There are a couple of things on my mind lately.

The first is in regards to the kids in our neighborhood. Some lack in hygene. Some lack active parents. Some lack boundaries and objectify the opposite sex. It saddens me when you see preteen kids talking about the opposite sex as opjects. These kids do not need to be thinking about these things. It is not long before we may see some of these kids having kids. Sex outside of marriage and at a young age is huge here, and I am sure it is elsewhere. We know two kids who are a year a part in age, but their familial relationship is uncle and neice. It also saddens me to see kids wearing the same clothes for days on end. I used to think that it was just the kids being lazy until I started seeing the kids hanging out along the curbs of the drug houses in our neighborhood. The parents tell us they care for their kids, but do they really, when they drag their kid to a drug house so they can chat it up with the dealers or buy drugs? Add to the mix that the kids are not taught to throw away trash, clean up after themselves, to ask instead of trying to take or steal, and get very upset at you when you discipline them or confront them when they wrong you, and it gets tiresome. We try to be gracious, and yet it is hard not to wonder if there is any hope for these kids. Will they grow up to be young parents, criminals, do time in prison, sell drugs, not finish high school, etc? All we can do is love them and continue to spend time with them. We can offer Jesus to them, and the good news that through Christ, they can have a better more full life.

This leads me to the second thing on my mind; drug houses that operate for up to 21 years and have never been shut down. In my first neighborhood meeting as president, we discussed this at length. Habitat for Humanity, who has been building home after home in our neighborhood as well as doing rehabs of existing homes, is concerned because some of their builds are located next to drug houses that have heavy amounts of traffic. We decided to form a sub-committee that would look into addressing these issues and seeking resolution as fast as we can. We're hopeful that our local government can provide some help. But to be honest, our city is broken. We live in a city with too few police and fire personel, no code enforecement. This is a criminals haven. While we are trying to attract people to Flint through events and culture, we continue to draw people from the surrounding subburbs who come in to buy drugs and then go back to their quiet and safe communities. We have potential homeowners who are in tears regarding whether or not they should move to our neighborhood because of these issues. The good news is that we have a lot of people who are fighting agains the drug trafficking and other crime in the neighborhood.

There are times when things are quiet and peaceful, and there are times when war is raging on all around us. This seems to be one of those times.