John Shirk, author of The Sacrificial Poet, who has a spoken word ministry in Chicago, has sent a note about events that have happened in his neighborhood. He recently shared this, as he requested prayer for the situation:
By now many of you have probably already seen news reports from Garfield Park. There is no easy way to put this. On Saturday a child’s foot was found floating in the lagoon… Further investigation revealed more partial remains.
As we looked out our windows on Labor Day the park that would normally be packed with folks grilling and enjoying the end of Summer was empty. Police vehicles blocked the entrances and crime scene tape surrounded the perimeter.
Yesterday, police closed off our street and began draining the lagoon to search for more remains and any additional evidence. In the evening I attended a prayer vigil with some of our neighbors and a few local pastors. At the prayer vigil, my mother who is visiting us from California was able to pray with a lady who had lost her son to gun violence two weeks ago.
This morning Esther baked chocolate chip cookies to pass out to the law enforcement officers and water department employees who were pumping out the lagoon and watching over the crime scene.
As I type this, they have still not identified the child, but they believe the crime happened within the last couple of weeks.
In the midst of tragedy like this your mind races. There are so many questions and so few answers. There is a a desire to make sense out of it.
But it doesn’t make sense. Evil never does.
“It is hard to know how to help,” adds John. “We have done symbolic stuff like join our neighbors in tying a blue ribbon on the tree in our front yard in memory of the victim, We have tried to encourage our neighbors however we can, including attending the prayer vigil on our block.”
Here is a link to a news story about the incident.