Shots in the Night!

Well it has been a sad and eventful weekend. On Saturday morning we awoke to the news that there had been a shooting in our neighborhood. Not just any old shooting but this man was gunned down by five others and was shot over 30 times!!! In the same night another man was stabbed to death in a seperate incident. All of this in one weekend. The violence continues to escalate in our small community as drugs and the traffic it brings continues unchecked. Many could look at these instances and dismiss them as "just another shooting of an unwanted menace to society" but we know that they were fathers, sons, husbands, uncles, friends who grew up with many of those we know here in the Grove. As we have learned the details surrounding these killings and the ways that these losses are being felt by some of our friends in the community it tears our hearts and serves as a wake up call to pray and to act to try to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Will it happen again? Probably, these things usually trigger other events. Can we be a part of the solution to these and other problems like them that plague our communities? YES! and we must. We must stand for justice and mercy at the same time. We must seek to find the hurting who have so recently lost their loved ones and bring the love of Jesus to them and the healing that only He can give to the wounded souls. Please pray for us as we seek to do this. We know that one of the men has two young daughters and we know many of his friends and relatives. Please pray as we seek to minister to them and walk along with them in their grief. One of our neighbors grew up with this man and has told us, choked with emotion, that he was one of his best friends "coming up in the hood". This is real life...and death on the frontlines... and the front lines are in our neighborhoods.