In 1986 Sandtown -Winchester on the West Side of Baltimore was typical of
many urban neighborhoods. A community filled with abandoned rowhouses, unemployment, and a
proliferation of drug activity, creating the perception of a wasteland of crime and
despair. These areas in our cities have many names attached to them, ghetto, slums or the
hood. All conjuring up an image engrained into the American culture as a place to flee and
avoid at all costs.
So why would a young couple with two small girls join their life time friend, a new pastor
in moving from the comfortable quiet, safe white suburbs into the heart of an urban
wasteland? A community visited by whites that were in uniforms and carried guns or were
sneaking in for a buy. The same community that had erupted after the assignation of Dr.
Martin Luther King with riots and burnings that finalized the flight of the few businesses
still remaining. These television images confirmed in the minds of many that Sandtown -
Winchester was a dangerous, volatile place. A neighborhood never to go near, a community
to be sealed off by placing interstate highways and major roads around the edges.
Isolating the community to contain the poverty and violence.
Many may still wonder about the move. However to those who hear the Sandtown story and
visit the neighborhood they see the hand of God - healing, rebuilding and changing lives.
They learn what Allan and Susan Tibbels and their good friend Pastor Mark Gornik
discovered - that Sandtown is filled great people with the same desires for a safe, quiet
and prosperous community. A Baltimore community that had endured the hardships of racism
and policy injustice for many years. A neighborhood impacted by government policies
subsidizing the prosperity of whites at the expense minorities. A group of believers
ignored by the Church. A people with great pride and resilience who accepted their new
neighbors.
New Song Community Church started by Gornick, the Tibbels, and
local
residents have generated __ millions of dollars of renovation in the neighborhood,
pioneered a new approach to teach children and their families, equipped hundreds with jobs
skills, provided medical care for all ages and brought music to the streets through the
voices of the youth. This is the story referred to as the Sandtown miracle. A story of
people obeying the call from God to spread the "Good news" by relocating among
the people, redistributing wealth and reconciling differences that have divided people. A
story of struggle, pain and love that demonstrates the power of God in our land: a
neighborhood signing a "new song".
For more information about the "New Song" Ministry just click HERE
