By Larry Ingram
The Wake Up STL event started before 8 a.m. on a Saturday in September, with volunteers gathering around a rental truck north of Pavilion #1 in O’Fallon Park. Men carefully unloaded dozens of metal pieces that would form a stage for Christian rap singers and other speakers. After some trial and error, volunteers fitted together a stage that would support rap artists, storytellers and pastors, all fighting a battle for hungry souls, needing their messages of hope and redemption.
Wake Up STL is part of the Operation Save The Lou plan to empower the local church, evangelize the lost, unite the body, and magnify the name of Jesus. The event is more than an ordinary gathering for Grace Church members Mark Epps and Earnest Robinson who regularly volunteer at the event. It is a mixture of serving—by cooking, setting up, tearing down etc.— and reaching a forgotten community alongside believers from other churches. According to Epps, the event was about giving people hope in the midst of violence, likely referring to the event theme: “guns and killing ain’t cool.” “This area does not seem to get a lot of attention from the surrounding community,” he lamented. “There are people who don’t want to spend a lot of time there, or don’t want to go down there. It’s an underserved community in a lot of ways because of violence.” While Epps recognizes that the tendency to pull back is somewhat understandable, “some people need to step out in faith,” he continued. “I think if people perceived it as a disaster, they would respond, but people don’t perceive it that way.”
Robinson commented that he thinks Operation Save The Lou, the organization who put on this event, is “really a move of God.” These places in north St. Louis have churches in the area, he said, “but this is an extra effort of outreach. As believers, we are in this rescue. We are to shine a light in dark places.”
Eric Ross, a minister at First Love Church, said his vision for the event took shape about four years back, while talking to the founder of Pray for the Lou, Kurt Wilson. At one point, lining up the logistics for the event seemed impossible, Ross said. “I was waiting for things to happen, and the Lord was like, ‘I’m waiting for you to step out and do this work.’”
The men who come to serve the needs of the community often have first-hand experience of the temptations and consequences of choices that end in violence. Many of the rap artists and others at the event, including Ross, have spent time in prison. “But God is changing all of our stories,” Earnest Robinson said. Ronnie J. 7 Langford and his rap partner, Danny “3D” Mitchell created Linkboyz after they met as inmates at Potosi Correctional Facility in Mineral Springs, MO. The two fellowshipped there with a “church” of racially diverse believers: white, black, Hispanic, and Asian. As they tell it, they have been transformed from a life of crime and drugs to a life in Christ and recovery—from “Linked in cuffs to linked in Christ.”
Ross said believers should look at the event from God’s perspective:
“He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance, and that whatever we can conceive in our minds, he is able to exceed abundantly above that. He wants all to come to repentance. So, we’re not going to back down, we’re just going to keep pushing.”
A few weeks, after the event, a half dozen supporters met at Grace Fellowship Center, in St. Louis, to reflect on the event. The church, located a few blocks from the church, is pastored by Bishop Gregory Holly. “Since the event, we have not had a murder in the area,” remarked Holly. “A few weeks before the event, they found a body over there. There was a lot going on.” The presence of white believers was significant, he said. “White believers have to be part of the hope too. It can’t just be black hope or white hope. It has to be God hope.” “So when they see us coming together – white, black, hip hop – those are images that will burn in the minds (of people) for a while,” he continued. “So that’s what we need. We need those images.”
Ross says he is looking forward to continuing the Operation Save the Lou in 2023, with Forgive STL, which is planned for May 20, 2023. “We’re just getting started,” he said.
If you want to find out more about how you can get involved in this incredible ministry, please visit the Operation Save the Lou website at operationsavethelou.com. Or if you’re interested in a community of men encouraging one another and making a real impact on our city, join Men of Grace. They meet for breakfast on the second Saturday monthly at 8 a.m. for fellowship and an encouraging message.