A young man came by The Harvest Center in the Bronx yesterday. I know him well. He was a leader in the “pharmaceutical” business for years in our community. He is among those young men I personally reached out to for many years. Like most of the others, he is now working a job and has become a good father to his children. He told me a very sad story:

One of the other young men I knew was brutally murdered a month ago. He left his apartment one block from The Harvest Center to run an errand. Some youth were sitting on the hood of his car. He politely asked them to get off, informing them he had to go somewhere. Spewing profanity, one said, “I’ll get off when I feel like it.” After trying several more times for over ten minutes, the young man slowly pulled his car out of the parking space until they jumped off his car.

When he returned a few hours later, his wife asked him to walk to the store to get some Tylenol for their sick baby. The corner store was only two blocks away, so he took his 11-year-old son with him. As he walked out of the project building, the youth who were sitting on his car were waiting. They stabbed him multiple times while his young son yelled, “Stop hurting my daddy! Stop hurting my daddy!” He died on the sidewalk in front of his son.

Senseless death and violence. Just another block away, the housing project Betances where we had freedom to minister for over 13 years has become a den of violence. (They stopped us from reaching out there because of “separation of Church and State,” and now the violence has come back in.) People innocently walking down the streets of our community are being attacked and beaten or stabbed by youth mobs as someone videos the melee. The videos are later posted on YouTube, with people laughing at the victim.

Our work is not done here! There is still much to be done! Yes, we have faced opposition from every front, and it has heated up the past few years. But we must persevere and press forward into these areas of darkness so that these people can be set free from bondage and find eternal life in Jesus Christ!

This work cannot be done with human flesh. Our skills, methods and ideas will not change anything here. Jesus can! We need God’s divine intervention, tearing down strongholds in people’s lives, giving us protection, guidance, strength and wisdom. We know our God is able to bring change in these places! Some people in the communities we work in may not have a tomorrow. The time is NOW to reach out to them.

I also ask that you pray for the 11-year-old son of the murder victim, his wife and daughter. I cannot give their names. God knows them.

Thank you for your prayers! God is faithful to answer!

His bondservant,

Dr. Tom Grassano