{"id":6338,"date":"2013-07-02T11:52:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T15:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6338"},"modified":"2013-07-02T11:52:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T15:52:23","slug":"murder-victims-friends-and-family-rally-to-remember-prevent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6338","title":{"rendered":"Murder victim’s friends and family rally to remember, prevent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strong Faith Family Church and DVCCC hold vigil in memory of Jamica Woods<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jamica's<\/a>

Jamica’s cousin, Angela Shelton, sings “Take Me to the King”. She also read a poem written by her husband.<\/p><\/div>\n

COATESVILLE \u2013 Part memorial, part education to help prevent such tragedies in the future, the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County held a vigil in memory of Jamica Woods at Ash Park on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Woods, who was 37, was allegedly shot and killed by her boyfriend Gregory A. Twyman in May. The two had a history of domestic problems, including Twyman serving jail time in 1999 for terroristic threats to Woods, which was cited in Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan’s decision for his office to seek the death penalty when Twyman faces trial.<\/p>\n

However, Monday night focused on the positives of Woods\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you knew Jamica, you loved Jamica,\u201d said Charity Longenecker, wife of Strong Faith Family Church\u2019s Pastor David Longenecker. \u201cJamica was not just a friend, she was a family member to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods was set to graduate from Harrisburg Area Community College with a degree in computer information systems at the same time that her daughter graduated high school. Woods was a member of national honor society Phi Beta Kappa and made dean\u2019s list twice.<\/p>\n

As the evening sun pushed through the clouds, Pastor David Longenecker oversaw proceedings. Jamica\u2019s friends and family members shared stories, sang songs, and read poetry to commemorate her.<\/p>\n

Jamica\u2019s cousin, Angela Shelton, sang a powerful rendition of Tamela Mann\u2019s \u201cTake Me to the King\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never imagined in a million years I would be here wearing a t-shirt with my cousin\u2019s name on it, talking about her without her being here,\u201d said another cousin.<\/p>\n

Family members told stories about how Jamica was enthusiastic about getting them to go to church, about shopping sprees, how she once bought a luggage bag\u2019s worth of flip-flops just in case she needed them.<\/p>\n

In addition to all the academic honors she earned, Jamica\u2019s daughter, Janaija, said that Jamica was a good mother. She told about the pond in their backyard where Jamica would sit and read the Bible. The day before her death, they were driving back from Ocean City. Together, the two of them played their music and danced in the car.<\/p>\n

Part of remembering Jamica was helping to prevent such events from happening to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirls, don\u2019t let the men do to you what they did to my daughter,\u201d said Gloria J. Holos, Jamica\u2019s mother. \u201cThe rest of my life is dedicated to helping people in domestic violence situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastor Longenecker shared statistics about domestic abuse, how 30% of women who are murdered are killed by husbands or boyfriends. He said to look out for manipulation and extreme self-centeredness, qualities often present in abusive partners.<\/p>\n

He also said that preventing abuse means questioning some widely-accepted lessons from the church. Some of the blanket statements that people believe are pulled out of context and do not apply to the complexities of all situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to challenge some of our doctoral stances,\u201d he told those in attendance. \u201cJust because this is what I\u2019ve heard growing up\u2014is this what the Bible really says?\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that forgiveness is a matter of letting go, not just of things that people have done wrong, but sometimes letting go of those people altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cForgiveness means \u2018to send away\u2019; it doesn\u2019t mean to enter in the same relationship that\u2019s going to cause pain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of Jamica\u2019s family members shared her own story of abuse, saying that leaving such a relationship is difficult, that the person being abused should not be blamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as easy as people think it is,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you get tired of the tired, it\u2019s hard to get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other church members talked about how even those close to her did not know Jamica was in an abusive relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf stuff goes on like this, you can\u2019t shut up. You can\u2019t be embarrassed,\u201d said Carol Bawell, a close friend of Jamica\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Bawell also said that people in abusive relationships should have a \u2018go bag\u2019, a bag with clothes, money, and legal documents in case they need to leave home quickly to escape a situation. Places like the DVCCC offer emergency housing, legal advocacy, and other services for those in need.<\/p>\n

After the pastor and family members finished speaking, people lingered in the park. Related by blood or not, the scene took on the feel of a family reunion. People hugged, shared more stories, and laughed together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strong Faith Family Church and DVCCC hold vigil in memory of Jamica Woods By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 Part memorial, part education to help prevent such tragedies in the future, the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County held a vigil in memory of Jamica Woods at Ash Park on Monday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2436,433,127],"class_list":["post-6338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-domestic-violence-center-of-chester-county","tag-east-fallowfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}