SHOOTING RANGE
In the spring of 1997, I was 19 years old and employed at Club Monaco in the Beverly Center West Hollywood mall. God ordered Eugene Joshua Sims' steps as he has been doing and had him walk into my life and firmly into my heart. On Thursday, July 3, 1997, near midnight, I should have been en route to my boyfriend Joshua's house for our usual weekend sleepover. Instead, I cruised Crenshaw Boulevard, "the Shaw", a 23-mile stretch starting at Wilshire and ending south in Palos Verdes. The Shaw was the scene where many Black youths congregated on Sunday evenings and was notorious for drug dealing, crackheads, carjackings, shootouts, shell casings, and caution tape, as well as bloodstained streets, body bags, and sidewalks littered with candles and photographs of the victims.
I never made it to Joshua's house. Instead, I ended up in the hospital. Due to divine intervention, I survived. And a child rapist Ricky Laverne Marshall, after holding me hostage at the edge of my seat and asking me if I had ever been to a shooting range, was shot with his own gun. Then God flung him out of my car, and he was later arrested. During January of 1998, I could no longer travel to Joshua’s home due to recurring nightmares of trauma that transpired on Crenshaw and in Hawthorne on my way to his home that July. That same month Joshua became pastor elect at Double Rock Church in Compton, and I continued pursuing an entertainment career. Despite our relationship ending respectfully, during those years, I obsessed about Joshua and what the possibilities could have been if my life was never interrupted due to violence, and if we had stayed together, perhaps we could have been married with kids.
Fast forward over a decade later, the day Whitney Houston died, I was in Altadena visiting my high school prom dates home, Natalie Ganther. Joshua was mentioned, and Natalie told me he had previously been in the local news for stealing over 1 million dollars from Double Rock Church located in Compton. I almost fainted and yelled. No! The devil is a liar; that is not my Joshua! It has to be some other Judas with the same name... I doubted Joshua would steal from Double Rock, the same church he had been attending as a child. After I confirmed it was my Joshua, I wondered how he spent his ill-gotten gains and thought about the ten months we spent together. The affection, generosity, and love Joshua spoiled me with was truly unforgettable. Oh, my lord! He was my first boyfriend and love. You can never forget your first boyfriend or love, amen!
Memories of Joshua making me cry while passionately making love to me in every room of his home caused me to have a revelation that Natalie and her twin Nicole who often sang at various churches in Los Angeles, introduced me to Joshua when we had visited Double Rock Church in 1995. I'm still amazed, at how I ended up meeting Double Rock's future pastor at my retail job in 1997 and how twenty years later, that lead me on my path to becoming a published writer. God works in mysterious ways, amen!
In 2013, I moved to New York to write my memoir titled “Shooting Range”, which begins on July 3, 1997. I then won a nonfiction writing award for the first chapter of my book “Shooting Range”. I told Joshua about the award and that I wrote a book based on the night of July 3, 1997, when I was on my way to his home in Long beach. I told him that I had previously been going through spiritual warfare, that my path was rough and unstable for a decade. However, God had never abandoned me and was still securing my steps as well as satisfying my desires. I also shared some of my literature with him. On February 19, 2016, Joshua responded below from his email address Mysterblue@ymail.com.
“I am glad to know that things are on the up-and-up with you. Evidently, your writing is at a place where one opportunity after another is now coming your way. I know that has to make you feel really good. Knowing how well you write, I am certainly not surprised to hear about the opportunities coming your way. I sincerely believe in your abilities. Well deserved! I trust that things will work in your favor, Nahshon. Because of your feverish labor and developed skill in writing, you deserve every opportunity for your good. Continue pursuing all that you set out to do, and I believe it will pay off for you. Your moxy is unprecedented. Don't lose heart and keep doing what you're doing. And yes, you certainly have some kind of memory too! Who would've thought? Time continues moving onward, waiting on no one. You certainly have a gift of writing. Keep it up!
Pastor Eugene Joshua Sims
Renewed Life Church
In the spring of 1997, I was 19 years old and employed at Club Monaco in the Beverly Center West Hollywood mall. God ordered Eugene Joshua Sims' steps as he has been doing and had him walk into my life and firmly into my heart. On Thursday, July 3, 1997, near midnight, I should have been en route to my boyfriend Joshua's house for our usual weekend sleepover. Instead, I cruised Crenshaw Boulevard, "the Shaw", a 23-mile stretch starting at Wilshire and ending south in Palos Verdes. The Shaw was the scene where many Black youths congregated on Sunday evenings and was notorious for drug dealing, crackheads, carjackings, shootouts, shell casings, and caution tape, as well as bloodstained streets, body bags, and sidewalks littered with candles and photographs of the victims.
I never made it to Joshua's house. Instead, I ended up in the hospital. Due to divine intervention, I survived. And a child rapist Ricky Laverne Marshall, after holding me hostage at the edge of my seat and asking me if I had ever been to a shooting range, was shot with his own gun. Then God flung him out of my car, and he was later arrested. During January of 1998, I could no longer travel to Joshua’s home due to recurring nightmares of trauma that transpired on Crenshaw and in Hawthorne on my way to his home that July. That same month Joshua became pastor elect at Double Rock Church in Compton, and I continued pursuing an entertainment career. Despite our relationship ending respectfully, during those years, I obsessed about Joshua and what the possibilities could have been if my life was never interrupted due to violence, and if we had stayed together, perhaps we could have been married with kids.
Fast forward over a decade later, the day Whitney Houston died, I was in Altadena visiting my high school prom dates home, Natalie Ganther. Joshua was mentioned, and Natalie told me he had previously been in the local news for stealing over 1 million dollars from Double Rock Church located in Compton. I almost fainted and yelled. No! The devil is a liar; that is not my Joshua! It has to be some other Judas with the same name... I doubted Joshua would steal from Double Rock, the same church he had been attending as a child. After I confirmed it was my Joshua, I wondered how he spent his ill-gotten gains and thought about the ten months we spent together. The affection, generosity, and love Joshua spoiled me with was truly unforgettable. Oh, my lord! He was my first boyfriend and love. You can never forget your first boyfriend or love, amen!
Memories of Joshua making me cry while passionately making love to me in every room of his home caused me to have a revelation that Natalie and her twin Nicole who often sang at various churches in Los Angeles, introduced me to Joshua when we had visited Double Rock Church in 1995. I'm still amazed, at how I ended up meeting Double Rock's future pastor at my retail job in 1997 and how twenty years later, that lead me on my path to becoming a published writer. God works in mysterious ways, amen!
In 2013, I moved to New York to write my memoir titled “Shooting Range”, which begins on July 3, 1997. I then won a nonfiction writing award for the first chapter of my book “Shooting Range”. I told Joshua about the award and that I wrote a book based on the night of July 3, 1997, when I was on my way to his home in Long beach. I told him that I had previously been going through spiritual warfare, that my path was rough and unstable for a decade. However, God had never abandoned me and was still securing my steps as well as satisfying my desires. I also shared some of my literature with him. On February 19, 2016, Joshua responded below from his email address Mysterblue@ymail.com.
“I am glad to know that things are on the up-and-up with you. Evidently, your writing is at a place where one opportunity after another is now coming your way. I know that has to make you feel really good. Knowing how well you write, I am certainly not surprised to hear about the opportunities coming your way. I sincerely believe in your abilities. Well deserved! I trust that things will work in your favor, Nahshon. Because of your feverish labor and developed skill in writing, you deserve every opportunity for your good. Continue pursuing all that you set out to do, and I believe it will pay off for you. Your moxy is unprecedented. Don't lose heart and keep doing what you're doing. And yes, you certainly have some kind of memory too! Who would've thought? Time continues moving onward, waiting on no one. You certainly have a gift of writing. Keep it up!
Pastor Eugene Joshua Sims
Renewed Life Church