By Kirollos Abdalla —
An angry youth flashed a gun and demanded the pastor shut up at a recent funeral service in Detroit on March 28.
“I just knew I was going to be shot,” said Pastor Darthanian Nichols of Breaking Chains Outreach Ministries. The young man in the casket was reportedly killed as a result of gang violence, and the youth who threatened him certainly seemed like a gang member.
But instead of getting shot, Pastor Darthanian was able to defuse the situation and even wound up getting a dozen people saved afterwards.
“I remember when I was that young angry man,” said Darthanian, who is also a licensed social worker. “I remember what it was like to feel like nobody heard me.”
God gave Darthanian the calmness and presence of mind to respond appropriately.
“I grabbed the microphone and calmly instructed everyone to leave in an orderly way,” he says. “I made sure my wife and kids were removed to safety. And even in that moment, as a trained clinician, I recognized this wasn’t just anger, this was grief speaking loudly. So I began to pray!!!”
The gunman calmed down too, and Darthanian sidled up to him to try to show him empathy.
“I go stand next to him at the casket. And um I try to engage him again at this point. Um and I say, ‘Hey, I know you’re feeling a lot,’” Darthanian tells. “And he looks down at me, uses some swear words and tells me, ‘I don’t believe in the God that you believe in.’”
When police showed up, they took the youth and four other adolescents into custody on possession of weapons charges. Police called Darthanian a hero for maintaining his composure and defusing a tense situation safely.
For his part, Darthanian credits God: “He gave me wisdom when I needed it, peace when I shouldn’t have had it, clarity when everything was chaotic, and courage when fear was present,” he says. “The Bible says: ‘And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’ Today, that wasn’t for money or provision, [b]ut for strength, discernment, and grace under pressure.”
Afterward their brush with death, several people attending the funeral accepted Jesus in their hearts with the pastor.
“God still moved,” he wrote. “I was still able to minister to the family and the young people… and 10 people gave their lives to Christ. That’s the kind of God we serve.”
