Unlock Kinloch

November 10, 2021 was the first time I put my feet on the ground of Kinloch, a small city bordering Ferguson, Missouri.

I climbed out of the truck and looked down the trash rimmed streets. The same grief that I felt in the slums of Uganda came over me. The injustice was undeniable. That day the images of an forgotten community started rumbling in my spirit, and they have not stopped.  A museum – boarded up. Businesses- destroyed. Roads – forgotten. A Church – all but abandoned.

Kinloch was a thriving black community in the early 1900s. Many of the town’s first black residents were soldiers returning from WWI, and were victims of restrictive housing practices. In 1917, families fled to Kinloch after the East St. Louis race riots. Northern migration of African Americans from the south also expanded the city.

This thriving Black Community became the first Black airport, the first Black Catholic School, first Black owned theater. However, in the 1980’s the St. Louis Airport expanded and started purchasing land in Kinloch. When people refused to sell, the government forced them to.

The airport has not done anything with the land.  In fact, we are learning that because of the highway system the airport will never be able to use the land. So, Kinloch remains almost unpopulated. When you walk down the streets you step over bullet casings, bottles, needles, and furniture that people drop off – using the streets of Kinloch as a more convenient option to the metro dump.

However, God has not forgotten Kinloch.

I have gone to Kinloch dozens of times since November of 2021. In fact, I have become friends with the city clerk and when I am in town are a part of a group of intercessors who pray early in the mornings for the city.

When I was in Ferguson a month ago, I woke up crying and praying for the city of Kinloch. I specifically woke up thinking about the walk of fame in front of the museum. In the ground are old plaques of actors and musicians that have come from the city of Kinloch.  However, after several of these plaques you see where they made space for additions, but that too, has been abandoned. It was always one of the most heartbreaking locations for me. A sad picture of what had been stolen from a city with so much history. However, this last month, I felt like Holy Spirit flipped it. Instead of a prophetic picture of what was lost, it was a picture of hope for what is to come.  

“They will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
    that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
    foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
    you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
    and in their riches you will boast.

Instead of your shame
    you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
    you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours.

 “For I, the Lord, love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
    and make an everlasting covenant with them.
 Their descendants will be known among the nations
    and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
    that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

Isaiah 61:4-9

Ways to pray:

1)    That the city of Kinloch will be “Unlocked” and that the airport will give back the land that was taken.

2)    For justice and righteousness to manifest in the city. Because Kinloch is largely not inhabited it is easy for corruption or crime to go by unnoticed.

3)    That Kingdom minded resources and people will move in.