At our last Board of Directors meeting we had a long and very important discussion about many of the harsh realities that are faced by the people who live in the community of Sandtown-Winchester, and how these realities continue to be much greater than the “excitements” we might be having at the plans and progress of our new building and programs. To simply share the news and pictures of the latest progress inside 1500 Presstman St. would keep us from being honest about the lives and struggles of the very people for whom the use of this building is being designed.
Today’s update is simply another reminder that the struggles continue, the pain is real, and that many people in the community are feeling overwhelmingly tired in light of all that is going on in the world around them.
While there was certainly some sense of relief at a just conviction this week in light of the killing of George Floyd, the fact that this event has been sandwiched between the killings of Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, and Andrew Brown, Jr., has been extremely disheartening, to say the least – even if, unfortunately, unsurprising.
As if the struggles of poverty are not a heavy enough burden to carry on their own, to add to this the thoughts and feelings and fears and concerns and distrust and frustrations and desires to do something about everything and acknowledgment that nothing seems to make a difference, all which come out of what is sometimes presented as a present crisis but in reality has been going on for a long, long, long time – and you begin to wonder how anyone could carry this all without being crushed by it.
And yet this community, and many others like it, remains resilient.
And as such it remains a humbling honor to walk together.
Our request of you this day is this:
Pray.
And do so without ceasing.
