Dear Family,
The other day I went for a walk and some new graffiti on the block caught my eye. Due to a tree blocking
the entire statement, all I saw was the word “peace.” I got really excited. I believed for a few moments, that
a team of guerilla graffiti artists had come into this community that lives in lies and had inscribed an altar
with the words, “Live in Peace.” Well, as I moved beyond the tree I saw that this was not true. “Rest in
Peace LeeLee” is what it read, but my imagination ran wild full of ‘what ifs’. Now to all those who truly
know me, please do not send me bottles of spray paint. I am not going to head up an inspirationally-based
urban tagging team (tagging is a term for graffiti). That is not within the limits of my missionary service.
But what if a group of like-minded believers got together and created beautiful truth in the chaos of lies?
What would that community of Christians look like? What activities outside of architectural enhancement
would these believers be involved in? These are the questions that have been milling around in my mind for a
couple of weeks now.
I would like to believe that I am a part of a creative team that is putting forth truth in the whirlwind of lies.
World Impact Chester is showing the love of Christ to those around us. We are being used by God to build
His church in a neighborhood that has been told that they are worthless. We are proclaiming, “You are
fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) on the corner where drugs and gunshots have often silenced
truth. Graffiti on walls is not the medium God has chosen. “The Lord has inscribed you on the palms of His
hands” (Isaiah 49:16) is the message that will last longer than spray paint ever could. We desire for the
names of our neighbors to be inscribed on His palm, not on the side of their old home.
“Rest in Peace LeeLee” screams to me as I walk past the home on which it is painted. It is an urban
headstone. Freshly painted words of love after a young man’s life was taken, the graffiti is a permanent way
to commemorate his death. I have been watching my neighbors buy into a lie (“you are only what you do”),
a lie straight from the lips of a serpent. I hear the whisper and I see the ramifications of this lie lived out as
truth, gunshots, drug deals, pre-marital sex, and high school dropouts. The list could continue, or it could
end. Please pray with me that as the Lord shines His truth into the streets, our home will be a place of
inscription, not graffiti.
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