Out of the Seats and Into the Streets

Book excerpt: Pain knifed Ron Dotzler's heart when he saw the lifeless bodies of the next door neighbor girls inside the two small caskets. Freckles smattered Carissa's face while Chloe's lips turned into the hint of a smile. Red roses lined their sides and notes written in crayons rested on their blue print dresses. Their mother asked Ron to speak, yet what could he say? Ron wanted to move back to the suburbs in 1993 after the murder of his daughters' friends. He could return to the lucrative field of engineering and forget about the problems plaguing the inner city. In the wee hours of the morning while flashlights bobbed outside his window from the crime scene investigation, Ron sensed God speak. He couldn't quit. "Out of the Seats and Into the Streets" is the story of ABIDE, the non-profit organization Ron and his wife, Twany, founded in 1989. Putting a new spin on Jesus' commandment to love your neighbor, ABIDE strives to put the neighbor back into the hood by adopting one inner city neighborhood at a time.