Every place has a story.
We make sense of our life through the stories we learn or tell ourselves. We are constantly creating stories. We make up stories in our heads about how our day will go when we wake up. We tell ourselves stories about the amazing places we will see and exciting things we will do as we plan our vacations. We tell ourselves stories about how people treat us and how we treat them. We are our stories.
But sometimes a part of the story is missing, silenced because it makes us uncomfortable or challenges us to be more loving and just. Many of our neighbors could live here without learning about the lynching of George Hughes or the destruction of the Black business district on Mulberry Street in 1930. Students schooled in Grayson County are rarely taught this history. It is an ugly, brutal piece of our story that often goes untold.
Our church established the George Hughes memorial scholarship to help students across Grayson County learn this story and consider how this history has shaped Grayson County into the present, as well as its future implications for our community.
This Sunday, our beanpot offering will go toward this scholarship fund. I am honored to serve a church that has such a strong commitment to justice as well as helping to ensure that students can receive financial aid for college. Please consider how you might support this effort as we move toward God’s table, where all are welcome and are grafted into the greatest story ever told – God’s great love for all of us in Jesus Christ.
I’m praying for you, beloved. I hope you’re praying for me. This Sunday we’ll also continue our Half Truths series with this one – “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”
peace,
Pastor Jessica.