"...may you choose love..."

"As I ran up the stairs, I heard the phone ringing in the church office. Out of breath, I inside, picked up the heavy black receiver, and put it to my ear. I opened my mouth to say hello, but before I could say anything, a male voice said simply, 'Three minutes.'
Then he hung up. "
     15 year old Carolyn Maull had no idea what that meant as she went about her duties as Sunday School secretary that Sunday morning. She had just seen her best friends in the girls bathroom a few minutes before, and was not going about her duties.  At 10:22 AM on Sunday, September 15, three minutes after that phone call, a KKK bomb blew up in the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham.  Carolyn survived--her four friends did not.
     Carolyn Maull McKinstry will be speaking to our group on Friday.  Her book, While the World Watched, is her story about growing up in Birmingham, and dealing with the hatred that led to that bomb. She recounts that in school the next day, no one talked about the bomb.  Her family told her not to talk about it, but to move past it. KKK bombings were common in "Bombingham", and a local hill where Blacks lived was called "Dynamite Hill." But McKinstry finally could be silent no longer, and wrote this book in 2011.
     She writes in the Introduction, "I hope this story will challenge you to reexamine your life; your daily living; your values; and your relationship with God, our Creator. As you consider the events on these pages, may you choose love, and may you commit yourself to live a life of reconciliation--first with God and then ultimately with those who share this world with you."
     I wonder--would I have the strength of faith to write that after living through the level of hatred McKinstry experienced? I'll let you know what she has to say next week, when she takes us on a tour the the 16th Street Baptist Church, and shares her experience.