at the bedside of the child, praying and asking God for healing, but healing didn’t happen.
It was expected that the parents of the child would be full of anger and would lash out at the young workers of UrbanPromise. It didn’t happen. The parents, who had been touched by the ministries of Colin over the past several years, demonstrated a love and sensitivity that to some outsiders might seem unthinkable. Their attitudes, their dispositions, their willingness to endure the loss of their little boy with spiritual serenity proved to be a testimony of how God could equip people to handle the extremely difficult circumstances of life.
The problems of Colin McCartney and UrbanPromise did not end after the two tragedies that I have cited above. Colin’s friends knew that he needed a break, so a sabbatical was arranged. Some good people made a resort cottage in one of the most exclusive places in Hawaii available to Colin’s family for an extended vacation, free of charge. From there, they were to go on to Australia and enjoy even more relaxation. But the McCartney family was soon to learn that the best-laid plans of men and women can often go awry. On the first day of surfing at a beach on the island of Maui, there was an accident and Colin McCartney was rendered paralyzed. As the book will clearly point out, there were scores of reasons why he should have died, but by an incredible array of circumstances he was rescued and over an extended period was restored to health and wellbeing.
When I heard about Colin’s accident, I repeated to myself what Mother Teresa once said, "God! You’d have a lot more friends if you treated the few you have a little better." I was convinced that this would be the last straw, that Colin would never come back to ministry, and that he probably would end up being a bitter and disillusioned Christian. Just the opposite happened.
In this book, you will see how, in the midst of these circumstances, God did wonderful things for Colin and for his family. This book is the story of how, in enduring pain and facing death, Colin was able to reevaluate his priorities and come to an incredible awareness of the abiding presence of Christ. This is the story of how he learned through the circumstances of tragedy to slow down, reflect on life, pay renewed attention to his family and to reorder his values.
UrbanPromise is a fantastic ministry. The good news of this book is that this ministry is going to be stronger and more effective than ever before because of what God has brought out of the tragedies described in the pages that follow.
This is an inspiring book, but it is also a teaching book. It teaches us to be aware that on the other side of darkness there is God and on the other side of the silence of God there is a soft, still voice that gives assurance, not in words, but in the feeling that God is always there for us and that we must learn to trust Him in the midst of everything that goes on in our lives.
—Tony Campolo, PhD
Eastern University
~ ~ ~
“To the hustlas, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers. Jesus walks with them. To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah. Jesus walks with them.”
– Kanye West, “Jesus Walks,”
from the album The College Dropout,
Roc-a-Fella Records (USA), 2004
1. Murder In The City
Tragedies are like earthquakes, unexpectedly striking with devastating consequences, overwhelming everything in their path. Though earthquakes are painful and destructive, there is one positive thing that can come out of the rubble—the opportunity to build anew from the ground up. Looking back over my life, there were many tremors, leaving cracks in my inner world that were unseen by others and ignored by me. On March 4, 2004, those cracks were torn open.
From that point on, things began to come crashing down around me. My busy, active and out-of-control life had to be shaken up before it could be rebuilt from the inner foundation of my soul. Before transformation can begin, destruction must occur. In my case, things started to fall apart on a cool March afternoon. Up to that point in my life, everything was going well—no problems, all sunshine and no clouds. However, within seconds, my world was turned into a tempest of tears, fear and confusion.
A call came from Nicola Lunn, my children’s supervisor, who worked in an increasingly troubled urban community known as Scarborough in the city of Toronto. When I answered the phone and heard the intense tone of her voice, the crying and shortness of breath, I knew something bad had happened—but I had no idea how horrific. This was not a typical phone call from a staff person telling me that our passenger van was acting up or that their community petty cash fund had run out of money once again. This was much more serious. The voice was choppy, broken, sounding out of breath.
“I was just told that Patrick has been shot!”
I felt the blood drain from my face into my feet while my body went cold. The words echoed in my head. My legs were gone. Somehow, I asked Nicola to repeat what she just said. “I was told that Patrick was shot, and I am with his family on the way to the city morgue to identify the body.” I took a deep breath, then told her to hang in there and call me as soon as she knew for sure that he was dead. As soon as I got off the phone, I made plans to go straight to Patrick’s neighbourhood. I needed to be there, on the streets, with our folks. While I was getting ready to go, thousands of questions filled my mind. Instantly, I went into denial, thinking that this was one bad dream. A nightmare that would go away once I woke up. But soon common sense took over. How could this be? How could such a great guy like “Blue Boy” be shot? He was the last person on earth that I thought would get killed by a gang. He wasn’t the type of person who had anything to do with them.
Patrick’s only connection to the gang lifestyle was that he lived in a neighbourhood that had a reputation for gang activity.
Patrick’s community is full of wonderful, caring and loving people but there are a few involved in criminal behaviour. This is the sad fact of life in “at-risk” neighbourhoods. Innocent people are more susceptible to getting hurt by the repercussions from the illegal activity that takes place within the community. Now it seemed that Patrick might be one of the innocent victims.
I am the executive director of UrbanPromise Toronto,1 an inner-city ministry that serves children, youth and their mothers in “high-risk” communities in our city. As an urban worker, I understand the complicated pressures many inner-city dwellers face on a day-to-day basis. Most of the people I know living in the city are outstanding citizens. Yet crime, violence and drug abuse has a grasp on these urban neighbourhoods, deeply impacting the wonderful people who live there. The tragic irony is that most crime that takes place in these communities comes from people who enter the neighbourhood from outside. Criminal activity, such as drug dealing, persists in many inner-city communities simply because richer folk feed into the drug industry as they drive in from the outer suburbs to the ’hood to buy drugs. This outside influence and demand keeps the drug trade profitable. The insatiable desire to seek a high through drug use creates employment opportunities specifically appealing to young men who have few financial alternatives or options to make money in socially acceptable ways. If the demand were to dry up, so would the drug dealing. Unfortunately, the demand will always be present.
This feeds the temptation for desperate young men to deal drugs and join gangs for control of the drug trade. When this happens, violence occurs and often innocent people are caught in the middle.
When you work the streets, you come to understand that the local dealer is really a little pawn with a short lifespan. The real criminals in all of this mess are the buyers, who keep the supply and demand flowing so there is a market, and the kingpin,
