611

Last night, I went out with Gail, who has been volunteering with Emmuas for about a year and a half, on Street Outreach. I struggle writing about a night out on the streets. There's always the dilemma of what details to include, so that you can understand what it's like out there as well as understand the men we meet, in a way that doesn't break their confidence. The least I can say about last night is, it was slightly unusual.

We walked into the usual areas and stood on a specific street corner most known for prostitution. Try and imagine: it is a busy corner, the hustlers are hanging around, coming and going. The drug dealers are always just near by down the street usually standing in the darkness. There's a bar called 611 right on the corner (here's a short review on it) and a club just opposite as well, which makes it the perfect place to sell what ever it is you have to offer. So for us, this a a great place just to sit on the curb side and speak to who ever is willing to join us.

Very soon after we had arrived I hear a guy shout out, "Hey man!" As I turned round 'the man with the chain' was walking up with a massive smile on his face, and his hand out to greet me. He seemed pleased to see us. We sat and started to chat. After a while we all headed off to a local pharmacy to get some bug spray as we were all getting bitten by mosquitoes. Oh and by the way I have 15 new bits just from last night and they really itch. Anyway during the walk he started to open up to us about his past life. Needless to say he has seen it and done it all: hustling, drug dealing, shootings, and a lot of time in prison, for different reasons. And of course he is still involved in a lot of that.

He has a great knowledge of the Bible. A lot of these men have been brought up in a church or have been ministered to while on the streets or in prison. But as he puts it he, "is not living a sanctified life." In other words, he is not being changed to be more like Jesus. He explained that he knows to be more like Jesus it is a partnership between him and God. He is completely right; he needs to want to change just as much as God wants to change him.

It was nice to have an honest chat with him about his relationship with God. A lot of these guys, him being one, would class themselves as Christians. They know that they not only need to ask God for forgiveness, which many of them have done, but to live a life that is pleasing to God. That's the part where they are struggling, and seems to be where Emmaus Ministries comes in, to help them live out their Christian faith in accordance with the Bible.

We arrived back to 611 and sat down again on the curb side. Soon after, we were joined by a new guy. He had been out on the streets since 1989. I straight away noticed something square-shaped tucked under his sock. As we chatted he told us that he had been working out of a motel and hasn't worked around here for quite a while because he is getting too old and soft for the streets. He said he's getting tired of this life now. He reached down to his sock and pulled out his wallet and showed me an address to a good rehab unit in Houston. They had agreed to take him into a one-year program of drug rehab. He had come down last night to say good bye to an old friend of his but had found out that he was in jail.

Like most nights, the cops were driving up and down the streets. We started to joke around that we were going to get moved on soon, when two cop cars pulled up. The policemen got out of the cars and said (pointing at Gail, myself, and two other hustlers standing next to us) put your hands on the hood (bonnet) of the car. As we started to stand up Gail pointed at our name badges and said that we were with Emmaus Ministries the officer looked at his watch and seeing the time told us to sit back down. After the three officers frisked the hustlers and let them go, he came and had a chat with us. He was nice, he asked what we were doing and in one sense showed a good interest. As he walked away he shouted out to us, "Stay safe!"