Turning Grief into Glory

For Shamayim Harris, the past 16 years have been a journey of overwhelming loss: In 2007, Harris' two-year-old son Jakobi was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Highland Park, a suburb of Detroit. In 2021, Harris' 23-year-old son Chinyelu was fatally shot while doing a neighborhood watch.

"I literally thought that I wouldn't be able to function or be alive or anything," Harris said.

As she struggled to endure her profound grief, Harris determined to channel her trauma into something good for her struggling community: "I needed to change grief into glory, pain into power. I just tried to transform it into something bearable and something beautiful."

The Highland Park neighborhood in Michigan was once famous as the home of the first Ford Motor Company factory in the early 1900s, where millions of Model T cars were produced. But as the auto industry moved elsewhere in the 1960s, neighborhoods emptied out, crime increased, and storefronts were left vacant.

"I wanted to live in a beautiful city. I wanted flowers. I wanted thriving businesses," Harris said. And when a house went up for sale on Avalon Street six months after the death of Jakobi Ra, Harris compiled her savings and borrowed money to purchase the home for $3,000. As more lots went up for sale on Avalon Street, Harris continued raising money to purchase them -- selling fish sandwiches for $5 apiece, cashing income tax refund checks, and gathering donations.

In 2016, Harris founded Avalon Village, a nonprofit aimed at creating a safe and nurturing space for the community. Today Harris and her nonprofit own 45 lots of land across three blocks.

During her 27 years as an administrator in the Highland Park public schools, Harris witnessed the overwhelming lack of resources. As a result, one project she undertook with Avalon Village is the refurbishment of one of the abandoned houses into "The Homework House," an after-school space that includes a library, computers, a 3D printer, a music studio, a kitchen, and full bathrooms with handicap accessibility.

Avalon Village also boasts The Goddess Marketplace, a store where women entrepreneurs can sell their products, as well as a STEM Lab and a basketball court. Harris hopes to add a cafe, a greenhouse for farm-to-table cooking, a laundromat, and a wellness center. And in the middle of it all is a healing garden area called The Invincible Gardens, where one can find memories of Harris' sons.

"The grief is energy to move forward," Harris said. "I think that I have enough energy to probably build the whole world."

Do you have enough grief or disappointment to build the whole world? What if you, too, poured your sorrow into creation, as Harris has? 

"Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the Lord. (Haggai 1:8)

What will you build this summer?

Peace to you,

Jennie