It's with a heavy heart that I write this evening. One of the mentees in the LAMP program in Homewood lost his mom unexpectedly to a heart attack. She was 42 years old. I had the privilege of knowing Angie because even though she only had one son who was officially in the mentoring program, her sons all spend a great deal of time at our house. She was a family friend, and she kind of served as the neighborhood mom for her block in the row homes on Hamilton Avenue in Homewood. She had neighborhood kids in her house all the time, and many of them came to her for unconditional love. She will really be missed by many people, and she was a huge asset in Homewood.
Life was hard for Angie, and God gave me the privilege of being friends with her over the past couple of years. She always gave me a hard time for walking around Homewood. When her youngest son was arrested and charged with a felony, God opened the door for me to be able to enter into her family's pain by walking through the legal process with them (it's a very dysfunctional legal system, I might add... I learned a lot from that experience). I drove her to visit her son when he was in placement for most of the past year, so we had the opportunity to get to know one another. I really learned a lot from her about perseverance and resilience through her life journey of being a single mom of four boys on one of the most violent blocks in the city of Pittsburgh. I was able to be present with her family when one of her sons was hit by a car while running away from a shooting incident. I prayed with her and her boys in their house many times. Her living room was holy ground, and God showed me a lot about his heart for reaching hurting people in this world through her. It seemed like God kept putting this family in my path. Angie's sons are like family to Julie and me, and my daughters treat them like brothers.
My heart breaks for Angie's four boys. They already face an uphill battle with the environment they live in, and now this is really going to be devastating for them to lose their mom who was the glue for their family. The boys have been stopping in to visit with us all evening. My pastor hat is really being utilized today as I've had to somehow help these guys to navigate through such a traumatic event in their lives. Although I don't really have the words to say to them right now, I am thankful that God prompted me to move to Homewood so that we can remain a stable presence in their lives for years to come. This is the type of family that most of mainstream society in Pittsburgh intentionally tries to avoid, but I can't think of any other people in Pittsburgh that I would rather be serving tonight. Please join me in praying for the four boys in this family... one is a freshman in college, one is a senior in high school, one is a freshman in high school, and one is in eighth grade. They need to feel God's comfort during this difficult time.
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