DENVER — Every week there's a new message on the sign outside of the Highlands United Methodist Church, and Pastor Brad Laurvick thought his most recent words about immigration stayed away from controversy.
"We just opted for the words of Jesus," he said.
"I was a stranger, you welcomed me," the sign read.
But Sunday morning, the letters were jumbled after someone shattered the glass.
"I spent the day very sad and very motivated at the same time," Laurvick said.
He called police, but he said it's unlikely they'll find the person who vandalized the sign.
Still, he'd like to tell whoever it is, they are loved.
"We have an invitation to demonstrate love and respond with more of it," he said.
The first thing he did after he discovered the damaged sign was make a new sign.
It reads, "Nothing will break our commitment to stand with the oppressed."
“It does remind us there’s a lot of work to be done," Laurvick said. "Every single one of us. Confronting our own racism. Confronting the systems and the world around us and remembering that moments like this are things that are very real and they happen. Not just out there not just somewhere, not just with extremists but in our own communities affecting the people we know and love."
Denver Police confirmed they took the report about the vandalism Sunday morning.
Laurvick is running in the DPS District 5 school board election, which represents the northwest area that includes the Globeville, Elyria-Swansea, Highland and Sloan’s Lake neighborhoods.
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