Mill Creek Baptist Church

I just got back from the first day of the Stop the Violence Conference at Mill Creek Baptist Church  in West Philadelphia. It's a small church with a big spirit.  I was filming the event and almost dropped the camera twice because I was so moved by the program.  The evening started out with a group of children clapping to a beat and rhyming about changing the world. Their voices were strong and they stood tall. Soon after, Reverend Dandridge Collins, author of Trauma Zone, gave a powerful talk on truth telling.

After the sermon he opened it up to the crowd and led a massive truth circle on violence, healing, and why being a truth teller will get you killed.  The footage will speak for itself but suffice it to say it was deep.  We ended the night with Pastor McCabe reading a letter she received from an inmate in prison who had read that the conference was happening.  He wrote the letter to the audience to let us know that everyone behind the bars was hoping the conference would go well.  Tomorrow is the "homework" task of the TruthCircle on violence where we come up with an action plan for how to create a nonviolent community. 

Stay tuned to the TruthAIDS You Tube channel for the footage (www.youtube.com/truthaids).