Former Manitoban ministered in midst of Charlottesville violence

"I was right there, in the middle of it, as a part of my church," Irma Mahone says, talking about protests in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

Originally from MacGregor, MB, Mahone now lives in Charlottesville where she's a member of the First United Methodist Church. The church is located across the street from the park where protests in Charlottesville took place.

Different "Alt Right" groups had come to Charlottesville to hold a rally on Saturday.

The church had set up to be able to "respond to whatever needs came up," she said, as people gathered to protest against the Alt Right rally.

"We set up space in our church where people could come in to pray, to worship, to get refreshments, and drinks. We had medical people and mental health people there. We were just able to minister to people, on both sides, all day long." For the church, that included even caring for members of the Alt-Right protest who were injured, too.

It was a day filled with tension and uncertainty, with violence erupting throughout the day.

"There was a fight that broke out right in the parking lot of the church. Another time somebody pulled a gun, and everybody rushed into the church, and the doors were locked until that danger passed."

The violence reached its worst when a 20-year-old man from Ohio drove his car into a crowd of marchers who were protesting against the Alt Right groups. That act injured 19 people and killed a 32-year-old woman.

For Mahone, being present in the middle of the violent protests is part of following Jesus. "I think there's a call for people to respond [against the hatred of the Alt Right], and a call to follow Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount . . . it just felt like we were called."

Hearing that the City of Winnipeg had responded to the violence by lowering the flags at City Hall to half-mast was meaningful to Mahone. "It just makes me cry that you guys are so with us," she said through tears.