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Letter to My Father
TINA SMITH-BROWN
realized the connection between the two. God had our future generations are going ignored,
opened a door that they hadn’t known was closed. There is a war going on inside of our children.
The workshop grew over the first few years. God The battle began in the suffering of their par-
opened the door for me to host it in churches, college ents, and the children, becoming unwilling
campuses, varied conferences, and community cen- casualties of the fight, have inertly inherited it.
ters. I begin to understand that the we had to start God in his incredible love and understanding
addressing the traumas earlier if we would truly has given me Letter to My Father and Letter
make a positive difference in the of the most vulner- to My Father for Kids as a mission. He has
able in our communities – our children. I created revealed to me that the relationship with the
Letter to My Father for Kids – then the work really father is still the most influential both spiritu-
began. ally, and mentally. When the parental relation-
ship is abusive or missing from our lives, we
There is a crisis in America, especially, in our neigh- can survive, like one can survive on oxygen, but
borhoods; the low income, redlined ravished com- our lives remain limited, and loaded with extra
munities, which house mostly, our African American baggage, that the Father never planned for
children. This crisis is one of physical, mental, and us to carry. When we remove this mental and
societal abuse. Realistically, we lost two-and-one physical blockage, our pathway to him becomes
half generations to crack cocaine, which reshaped clearer and more potent.
our neighborhoods and communities forever. Our When we write a letter to our father, we are
children are still recovering from that loss as they really writing a letter to ourselves. Whenever
are being raised by younger parents who were not we speak to ourselves, we are really speaking
raised themselves by their mothers and fathers. The to God, because we are his, even when we don’t
effect of this trickled down into every area of society. know it. I have seen miracles happen in these
Teachers are walking into a battlefield of explosive workshops as adults and children go from hurt
emotions as adolescent hurt displays itself as anger and angry to calm and accepting. We cannot fix
and disinterest. Churches are being attacked and their problems in the workshops, that’s for God
robbed by children who show no consciousness of to do. But we can allow them to acknowledge
right and wrong. Murders have become an everyday them, which is always the first step towards
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occurrence; and through it all, the internal pains of healing.
