8 Mile

So I flew out to Detroit to spend some time with and pray for my bro KL. KL and I go way back when we were both high school juniors at Lowell. KL is one of the brothers-in-Christ who really inspire me each day, a rock solid bro. An outsider who meets him sees the Asian GM Engineer with the engineering masters degree from Stanford. An insider sees the D.J. who spins Christian hip hop (as his ministry) for Christian concerts on the bad side of town. That's my bro KL. 8 Mile is the street made famous by Eminem's movie. You see, 8 Mile splits the city of Detroit in half. North of 8 Mile are the nice neighborhoods of Detroit. South takes you to the crackhouses and run-down shacks of the 'hood. KL lives on 7 Mile, which is south of 8 Mile. He told me that the first time he drove across 8 Mile at night, the street reminded him of the road in the movie, "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" (with the trees shaking and the wind blowing somewhat) at the moment when Frodo looks down the path and tells the other hobbits to get down as the wraiths were about to come flying down the path. A little scary. KL lives in a fairly run-down house with 3 African American bros-in-Christ and from what I can tell, he loves living with them. Not because they have lots of material things, but because the bros inspire him to pray fervently and to beat down his flesh every day. I went up there and I too was inspired by my bro KL and the way he lives his faith out loud. I got to meet his family (should I say "our family"?) of bros and sisters in Christ and they welcomed me warmly into their community. We checked out a baseball game at Comerica Field and most importantly, I got to pray alot with my bro KL. He'll be moving to Shanghai in 8 days and I'm gonna miss him. I just hope that I will remember to pray for him each day.