Blessing Baltimore: Pastors Who Are Braving the Chaos to Bring the Hope and Light of Christ

Shawn A. Akers : Apr 29, 2015
Charisma News

A "Bless Baltimore" Motorcade is scheduled in which church officials, with a police escort, pile into 30 church vans filled with intercessors to pray throughout the city in specific places where riots have happened.

(Baltimore, MD)—Physically, Bishop Angel Nunez is in Orlando, Florida for all-important The Reconciled Church conference, part of a movement to help spark healing the racial divide not only in the Church, but in all of America. (Photo via Bilingual Christian Church)

Nunez's heart, however, is back in his home of Baltimore, Maryland, a city drowning in chaos and turmoil and plagued with riots following the arrest of a young black man that was put into a police van after being taken into custody, only to be taken to a hospital where he lapsed into a coma and died.

The senior pastor of Bilingual Christian Church, Nunez, who found himself squarely in the middle of the riots Monday night in Baltimore, is a panelist during Wednesday's day-long Reconciled Church event. During a pre-event dinner Tuesday night, Nunez sat in the audience with his mobile device receiving and sending texts to keep up with up-to-the-minute news from Baltimore.

"I'm here in Florida because I need to be here with other national and international leaders to help spread this crucial message of The Reconciled Church," Nunez said. "But there is so much going on back home. [Tuesday] morning, I attended a press conference and a pastor's breakfast, where we had over 100 pastors there. We finished up and I got on a plane to come here. As soon as we're done here, I'll be back on a plane to Baltimore. I've called for a special prayer meeting at my church Saturday night, and we're planning so much more."

Monday evening after a plea for help from friend and associate Lt. Col. Melvin Russell of the Baltimore Police Department, Nunez walked from his office at Bilingual Christian Church to a spot where rioting had become heavy. After just coming back from Freddie Gray's funeral, Nunez still adorned his clergy attire and said that, despite being maced, it was only by God's hedge of protection around him that he wasn't injured badly.

"Without knowing it or without a plan, I found myself right there on the front line," Nunez said. "In front of me 15 feet were police officers with their shields and masks. Behind me were the protestors. I was caught right smack in the middle of it. The grace of God was so beautiful because it just covered me. The CVS pharmacy was on fire, and the smoke from it just filled our lungs. The fire department had put up a hose to put it out, but people had stabbed the hose with knives, so water was shooting all over the place except for on the fire. (Photo via Charisma News)

"Through it all, these people would see me with my clergy shirt and they would grab my hand and they would say, 'Thank you for staying with us, thank you for being here.' And then they would throw a rock and cuss. But they were thanking a man of God for standing in the gap for them."

The riots had calmed down into Tuesday evening. Nunez said he and other pastors met with some of the inner-city gang members Monday night, and that gang members agreed to work with city officials to "keep young people from getting injured or killed." Nunez said he believed that agitators from outside Baltimore had infiltrated the city and were encouraging and provoking youth to violence.

"That's a huge challenge, and we're praying for that situation," he said.