Friday, March 25, 2005

How many shootings do your youth group kids see?


Tonight Clayon came over. He's one of our youth group kids. He's on March break and after hangin at our place, I was drove him home. When I pulled up to his house to drop him off he stalled getting out of the car, as usual, so we could talk longer. It's nice getting one on one time with these guys. But tonight was different. As we were sitting there he pointed to the convenience store within a stones throw of his house and he got all excited and said "yo, did you see the news about the shooting here yesterday?" I said I hadn't, and so we went over and saw the scene of the crime, a little dry cleaners in the corner of the strip mall. Clayon lives in the closest house to the shooting. He told me about when the police came and the canine unit walking over his lawn looking for the suspect. It made me wonder what it would do to someone to experience that. And not just to experience it once.

Here are the newspaper articles:
1. 680 news
2. Toronto Star article:
TORONTO STAR STAFF - Shop owner hurt in shooting...Police are hunting for a gunman who walked into a Scarborough dry cleaner's around noon yesterday and fired a single shot at the owner...
Officers brought in the canine unit and fanned out around the small plaza on Victoria Park Ave., just north of Finch Ave. E., looking for any sign of the gunman or a weapon...
Jilessen said the owner has a wife and daughter who sometimes help out at the store.
The full text of the articles are on the forum.

This isn't like an "out of the blue" thing either. I remember last year when another teen, who lives near Clayon came over telling us about a lady who had cut off another ladies hand just down the street from her. She was recently sentenced:

Machete attacker jailed:

Tensions had been building between the two neighbours, who lived on Chester Le Boulevard, near Victoria Park and Finch Avenues. The woman was under a court order to have no contact with Monast after being charged the previous year with assault with a weapon for injuring her with a tossed beer bottle, court heard...
On the day of the machete attack, Monast awoke from a nap and noticed her door was open. She closed it, but a few minutes later the attacker was running at her, swinging a machete at her head, the judge said...
Monast tried to protect herself by raising her hands, the judge said. At least two significant swings aimed at her head and neck hit home, he said...
The first cut the side of her face and severed her left hand, leaving it hanging, court heard...
When Monast ran behind the basement door, the woman hacked at it with the machete, the judge said. Things quieted down, so Monast emerged from the basement, but the attacker came after her again, severing her right hand...
The attack only ended when Monast collapsed on the floor, believing the attacker wouldn’t leave her alone until she thought she had killed her.

Again, back to my original questions. How many times have things like this happened near your youth group kids? How do you deal with that level of emotional trauma? What would it be like to experience things like this on a regular basis? How can we expect to reach kids like this with games or a devotional or one hour on Sunday? What does an "inner-city" church look like and where are the resources for folks who work in these areas? Lord, we need your help.

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