hot dog cart next to the Hall of Administration, the gathering was already an answer to his prayers.

“Business has been good,” Rivas said, as he served many of the faithful and hungry who attended the event. “Very good.”