June 2020

Tuesday, May 26 Noon

I never have any words….never know what to say. Yesterday evening while I worked in my garden, two blocks away, the life of a Black man was being smothered out by a policeman’s knee on his neck. If you are not angry, if you are not outraged, if you are not sick, if you are not heartbroken, you are not paying attention. If you are not seeking and asking what your own contribution can be towards the promotion of equity and justice and opportunity in our city and state and nation and world for Black men and all marginalized persons, you are promoting the status quo. Please join me as I grieve with another mother who has to mourn a senseless and brutal loss, as I am angry and outraged at a system that allows police inhumanity to continue and as I pray to ask God what my part is in working for justice and love in this broken world of ours. Let’s pray and act.

Sunday morning May 31

Thank you for your prayers, we are fine here this morning except for the fact that I am clearly too old to be staying up all night!!!

It was a much more quiet night than the previous, but lest anyone think our local officials were alarmist I want to say that stuff was going on here in south Minneapolis night, there’s just no way for us to know the true level of danger. 

As we watched and prayed last night there were some things not uncommon in our neighborhood, lots of fireworks type bangs and a couple of nearby gunshots. We have now become accustomed to the presence of the helicopters over us. And even with the curfew, many cars were speeding up our street and some through our alley last night.

Then there were things we don’t usually see, white men in matching black hoodies running down our street, men in grey hoodies and helmets riding mopeds down our alley, a truck with white men with faces covered riding on the truck bed speeding by… a caravan of passenger vans speeding down our street going the wrong way. Quite a number of cars were driving the wrong way on both our adjacent one way streets last night. Friends in other neighborhoods report similar odd goings-on.  I hollered and yelled and scared off a white man in a grey hoodie moving amongst the cars in my neighbor’s driveway at 2am.

I say all of this to let you know that we appreciate your prayers- please continue to pray for us, for our people, our neighbors, for justice and change, for healing and recovery in our city and for the trauma that this week and so many other moments like it in our nation’s history has wrought upon the hearts and minds of Black Americans.

June 4 Thursday morning

Thank you to all who have reached out to see how we’re doing, who have offered to help, who have donated to support our ministry to families here in these difficult days. Because I haven’t slept well, I took a walk this morning in hopes of getting my body back to normal. I walked to the site of George Floyd’s killing….even at 9 am it’s filled with people, tents of 20 or more news cameras poised everywhere to catch the activity. The traffic is so thick around our house we have had a hard time getting in and out of here sometimes. It seems the whole world has now come to our little corner of the world. 

We want to let you know we are here. We are weary and a little frazzled at times. (For those who know us, you know that means me, not Chris!!)

But, We are fine. And we will be here, as we have been for the past 31 years, doing what we have always done. Checking in with all our people. Seeing who needs things and making sure they get them. Comforting, counseling, encouraging, supporting, loving Black boys and their families. Promoting and encouraging their health, development, minds, hearts and souls as they become strong men. 

When the cameras go away, when all the ills of racism and poverty are no longer on the forefront of America’s mind, we will be here. Loving God. Loving our neighbor. Lifting up the name of Jesus and giving ourselves to the work that God has put before us, this lifetime call of supporting young men and their families and building Christian community here in Minneapolis.