JP

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I was in bed. It was about 2 o’clock in the morning and I was sound asleep when the phone rang. I awoke, but didn’t answer it, figuring my dad would. It rang about another three times before he got it. I couldn’t hear the conversation. I just laid in bed wondering who could be calling at this hour. I heard some shuffling downstairs and then heard him leave. I got up and kind of wandered downstairs to check on my mom and see what was going on only to find out my uncle had just been killed. My mom broke down and wept. We were very frightened. Apparently my uncle had answered the door for someone. We figure it must’ve been somebody he knew. A struggle followed and several men entered and held him at gunpoint demanding money and valuables that were in the house. When gunshots rang out neighbors called the police who arrived to find the house was burning. In attempt to cover up evidence, the intruders lit the house on fire. My uncle was found dead in the front room. I was devastated. It really broke my heart and it broke the heart of everyone in my family. It was hard to cope with the tragedy because he was the closest family member to me that had passed away. It brought a lot of pain. I thought, “Man how am I going to cope with this during school, during work? What am I going to do?” That’s where my faith made a difference. What God did first was give me peace. And in particular, He gave me understanding…not an answer to why my uncle was killed, but rather, an answer to what I could do about it - how I could take it from there. He let me see that there’s a time to mourn but that something good’s definitely going to come out of it because everything works together for good to those who love God. My uncle was killed in mid August, a week later the funeral was held and then a week after that Katrina hit. Nobody was prepared for the devastation that took place in the city. Of course the investigation ground to a halt. We couldn’t even find any of the New Orleans police at the time. We wanted to get back on the investigation as soon as we could because we knew some of the people involved but the focus had shifted from the death of our uncle to the safety of local families. Two years have now passed and a good bit has come out of the investigation but no one has been arrested yet. I know it’s all in the Lord’s timing anyway. The Lord has enabled me to cope with that a lot. God has given me a power to change my life - a power to focus on my inner self and how I deal with the situation. The greatest thing is the fact that I have a spiritual father who knows my every need, who knows what I’m going to do before I even do it, and who’s willing to help me out in my time of struggle, in my strength and my weakness. And that’s an amazing feeling. Truly, God is good. I may never know why this happened—but what it’s about is how I can deal with the issue. In all of it - the depression, the emotion, the anger and the resentment - the Lord has led me to trust in Him.