Pastor Larry Cook buys gas station plagued by crime, drugs: 'Minister to people who have no hope'

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“I know what drugs do to our children. I know what they do to our community. I know the element that it brings. There’s a reason why we have shootings and a lot of times we will demonize the guys that are in front of it, and we’ll say they have no value.’ Lock them up and get rid of them.’ That’s not my opinion at all. I am those guys. ”
— BISHOP LARRY COOK


As the city works to rebuild itself, a church in Minneapolis has taken over a petrol station that was a refuge for drug sales.

In the summer of 2021, Bishop Larry Cook was getting ready for Bible study when he saw a group of young men selling fentanyl and other drugs in the alley between his church and a Marathon gas station on the north side of this city according to WSJ


“Y’all got to move on from back here, you need to do something else,” he told the men. “It got a little heated and they finally told me if I wanted to do something about it, I’d have to buy the gas station.”

So he and Dr. Sharon Cook, his wife, decided to buy it.

The Cooks took over what used to be a Marathon gas station near the corner of West Broadway and Fremont avenues. With the station's keys and inventory in hand, they took over on November 1 and are renaming it the Lion's Den Station.

“We're glad it's for profit,” Cook said. “So we can hire our own people, hire people in the community and then also benefit from the economics of it. That makes our church stronger and makes what we do stronger.”

People who went to Real Believers were exposed to drug dealing and gun violence at the gas station. The Cooks said that the church building was sometimes hit by gunfire and that drug deals happened near their property.

It’s what he says he has always done, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

When Cook sees people committing crimes on the property, he doesn’t see the enemy. He sees someone who doesn’t have hope.

He doesn’t want anymore bullets to hit the church and he doesn't want drug dealers to sell on his property. He also wants to see those people make it because some of his church members were once like them.

“I want to see their lives change,” Cook said. “I have a whole church full of guys that have been changed that used to do that same thing. And I look at those guys now and they're priceless to me.”

Cook’s assistant pastor first came to the church 11 years ago. He was a gangbanger with a black eye that day. One of the deacons used to sell drugs and another church member Cook trusts with many responsibilities used to rob houses.

“These guys are not throwaways,” he said. “We need ministries that are willing and not scared to engage in our community, and not be judgmental when you're looking at people that don't have any hope.”

Kameron White, a member of the church for 10 years, is currently being trained to work at the gas station.

“Bishop Cook is being that light for people,” White said. “So when they come in here, you know whatever they have going on out there, when they come here, they feel a sense of security.”

That sense of security is what White sought when he felt he had no direction when he came across the church as a teenager. He’s looking forward to making people feel welcome, and improving the gas station's reputation.

Sources: Fox and Mynorthnews

Full Story HERE