Diary of a Ghetto Priest | Holiness in the ghetto

Tragedy strikes! Gunmen get caught in a frenzy. It's almost as though they have lost their minds! Drive-by shooting at the women and children! There is nowhere to go at night for recreation. The kids are playing in the streets in fear. They see cocaine addicts with trousers slung below their bottoms, staggering in the streets.

The kids go to the Lord's Place begging for food.

"Where is your mama?" the brother asked.

"She hasn't come home from work," is the response.

"Maybe she has gone to visit some friend."

"Your homework?"

"Me no have nothing to do. Bredda, beg you lickle rice and chicken back. Me no have nothing to eat."

Brother Sachin goes and gets the kid bread and jam.

"Hello, brothers. You don't hear the news? Miss Carmen nearly got killed," one of the children said.

"What happened?" the brother asked.

She tells the story.

A drugged-up man came into her daughter's house 'bout 8 p.m. Carmen was not home. She gone to her friend to visit after work. Her daughter Lurleen saw this man come in with a long machete. He forced her to lie down on her bed. She screamed. He passed the machete over her neck and tried to rape her.

OFFERING FORGIVENESS

Lurleen trembled and wept for Jesus.

At that time, her mother, Carmen, came into the room with her things. The drug addict with the machete turned towards the mother. Carmen slapped him hard and gave the attacker a kick in the belly.

"By the grace of God, get out!" she screamed at him.

She thumped him in the belly again and again. Carmen grabbed the crucifix off the wall and struck the attacker on his hands with the crucifix.

"Get out, get away! By the grace of God, get out!"

But he tried to chop her with the machete. Quickly, Lurleen picked up a cooking knife and prevented him by striking him on the shoulder.

Carmen begged Lurleen to be merciful, "No! No! Don't kill him. He is mad. Not in his right mind."

The mad man, full of drugs, and the madness it induces, begged for mercy.

Carmen cried, "Why you so wicked? My one daughter you want to rape? My one sweet daughter you want to violate?"

"Sorry ma'am. Sorry. Forgive me," he pleaded.

"You want me to forgive you, and you try to rape me?"

Carmen looked at her, "Never mind, me darling. Remember you are a child of God. Him also is a child of God. You have me as your madda. This man don't have nobody, not even God. Come, Massa, make we pray. I will not judge any man. Come tell me, why you do dem things?"

Carmen took out a little rice and chicken and gave it to him.