This is a guest post by Chioma Chukwu-Smith, a friend of ours who is passionate about issues of justice. She moved to St. Louis, MO from New York to work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA in 2008. She was part of InterVarsity’s National Chapter Planting Cohort and planted a chapter at an urban commuter campus (UM-St. Louis). Chioma was compelled to work in St. Louis after participating in two summer break InterVarsity Urban Projects in St. Louis, and she had the opportunity in 2010 to lead the spring break project with a colleague. In 2013, she began working with InterVarsity’s Black Campus ministries where she had the opportunity to work on a historically black university. Chioma and her husband Brian live in St. Louis and she is currently pursuing a career in law to address racial, economic, and social concerns.

Ferguson is 15 minutes from where my husband and I live and about 5 minutes from the campus I used to do ministry on, and I can tell you first hand – there is still a lot of pain here. There’s pain in realizing that my sons will be black men and as a result, targeted by the police. There’s pain in telling my brothers on the phone not to visit me in St. Louis out of fear for their lives if they are found “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. And I am wounded by white individuals, all professing faith in Jesus, that invalidate the pain I’m experiencing and tell me to wait for “the facts, before jumping to conclusions”. A “fact” for me is that we live in a country in which a black man can be shot and killed in Wal-Mart for holding a toy gun and that easily could be one of my family members.

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Dora Yiu will be writing monthly posts for the APE going forward! We are so excited to have her on the team. Dora is a full time staff director with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a core leader at Flood Church San Diego and a life long follower of Jesus. After graduating from University of California San Diego, Dora went on to live and serve in the inner city of San Fransisco, ministering to and learning from the urban poor. Currently Dora serves as the Area Director for the San Diego Coast Area, overseeing UCSD and the University of San Diego.

“So… what exactly is the problem in Ferguson?”

This was a sincere and genuine question someone asked me earlier this week, and a question I myself have been pondering all week. It is a truly difficult question to answer because the truth is there is no specific singular problem in this situation but rather a myriad of different problems all intertwined and interlaced into a complex web spun into greater entanglement by the various voices (both boisterous and silent) in both media and social media outlets. I will not pretend to be an expert on anything, nor will I pretend that I understand or know enough of the details surrounding the incident or the events since the death of a young man named Michael Brown. But here are my humble attempts of sharing my reflections on what some of the pieces of the “problem” might be for those who might have this question but be afraid to ask it.

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By Jon Hietbrink and Howie Meloch

It’s been more than a week since Michael Brown’s tragic death at the hands of police in St. Louis and in the midst of the continuing escalation of violence on the streets of Ferguson, it’s still hard to know how to engage. For some of us, his killing has (again) ripped open a wound laced with incredibly painful memories of personal and systemic racism—“How can this keep happening?!” For others of us, the shooting and its aftermath have provided a window into an experience that feels hard to understand.

There are many (some of whom are linked below) who have written deeply thoughtful and intelligent reflections in the wake of Michael Brown’s death—calls to action and advocacy, response and repentance. We don’t presume to have much to add to what’s already been said, but as we’ve prayed, mourned, and engaged during this difficult week, we wanted to share three brief thoughts for those of us who might feel paralyzed by uncertainty, unsure of how to engage at all in a situation that is so volatile and so painful for so many. Though there is of course much more that needs to be said and done in the wake of this tragedy, here are three humble first steps modeled on the life of Nehemiah that we hope might be an “onramp” for those of us looking for meaningful engagement around this painful situation.

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Jesus consistently blows my mind. His responses to poor, sick, disabled and abused challenge me to my core and make me examine my heart daily; but today it’s His interactions with the rich and powerful that are astounding.

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