Today I had the pleasure of attending a Sunday service at Liberty Grace Church of God, where the sermon today was about God always keeping his promise, we just have to be patient, in the meantime have faith and work to be prepared for your promise. Liberty Grace Church of God along with the other churches that they are partnered with are living proof of this message.
Following Sunday service, Terris King॥ gave us a tour of West Baltimore centering around some of the available green spaces in Baltimore that he and other collaborative churches and community members are using to create garden spaces, a place for children to have a sacred place, to grow food for the community through Temple X Schools.
Oftentimes Baltimore City, especially West Baltimore is stereotyped as a violent, food-insecure city, with not much hope. But today we saw a different perspective, people are actively fighting the injustices in the community, by providing directly to the community. We saw Black churches leading this, pulling the extra hours and looking for the opportunities and connections to make sure their work lives on. Consistent renovations on ideas and occupying as much space as possible, so that the land there to give back. Also, have to give a shout-out to the senior citizens who are playing a huge role in catering to the green spaces and growing these environments. The churches understand that having completed green spaces with hundreds of trees and a garden with consistent maintenance takes time and patience, but they have faith in their vision.
Before this experience today I thought church did not go beyond Sundays, I didn’t know people were actively fighting for the community’s survival and taking care of essentially an entire city of people that the world actively ignores. It was like I was back in time looking at the civil rights activist planning their next move. This experience of seeing what is being accomplished reminded me that I do not need to break every unjust system, but instead to start working with the community and providing for it to let the community know that someone cares for their well-being. It also taught me that change does not occur overnight, especially when trying to change decades of injustices.