Dear friends,last night at about 9:30, about the time I was driving home from a meeting I felt pretty good about, my good friend was also leaving her church--her large-ish church situated in an urban, but upper-class neighborhood, a neighborhood considered "safe".

She was carjacked.

A young man held a semi-automatic weapon pointed at her, and demanded cash. She gave him all she had. It wasn't enough, so with the weapon still pointed at her, he walked her to a bank machine and demanded that she take out more. When she couldn't, they walked back to the church, where, still pointing a weapon at her, he demanded that the Head of Staff, a man, give him either a lot more cash or the keys to his car. The Pastor had only two dollars, which he gave the man, in addition to the keys to his car.

I've written about this friend before. She's the one with whom I had lunch last Friday, the one who walked through the Candidacy process with me, practically holding my hand across 2,000 miles. She had a multiple vessel bypass last summer, and told me last Friday that she has learned since her health crisis how to "breathe into her heart" to cope with stress.

Today, I want to breathe for her.

I'm so glad she is alive, but I weep that she and those of us who love her, no longer feel safe.