1917 East St. Louis Race Riots...

Several months ago, I was reading an article about praying for our country and this quote struck my heart, "If you pray for our country without knowing its history, you are praying irresponsibly." Right away I was stirred in my spirit to learn more about the history of East St. Louis. So, I began on a search to learn more about where this city has come from, even from it's early beginnings. I came across some books by a man named Bill Nunes. He is an East St. Louis historian. I set up a time to meet with him and two weeks ago my best friend and I spent two hours listening to him take us through a time line of beginning to present of this city. As we listened I was in shock to hear the bloody history of this precious city. We learned so much, but the event that broke my heart the most was the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riots. 39 Black people were killed and 9 white people, all because of the hideous sin of racism. There is so much more information on how and why the race riot happened that I won't go into. But, since I have learned of this historical and painful event, this is what keeps ringing in my heart.... this land of East St. Louis needs to be healed. I believe that the 1917 Race Riots were a huge wound in this city and it continued to go down hill from there. Wounds from the past need to be healed. This blood stained city, needs to be healed by THE BLOOD OF JESUS. I have begun to ask God to heal her and to show me what I need to do to take action in that healing process. Finding out about the riots was not a hopeless moment, but an eye opening and hope filled moment. Because knowing the root of a problem is the first step in fixing the problem.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will HEAL their land.