Wednesday night, August 19th, will ring in the minds and hearts of our neighborhood and the Rochester community for years to come. It was a night that started out with some good, clean fun at a Boys and Girls Club basketball game on Genesee Street, right across from Wilson High School in Rochester’s 19th Ward and within several blocks of our main ministry offices.
When the game was over a crowd of kids poured out into the Club parking lot beside Westside Health Services and hung out for a while talking, laughing, and playing around with one another. After a while the crowd dispersed, leaving only about 15 behind. Then, suddenly a car went speeding by the curbside and shattered the night with a spray of high-powered gunfire, obviously from some sort of automatic weapon, and within moments 7 young men were on the ground, 3 dying and the other 4 seriously injured.
The community is reeling: police are working overtime to apprehend the perpetrators of this vicious attack; vigils have been and are being held; funerals are being arranged; families are grieving; and the community as a whole has entered into a time of deep soul-searching. What will it take to turn the violence around? Please pray with us for the Lord’s guidance as we seek to find comfort, redemption, restoration, understanding, and a better way forward, not only for those who have been directly affected but for our entire community.
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