1,000 MARCH AGAINST DRUGS

Congregations Join To Rescue Neighborhood

About 1,000 people -- of all ages and races -- gathered in a crime- ridden
Jacksonville neighborhood last night to continue the fight against drugs
that was spurred last month when police busted a drug ring there.

Men, women and children met at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on Winton
Drive for a few motivational words from the church's pastor, the Rev. John
Guns, before marching through the Washington Heights neighborhood to a tent
revival.

"Somebody said we wouldn't do this," Guns said to roaring applause and a
standing ovation in the packed church. "This is a revival. There are black
people here. There are white people here. There are all kinds of people here."

"If God transforms this neighborhood, he transforms every neighborhood," he
said as the crowd began filing out of the church. "Jacksonville is already
different. It's already different. Hallelujah."

The group then marched to a tent at Moncrief Road and Ken Knight Drive, the
area where 12 people were charged with running an extensive cocaine ring.

Hundreds packed a white tent and hundreds more spilled outside praying,
singing, hugging and clapping as Guns, who told police on July 16 that his
congregation members told him a $25,000 bounty was placed on his head after
authorities busted the drug ring. Police are still investigating the threat.

The Rev. Ted Corley, pastor of Mayfair Baptist Church on the Southside,
presented Guns a $1,500 check to help with the effort to revitalize the
neighborhood.

"It's easy to be here tonight because there are cameras everywhere," Corley
said. "There's people everywhere and it's easy to be here tonight. But it's
important that we realize this is only the beginning, not the end."

Guns told the crowd earlier that the Ken Knight Drive community needs
financial support to start a neighborhood association.

He has also said he'd like to replace the drug ring with viable economic
opportunities so the area can strive without it.

The pastor and his congregation have already established a charter school,
affordable housing agency and a job-training center.

"I really believe this mission, this movement, is the answer to the cries
of this community," said the Rev. Kenneth Adkins, St. Paul's director of
marketing and community development. "Everybody in that community is not
bad and lots of them need help. This is the help they need."

Joseph Mills, a Ken Knight Drive resident, said the revival is something
that's been needed for a long time in his neighborhood where he said drugs
are so bad many people are afraid to come out of their homes.

"There's a burning desire in my heart that we do take back our streets so
our children and elderly people feel safe," Mills said. "He [God] answered
not only my prayers but a lot of other people's prayers."

Another march will begin tonight at 6:30 from St. Paul Missionary Baptist
Church at 3738 Winton Drive to Ken Knight Drive.