R.I.P. Amy Joyner-Francis by: L.A. Holts
R.I.P Amy Joyner-Francis, age 16. Beaten to death by classmates before school began, in the girls’ restroom. An honor roll student. Dropped off at school by her mother whom I'm sure did that for safety reason. Manager of the wrestling team. Non-violent, young, beautiful, black and gifted. From a two parent home... I pray for you and your family Amy. I pray for the teens that were filled with so much hatred and jealousy that they felt they had to kill you. I imagine your frail body being tossed to and fro in the restroom. I can picture the demonic presence as the girl recorded from her $500.00 smart phone. I can hear your faint voice as you pleaded for these girls to stop hitting you. I can hear the thud of your head as it hit the edge of the porcelain sink. I can picture the pause of the attackers as you drop to the floor with no movement. The moment when their humanity returns. The moment when conviction grips them and the devil flees because he has gotten what he wanted. He has no more use for them. I can see the savages looking away from each other because shame has encamped them. They now feel their nakedness for they are no longer covered under the cloud of evil. So they run. They run, but there is nowhere on this earth on this natural planet for them to hide. They ran, because they wanted to run from themselves. But it was impossible. They left Amy laying there on the cold floor. Dying. Her spirit flying around the halls of her soon to be adolescent tomb. A place of learning arithmetic and history, had manifested something that lurked in the walls of that place. Something that can’t seem to grasp the reality of without God we can do nothing. A place filled with every type of evil and self-serving sin laced debauchery. A place that has long since failed to acknowledge God. And as Amy is laid to rest, and the attackers lose their freedom, the students left in this unbalanced balance hold prayer vigils that are too late to matter. So God isn’t invited in until children die. Until gunman shoot up schools. Until teddy bears are placed ever so gentle on light polls and schoolyard steps that lead to nowhere. God isn’t invited until blood is shed. When will they get it? Blood has already been shed so that the blood of the children won’t have to be. Put prayer back in school! From God, Can you hear me now?
Pastor L.A. Holts
