Longest Night

Tonight was the third annual Longest Night ceremony at Wornall Road Baptist Church. This is the only December event that our church has. John Mark says that there are plenty of amazing churches in the area who put on amazing Christmas pageants (and there's nothing wrong with that) but that that this is how we use our church at Christmas.

My parents stayed home to watch Allison while Nathan and I went to the ceremony.

We were due for a really bad ice storm tonight and I think that kept a lot of people away but there was still a good turnout. I'm always so overwhelmed by the reality of violence because I've always been so sheltered from it. So to hear a group of women saying the names of multiple friends and family they have represented by the crosses on the lawn is very foreign. This year, because of the smaller group that met, one of the pastors who helped with the service called everyone to the front, had us join hands in small groups and say why we were there. A girl in my group- who was about my age- said that her cousin and boyfriend were both murdered this year.

We walked out to the lawn with candles and stood by crosses, again, any cross that didn't have someone to stand by it, was represented by a Wornall member. I stood by Norris Payne, who was shot and killed in his car on June 25th. So far in Kansas City, there have been 131 murders this year, 104 with firearms, and with 76 of them unsolved.

55% of the victims are younger than me.

This event make me so proud of the affect Wornall is having on the community.