Light and life in the darkness of Wood Green

View of forensic tent from some church members' garden

Today (11/12/2015) Wood Green was in the news again.

Back in October, two men - Erwin Amoyaw-Gyamfi (29) and Erun Izzet (32) - were intercepted and arrested while on their way to conduct a professional hit job, armed with a sub-machine gun and self-loading pistol. Today they were being sentenced at the Wood Green Crown Court.

A foolish scheme was devised to help the pair escape today as they were being transported to the court via custody van but intelligence meant the police were prepared and proactive. A 28 year-old conspirator was shot and killed behind the court on Bracknell Close, two men aged 30 and 19 were arrested around the corner, and two more men aged 31 and 25 were arrested on nearby Barratt Avenue. It has been confirmed that a firearms officer fired a single shot mortally wounding the 28 year-old, and that a non-police issue firearm was found on the scene.

An important part of my daily routine is reading the news - I think it is pastorally essential that I keep up with current events and I especially look out for things related to my area (Wood Green), the wider city of London, countries represented in my church, and those nations where we have evangelistic involvement and missionary interest. When Wood Green is trending on social media or in the news in any way, it is almost always bad. What stood out to me about this incident, however, was where it occurred. Bracknell Close is a housing estate just around the corner from Wood Green tube station. A couple from my church live there.

Tonight I went around to check on them, to make sure all was well, and to see if they knew anything about the morning's events. Little did I know that everything happened almost directly behind their house, immediately in front of his car, and that they pretty much saw the whole thing unfold. The woman was upstairs when she heard shouts along the lines of "Don't move" and "Get down", looked out the window and turned to call her husband, who had a day off work. He ran up the stairs and by the time he reached the window, a shot had been fired and a man was down. Heavily armed police masked by balaclavas were running around, and one officer knelt beside the wounded man and began chest compressions, which he performed at some length until an air ambulance and normal ambulance arrived and the crew continued the futile attempt to preserve the man's life. By then the area had been cleared and taped off, guarded by one of the firearms officers. Resuscitation of the wounded man ultimately failed, he was pronounced dead at around 10:30 am, and removed from the scene.


The scene, as captured by a member of Grace Baptist Church Wood Green from his upstairs window. The silver car parked to the side of the ambulance belongs to him and remains behind the forensic tent pictured above.

During my visit tonight, we walked into the couple's back garden and watched as police stood guard, plain clothes investigators took shelter in their cars, and forensics analysts busied themselves in a tent erected on the spot of the shooting. With a view like that, it's no wonder the man from my church was fending off journalists from the Sun this afternoon.

We retired to the sitting room, where the woman served me a very nice Ghanaian meal and we continued to talk as the evening news played on the television. Then - joined by the couple's adult daughter - we did the only beneficial thing we could do. We stood to pray.

We thanked God for his restraining grace, that has kept us and keeps others from going down the paths of unrighteousness - paths that frequently end in pools of blood (Proverbs 1:10-19). We thanked God for his saving grace, that has lead us and leads others in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake (Psalm 23:3), and prayed that the surviving men now in custody would  come to know its power in the gospel (1 Timothy 1:15). We asked God for his preserving grace, that will keep us from evil and will protect our lives (Psalm 121:7). We asked God for his sustaining grace - grace to help and strengthen the police and investigators through the night and the challenging days ahead (Isaiah 40:29), and most importantly grace that will help me as a pastor, Grace Baptist Church as a local congregation, and this couple and their daughter as individual Christians to be little but bright lights in a dark community that point to the great Light of the world who stepped down into darkness, Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:14-16, John 8:12).

Though mere meters from death, in that room tonight there was life. People sin, and suffer the consequences, but Jesus saves. He (though innocent) was struck down by justice in our place, and we (though sinners) have been set free by his love. We want others to know, believe, and enjoy this good news as well. Good news of glorious redemption from "God with us" triumphs over gloomy reminders of human folly and futility, madness and mortality, recklessness and faithlessness. Whatever happens, we can and will loudly sing this Christmas-time:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"