Elizabeth's Story / Kansas City, MO
Bodies Behind The Bus
Bodies Behind The Bus
4.2 • 654 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2022
⏱️ 83 minutes
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Summary
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| 0:00.0 | Elizabeth grew up in suburban Iowa. She attended a small Lutheran church where everyone knew each other. |
| 0:08.4 | She even met her now husband at that church in the second grade. They got married in 2006 and Elizabeth got a job working as an eighth grade teacher in an urban middle school. |
| 0:18.5 | Since Elizabeth grew up in the suburbs, she freely admits that she had |
| 0:21.6 | little to know experience with people of color. Her time as a teacher was eye-opening. |
| 0:26.8 | She realized how little cultural awareness she had. This propelled her towards digging deep into |
| 0:32.3 | work on understanding race, ethnicity, and culture. In 2008, Elizabeth and her husband moved to Kansas City and started |
| 0:39.7 | a family. They would spend the next year trying to find a church home. In 2009, they thought they |
| 0:45.5 | found that church. Over the next couple of years, they would become deeply involved. They let a |
| 0:51.2 | small group, volunteered on various committees and teams, started a book study on racial justice, and opened their home every Easter for an Easter feast for the church staff, pastors, and the community. |
| 1:03.7 | In 2011, Elizabeth and her husband decided to grow their family through adoption. Eventually, they would welcome not one but two boys into their family. |
| 1:12.8 | With the addition of their sons, they were now a transracial family. In the summer of 2014, |
| 1:17.9 | the world was watching and divided as black men were reduced to hashtags. Eric Gardner, John Crawford, |
| 1:24.9 | Mike Brown, all in the span of the month. |
| 1:32.7 | Ferguson, which is a short four-hour drive from Elizabeth's church, would erupt into protest. |
| 1:36.4 | People took their streets all over the country, including Elizabeth. |
| 1:41.1 | She waited and waited for her church to speak up and address what was happening. |
| 1:42.6 | She would attend every Sunday. |
| 1:47.2 | She scoured the church blog, social media, and members' emails for anything. |
| 1:50.0 | But there was absolutely nothing. |
| 1:52.5 | The silence was heartbreaking. |
| 1:57.3 | A church that once felt safe and secure for her and her family was now showing signs of becoming unhealthy. |
| 2:01.5 | Therefore, at the next church members meeting, Elizabeth decided she had to say something. |
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