RESTORE
We appreciate all of you who have reached out after seeing our neighborhood on the news today. Thank you for being people who see beyond the headlines. You know that hurting souls and complex stories are behind what is being reported and you stop to pray. That means more to us than you'll ever know.
There have been two separate Oak Tree families directly impacted by gun violence just this week.
Last night the entire block in front of the Treehouse was roped off for a homicide investigation. We talked with parents who took their kids out for the night just to escape the sound of gunfire. We watched moms navigating police barriers to get their kids inside of their own front doors for the night. We talked with police to ensure our Oak Tree kids were ok and to get permission to cross the crime scene tape and check on our elders.
Today I listened to another neighbor share her story of surviving being shot multiple times. Exactly one year ago she was released from the hospital and went home to be with her babies just in time for Christmas. She talked about her pain learning to walk again and her constant struggle with PTSD, and how the shooting in her back yard last night made the wounds feel fresh. She shared her testimony of how God miraculously protected her and her friends and how they are still alive today when it seemed impossible. She talked about releasing her anger and trusting God to bring justice. She expressed how thankful she was to be able to shop at Christmas in the Village today and for the opportunity to make new special memories with her babies this year.
"They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
They will REBUILD the ancient ruins
and RESTORE the places long devastated;
they will RENEW the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations."
Isaiah 61:3b-4
The hard reality is that this is part of life in the Village. The gun shots ring out so often that we can forget what it's like in other areas of our city. Sometimes we know the person on the receiving end, sometimes we know the person pulling the trigger, and sometimes we know both. And we know that both sides of each story contain generations of trauma passed down.
Most incidents in our community never make it onto the news, so we can quickly forget that this kind of information is a shock to outsiders. We can even become desensitized in our own self-preservation. But then we remember why we're here, and we fight in prayer through tears with our neighbors. Our hearts are broken with them.
“Trauma in a person, decontextualized over time, looks like personality.
Trauma in a family, decontextualized over time, looks like family traits.
Trauma in a people, decontextualized over time, looks like culture."
- Resmaa Menakem
All of this is exactly why the second "root" of Oak Tree is Trauma Informed. Our work would have very little lasting impact and would not be even remotely sustainable if we didn't approach every aspect with a lens of trauma and healing.
We have had times of sweet celebration this week, but that doesn't take away the desperate sorrow. Joy and sadness can, and often do, co-exist.
If you would like to learn more about our Trauma Informed Practices you can find training videos and resources HERE.
Please continue praying for our community, especially our children and those grieving.
How do we do this work?
Our world is broken. God’s original design has been twisted and distorted so that evil and suffering are common. The history of humanity is dark. Our history as a nation, and even more specifically, our history in Birmingham is one of sin, division, terror, and injustice. We can sum this up as traumatic.
This leads us to the present. Communities characterized by poverty and crime did not come into existence overnight. We must look beyond the surface to find the real story. We must recognize and repent of our complicity in decades of injustice. We must understand that there are no quick fixes or easy answers for problems that have resulted from unacknowledged complex trauma.
We choose to step into the pain as Jesus did. We first address the reality of trauma in our own lives so that we can walk with our neighbors as they deal with trauma in their lives. Through mutual relationships and trauma-informed programs, we create brave space to walk together towards healing as a community.