Issues: Reconciliation,Winter, and Safety
Over the last few years living in North Minneapolis a few blocks away from the 4th Precinct police station, I have witnessed the pain of our people’s losses. There have been murders in our neighborhoods. There have been times unnecessary and unexplainable force have resulted in the murder of citizens by police. An already tense situation only leads to more dangerous encounters. When the community doesn’t trust the police and the police fear the community, we have a very big problem.
Last year we noticed that after large protests outside of the police station there were far less patrols, and arrests, which really left the community with nowhere to turn. Crime increased. I’m not sure what the official numbers were because arrests weren’t occurring. But arrests cannot be the sole source of determining the true level of crime. Crime was happening and calls were made, but the police didn’t come. Drug sales were done in our allies. Fights and shootings increased in the late hours. As a result, we saw those who were fearful retreat since no help would come.
In all of this, I looked at my kids, half of whom have only lived in North Minneapolis, and thought about and processed the dangers they faced. But during the day other neighborhood kids would come by. Their parents worked. They stood outside our house at bus stops. They ran throughout the neighborhood freely. Some walked most days alone until they ran into a friend. I could teach my children to observe and be there to enforce the rules we were teaching them to survive, but not every household could. And what complicates matters is God has placed us in a “safer” pocket of North Minneapolis.
As winter approaches the days shorten significantly and the wind and temperature can become dangerous and even deadly. Please pray for the kids who need coats. There have been many. Please pray for men and women to walk our streets and maintain a peaceful presence that God could use to protect our children. Please pray for shelter at bus stops and for bus routes to run effectively so that children can be picked up before they face too dangerous temperatures. Pray for us as we share our porch, home, food, and clothes/coats with neighborhood kids. Pray that we will explain the true source of our love for them: the love of God most clearly presented in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And please pray for the people of North Minneapolis, citizens and officers, to be reconciled bound by the peace that can only come (and stay) by the cross of Christ. Pray for opportunities to serve our police and minister to their needs in gospel proclamation and gospel fruit produced acts of care. We have been given a ministry of reconciliation. It’s a part of who we are. Pray that we will have faith in God’s ability to work in North Minneapolis to foster reconciliation for the good of all people here and for the glory of God, but especially for the generations of citizens that will come after us, our children.