About David "Day-Day" Witherspoon

It grieves me to tell all of you that one of UTM’s most faithful students, David “Day-Day” Witherspoon, was gunned down on the streets of inner-city Grand Rapids Friday afternoon. Because we were close friends with his extended family (his grandmother was our next door neighbor), Sherilyn and I had known David since he was a toddler running around in diapers in our neighborhood. Throughout his childhood, Day-Day faithfully attended our ministry programs, including cross-trainers, tutoring, Berean Baptist church’s Wednesday youth night, the Rock, and Thursday Night Hype. What’s more, David braved campouts throughout the wilderness of Michigan, took part in several sleep-overs at our house, and enjoyed KAA sports camp. Now at the age of sixteen, he has left this earth and joined his Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

At this time, we do not know all the details with the shooting but make no mistake, Day-Day was not a trouble-maker and did not have police record. In fact, David was one of the nicest, kindest students that I’ve had the privilege to know who didn’t have an enemy in the world because he treated everyone with respect. In fact, because he was well-liked by just about everyone, David hung out with people from all walks of life, not only did he often spend time with his peers at church, but he also at times hung out with gang-members. Unfortunately, as in Day-Day’s case, if you hang out with the wrong person in the ‘hood, it could cost you your life. Nevertheless, Day-Day was a follower of Jesus who loved God and loved others. He was much more ready to meet Jesus than those gang members that the bullets were meant for.

Although Sherilyn and I have lost count as to all of our students who have been shot and killed on the streets of Grand Rapids, this one hurts the most. We are still in shock and find ourselves going from crying, to numbness, and then to anger. However, we are clinging to our Savior Jesus Christ in this tragic ordeal. We know that God is good and we continue to trust Him through all of this, even when we don’t understand why such a senseless tragedy could take place.

Please pray for our students who are involved in UTM through the ROCK and Thursday Night Hype. Most of them were very close to Day-Day. On Friday evening Sherilyn and I took fourteen of Day-Day’s friends who attend Thursday Night Hype out to Denny’s to eat and spend time listening, loving, and comforting them. Even during such a sad occasion, it was encouraging to witness the maturity of several or our students leading a prayer meeting at the restaurant and comforting each other through this horrific tragedy. On Saturday, when I shared at the ROCK about Day-Day’s life and devotion to God, I challenged almost 100 of our students to get right with God because of life’s shortness. Several of them responded to the message and our staff and student leaders spent the rest of the evening counseling and praying with about two dozen of our students. One of the positive outcomes of this meeting was that it has restrained several of Day-Day’s friends and relatives from taking revenge on the alleged suspect. One of our student leaders, Davien Fizer has been particularly helpful in talking down several of our male students. In closing, pray for David’s twin sister Danielle. She is taking it pretty hard because her twin brother had always been one of her best friends. Pray for David’s mother, Nyree as well. Although she is a strong woman, it has devastated her beyond comprehension.

For those who desire to know more information about Day-Day’s murder, here and here are some of the links to articles from the Grand Rapids Press.

Thank you so much for supporting Urban Transformation Ministries as we continue to serve Jesus and the inner-city in all of these circumstances. Please uplift us in your prayers.

By the way, I will be the preacher/comforter/speaker at Day-Day's funeral, which will be held at Berean Baptist church. However, the times of his visitation and funeral is still pending.

Joel

Update of the funeral:

Last week was the most difficult time that we have experienced in all of our years doing urban ministry. As you know, David “Day-Day” Witherspoon was shot and killed on the streets of Grand Rapids on September 26th, 2008. Day-Day was a long-time active member of UTM programs such as Thursday Night Hype and the ROCK, in partnership with Berean Baptist church. Over the past week, Sherilyn and I spent numerous amount of difficult hours counseling many of our students who were grieving as well as talking down several of our male students who wanted revenge. Sherilyn, Jim Bartels (who is Berean’s Jr. High youth pastor) and I organized the funeral with the Witherspoon family. Because of our close relationship to the Witherspoons (we lived next door to Day-Day’s Grandmother for eleven years), they asked me to preach at Day-Day’s funeral and committal service. Over 1,200 people attended the funeral at Berean Baptist, half of whom were urban high school students from Creston and young college age adults. Since people from all over the city packed out the church beyond its capacity, they had to set up two large overflow rooms to accommodate the standing-only crowd. Besides sharing several fond memories of Day-Day, I also spoke words of comfort from Psalms 23 and preached the gospel message. I was amazed at God’s sufficient grace, especially during this time, as I am still grieving. I can truly confirm God’s words when he says to the apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Continue praying for the many students that are affected by this tragedy. While our students within Thursday Night Hype and the ROCK continue to struggle with the pain of losing a close friend, our student leaders are stepping up and reaching out to their peers with the love of Christ. We find that while most inner-city students feel uncomfortable opening up to a counselor with whom they have no relationship, they will open up to their peers and adults when there is a relationship of trust already present. This means that there is much follow-up for Urban Transformation Ministries to do among the many students and their families who are hurting.

Despite such a horrific tragedy, we were encouraged by the pro-active, generous response from Berean Baptist church. Hosting a funeral of this magnitude takes a lot of help and we were amazed at how quickly the church organized over one hundred of its members to assist us in so many different ways. In fact, several who attended the funeral, especially from the Witherspoon family, commented that they’d never experienced a church that was so helpful and generous. Through the programs of UTM such as the ROCK and Thursday Night Hype together with the active partnership of Berean Baptist church, we are thrilled to help extend Berean Baptist Church’s reputation as a neighborhood church who actively loves its community.

However, Urban Transformation Ministries finds itself in a difficult situation. Even as God is opening up doors into the lives of several hundred more at-risk inner-city youth and their families, UTM is limited by what it can do because of the lack of adequate funding. While several other urban ministry organizations of comparable size employ between five to ten staff members, UTM can only financially compensate me as its executive director. We cannot continue to operate this way or I will burn out. Please pray and take action. If you are not a regular financial donor, please build UTM into your monthly budget. Or please talk to the appropriate pastors, boards or committees so that UTM is placed into your church’s missions or outreach budget.

Thank you again for praying “in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests” for the Witherspoon family, our inner-city students, as well as for our family.

Serving Jesus in the hood’




Joel Shaffer, Executive Director
Urban Transformation Ministries

Events of Steve's Funeral

Steven and his daughter, A'zharia

Well, I am delaying my Shane Claiborne posts again for a little while longer, due to unforeseen events. Yesterday, I went to the funeral of one of my former students, Steven Ivy, whom I mentioned was gunned down last Friday. Last week I didn’t know much of the details, only that Steve, who was the cousin of a student that I mentor, was shot and killed in the house next to my church, Berean Baptist. However, after doing a little bit of research, I realized he was one of my former students when I ran the after-school program at Coit School for Camp Fire Boys and Girls about ten years ago and at the Rock when he was around sixteen or seventeen. Having worked with over two-thousand inner-city youth with the Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation, Camp Fire Boys and Girls, Servants Center and Urban Transformation Ministries during the past fifteen years, sometimes I mismatch a few names and faces.

About four hundred people packed themselves into Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. At least thirty of them were either current or former students of mine. During the first hour, people paid their last respects to “Coo.” Since his father shared Steve’s testimony as someone who believed and had a relationship with Christ, his wish was to celebrate his life rather than mourn for him. Sadly, there was a lot of mourning and wailing among his friends, especially from his baby’s mamma and another girl that Steve knew well.

There was one very tense moment during the service. One of his friends wrote a poem about Steve, celebrating his life. The majority of the poem was very moving, speaking of who Steve really was as a person. However, the last part talked about “poppin’ bottles” which refers to partyin’ and drinking, which some knew was a part of Steve’s life, albeit a small one. Steve’s Grandmother went hysterical on his friend yelling, “I didn’t raise my grandson like that! “Who does he think he is?” And so on as she was accompanied out of the service until she calmed down. Pastor Jones, who resided over the funeral, used the “poppin’ bottles” as an illustration of what not to be or do, and then pointed young people to accept Jesus. Since almost half of the people in the service were teenagers and young adults, Reverend Jones also took advantage of the opportunity several times to rebuke young folks for thinking that they know everything, that they do not listen and obey their parents, and that they live for money and pleasure rather than for Christ.

As I observed the nodding and obvious vocal support of the forty and older crowd for what Pastor Jones was saying, and then observed the stone face response of the teenagers and twenty-somethings, it reinforced a reality that among African-Americans there is a noticeable gap of worldviews between the older and younger generations. The civil rights or soul generation valued the authority, and therefore the message of this larger-than-life saint, Reverend Jones, who has pastored for some sixty or so years (give or take) at Pilgrim Rest Baptist church. However, the hip-hop generation seemed more in tune with the poet friend of Steve’s, who not only looked like an MC, but who also kept it real by juxtaposing the glory of God and “poppin’ bottles” without seeing any conflicting message between the two.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect was an old Helen Baylor song sung at the funeral, “Can you reach my friend?” To me it represents the desire of one generation who has the answer in Jesus, but has lost touch with its younger generation.

I got a call from an old friend. We laughed about how things had changed.
But I could tell things weren’t going as well as he claimed.
He tried to hide his feelings, but they only gave him away.
The longer I listened, the more I kept wishing that I had the right words to say.

Can You reach my friend? Bring his searching to an end.
Lord, I know you love him, Help him understand.
Can You reach my friend? You’re the only One who can.
Help him give his heart to You.

We talked for more than an hour, I smiled when he mentioned Your name.
I said that I knew You.
I told him the difference You made, but he never though he would need You
But may he’s changing his mind, As we said goodbye Lord
He told me that I had found something he’d like to find

Chorus

Maybe he’s ready tonight. Lord, he said that he might need to call You
Help him give his heart to you.

Another Killing in Grand Rapids

Sometimes ministry can be depressing. The cousin of Greg, one of my students that I mentor, was shot and killed Friday night. Here is the link to the story.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/02/police_say_slain_man_suffered.html


It will be interesting how my church, Berean Baptist, handles the situation. The murder took place in the house next door to the church, which it owns. In the past several years, Berean has developed a very positive reputation in the Creston neighborhood by loving the community in a variety of ways. However, it has not had to deal with some of the crime and violence that UTM has experienced. I am praying that the violence will not cause them to waver from reaching its community, even if it is dangerous. I remember a line from, Living Dangerously in the Hands of God," a song that Steve Camp penned almost twenty years ago. In the middle of the song he proclaims,

"There is safety in complacency. But God is calling us out of our comfort zones into a life of complete surrender to the cross. To live dangerously is not to live recklessly, but righteously. And it is because of God's radical grace for us, that we can live radically obedient for Him."

Another reason not to waver is because people are hurting from the violence. For example, as I was taking one of my students (Derek) home from the ROCK, he shared with me that his Dad had died (not sure from what), three of his brothers had been shot and killed, and his other two brothers were serving life prison sentences. Now his mom is fighting cancer. He tells me, "If she dies, than I am the only one left in my immediate family. And I just turned 18. " Thursday Night Hype and the ROCK has become his extended family where several of our students and staff show him constant love and support. Many of the students can comfort him because they too have gone through the same loss as Derek.

Berean Baptist can use this incident to embrace the neighborhood people who suffer from pain that violent crimes produce. I pray that their love will help turn a horrible situation into something good and redemptive.