Belated Blessings

Prayers

I know some of you have asked about an update, but honestly, my mind and heart are not there right now. On Thanksgiving night, Emantic Bradford Jr, was shot and killed by the police in Hoover, AL at the Galleria Mall. I stay maybe 20 minutes from here. As I browsed Facebook looking at Thanksgiving posts from friends and family, I came across videos and pictures of a young man shot and bleeding out.

My heart literally broke. There was an altercation where shots were fired. Police assumed that the military vet was the assailant because his weapon was out. However, he was just protecting and helping others. To make matters worse, police never notified his parents of their son's  death. They found out the same way I did.

In addition to Ej's life being taken, an 18 year old boy was shot in the abdomen, a 12 year old girl was shot and now has to live with a bullet in her back, and a 70 year old woman had to be air lifted to a hospital. My coworker has bruises from falling trying to find her daughter during the incident.

We see these types of stories on the news,  but it is a different type of emotion when it hits close to home.  People are mad, hurt, confused, and overwhelmed by it all. There have been town hall meetings and protests all over the city. So at this time, I'm asking that all my readers pray for the city of Birmingham, pray for Ej's parents ( his father has cancer and his mother passed out during town hall today and was taken to the hospital for stroke like symptoms). Pray that God will shine light on all the dark places and that He would be Jehovah Shalom in the midst of all this chaos.

The bible says a lot of things but a few stick out to me.

Psalm 34:18 - God is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

Romans 12:17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.

Romans 12:18 -Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

I know this is not the update you were looking for, but it's the only one I have at the moment.