State of Emergency pt 2

Well the mayor and city council has voted to extend the state of emergency for 30 days. After finding out from the city that we as citizens are still allowed to do normal activity like driving to the grocery store, coming home from work, and anything else legal after 9pm and finding out that if you plan to gather more than two or three people together in a public place you need a permit, we found that the 9pm curfew does not negatively affect us. The city is definitely more quiet at night. I think that most residents are in favor of the curfew. However after 8 days of silence of gun fire, we have had 3 shootings since Sunday. The first left one person injured, the second was a man shot to death Sunday night, and just a few hours an officer was shot in the arm and one suspect is dead and two others are injured. Today I drove by the place where the man was found shot to death. As I got close I saw one of the ladies who I regularly meet with carrying a teddy bear to add to the make shift memorial. When I pulled up beside her she told me that the man who was shot was a good friend of hers. She was having a hard time dealing with this loss. It seemed like this was the first time that someone that close to her had been killed. I was at a loss for words to comfort her. Ultimately it is changed hearts that will change this community, God is working! He is here in this community. He loves the people of Chester. Pray for my dear friend and others who are grieving the loss of this friend. May God receive the glory from the changed lives that can be born out of tragedy.

A State of Emergency

Tom and I were getting ready to play Apples to Apples with friends on Saturday night when we got some unexpected news. At 8:53 pm one of our church members called and informed us that there was a city-wide curfew going into effect at 9pm. It was a bit of a shock to us, but we packed up our stuff and headed home. We got home about nine and called some friends who went online and told us that what we had heard was true, the Mayor of Chester had declared a State of Emergency earlier in the day in response to a rise in the number of murders over the last few weeks. That night our area felt a lot like a ghost town, much quieter than usual.

We waited around for the 10:00 news to hear the info for ourselves and sure enough we heard that the Mayor had declared a state of emergency until Thursday. He also plans to meet with city council on Wednesday and urge them to extend the state of emergency for 30 days. To enforce the curfew the Mayor has requested assistance from the state police and county sheriff's departments. He has also cancelled vacation days and personal time for all city police officers and placed them on 12 hour shifts. We are concerned about the Mayor's desire to push this an extra 30 days. Keeping people off the streets will not change their hearts. The added restrictions for an extended amount of time will most likely increase tensions between residents and police. Our prayer is that God's will would be done in our city.

As I read people's comments about Chester in the online newspaper my heart is saddened. There are many negative comments, even so far as wanting the people of Chester locked in their city with their guns so that they can shoot themselves and have the problem done with. How Our Father looks on this city is very different, He sees the brokenness and desires to heal each heart and restore them. He has placed His children here to share that good news. His children are young/old, black/white and they are on their knees lifting this city before Him. Tomorrow (Tues June 22) and 9 am we will be gathering at the Frederick Douglass Christian School/World Impact building to lift up our city to Him and to lift up the Mayor's meeting on Wednesday with city council. Please join us from wherever you are.