Willingness

Last weekend we woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a lady screaming at the top of her lungs outside our apartment.  I jumped out of bed, looked out the window and saw some kind of dark movement in a car across the street.  Figuring someone was being raped, Jaime and I immediately called the police.  The operator reported there were already several calls and told me to stay inside.  A few minutes later we could hear sirens and a young lady suddenly got out of the car.  Another larger lady got out and started chasing her toward our apartment.  We recognized them both as a couple whose family lives in one of the apartments units in our complex.  Last time we interacted with them they were in a huge fight throwing each other's clothing out into the street.  As they ran in the courtyard and into their family's unit it became clear they put their fight on hold to elude the police who had just turned the corner.  The police ended up in their apartment for several minutes but in the end nothing happened.


Looking back it really did not take long for the police to get there (for which I'm grateful), but it felt like an eternity.  Try to imagine several minutes of listening to a woman screaming and pleading for them to stop doing whatever their doing to her.  In that moment there's an intense feeling of helplessness.  Should you try to go help her?  How many people are out there?  What if there's a gun?  It's paralyzing.


Feeling traumatized, we sat on our couch awake for the next two hours planning all the new safeguards we'd need to put in place.  We realized then that there is something profound in us merely being here.  We could have just as easily been another severely broken family in the complex.  We're far from perfect but we do strive to be a light where we live, to love the children and the neighbors and the apartment manager.  I think that by us living in the city, by taking on some of the neighborhood trauma, we become much more effective as agents of the gospel.  We have a vested interest.  We don't want to be terrified as we walk into our home if we come back after dark.  And we don't want the neighbor kids to have to grow up hearing and seeing violent things and thinking they are just normal parts of life.


We have to believe that God is capable of healing our neighborhood.  We believe that it starts with being a good neighbor who's willing to step into community.  Sometimes it means being willing to struggle through a conversation in Spanish.  Sometimes it means being willing to help sweep up the courtyard.  Sometimes it means being willing to call the police.


A quick word concerning domestic violence from Jaime:


Each year women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner related physical assaults and rapes. Men are the victims of about 2.9 million intimate partner related physical assaults. In 2005, 1,510 deaths were related to intimate partner violence.


No one deserves this kind of abuse. If you know someone who is experiencing this, below is a hotline resource.  If you need shelters or other resources, leave a comment below.


LA County Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-978-3600