Last night Nathaniel and I went on Street Outreach. Right away the night started with sort of an odd feeling. Nathaniel stopped walking and said, "Have you heard of the Nicene Creed?" I told him it sounded familiar. He explained that he was talking to a priest about spiritual battle/demonic forces and asked the priest what he suggested. The priest told him to pray the Nicene Creed. We both prayed it.
We then went to a local bar and sat outside on the sidewalk. We chatted with different people that were walking by and told a couple of them about the House of Hospitality and how we would love to see them there. Then out of nowhere, we heard a huge crash like the sound of breaking glass. It sounded like a car window had broken. Shortly after a police car and an ambulance came by. We found out through talking to people during the night that some guy attacked another guy with a thick steel chain. The man who was attacked, out of retaliation, smashed the other guy's car window.
We quickly moved away from that situation only to find ourselves in a worse one. We were walking down the street and saw a group of people at the corner. All of the sudden we see one guy get punched in the face and fall to the ground. He then was kicked in the head twice. It was awful. You know how you see violence in movies and you're sort of desensitized to it? But in real life it's so different; I could hear the sound of fist against skull and then just saw his body crumple to the ground, and then heard the sound of foot against skull. I felt like my heart stopped for a second.
After the group sort of scattered, Nathaniel and I went up to the man who was still not moving. The good thing was he was breathing, but wouldn't respond when we asked him his name or if he was okay. A local resident, who I think must have witnessed it as well, went into his house to call for an ambulance. The man who had punched him came back and started swearing at him saying he had gotten what he deserved and he would "knock his punk ass out again." At this point I was sort of nervous because the whole group of men were back and I thought they were going to finish him off. They ended up leaving though - thank God.
Eventually the man started to open his eyes slightly and move a bit. We asked if he was okay and he said he was. He stood up and we asked him what happened. He explained that his friend was there to buy drugs, but was expecting him to pay for it. When he refused, his friend took off and left him with an extremely angry drug dealer who had just been robbed in one sense. The drug dealer was the one that had beaten him up. We told him that an ambulance was on the way, but he refused and said he would be fine; he added that he'd survived worse. He wiped the blood off of his face and thanked us and shook our hands. He asked which way the bar was, and then just strolled down the street as if nothing had happened. Nathaniel and I were pretty unsettled by all of this.
We then went on to Cousins, the local drag bar. We talked to one hustler the whole time. He told us that he is seriously wanting to do rehab and would come to the House of Hospitality on Thursday to discuss it more - I hope he comes! He also told us that he can't stand women. He had been sexually abused (technically raped) by a female friend of the family, which explains his negative association with women. Therefore he concludes that he's homosexual. Nathaniel was explaining to me that often times hustlers get confused about what they prefer sexually after they've had sex with so many men. They sometimes enjoy it, even crave it, although at one time in their lives they preferred women.
It's hard to think about the things kids have to suffer at the hands of adults who are angry, confused, and probably have experienced similar abuse as children. Someone once asked me, "Why bother helping male prostitutes? If this is the life they choose, then leave them alone. It's their choice and therefore their fault for being in the situations they are." Emmaus has a great promotional pamphlet about this concept of Choice. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but it's something to this affect:
We then went to a local bar and sat outside on the sidewalk. We chatted with different people that were walking by and told a couple of them about the House of Hospitality and how we would love to see them there. Then out of nowhere, we heard a huge crash like the sound of breaking glass. It sounded like a car window had broken. Shortly after a police car and an ambulance came by. We found out through talking to people during the night that some guy attacked another guy with a thick steel chain. The man who was attacked, out of retaliation, smashed the other guy's car window.
We quickly moved away from that situation only to find ourselves in a worse one. We were walking down the street and saw a group of people at the corner. All of the sudden we see one guy get punched in the face and fall to the ground. He then was kicked in the head twice. It was awful. You know how you see violence in movies and you're sort of desensitized to it? But in real life it's so different; I could hear the sound of fist against skull and then just saw his body crumple to the ground, and then heard the sound of foot against skull. I felt like my heart stopped for a second.
After the group sort of scattered, Nathaniel and I went up to the man who was still not moving. The good thing was he was breathing, but wouldn't respond when we asked him his name or if he was okay. A local resident, who I think must have witnessed it as well, went into his house to call for an ambulance. The man who had punched him came back and started swearing at him saying he had gotten what he deserved and he would "knock his punk ass out again." At this point I was sort of nervous because the whole group of men were back and I thought they were going to finish him off. They ended up leaving though - thank God.
Eventually the man started to open his eyes slightly and move a bit. We asked if he was okay and he said he was. He stood up and we asked him what happened. He explained that his friend was there to buy drugs, but was expecting him to pay for it. When he refused, his friend took off and left him with an extremely angry drug dealer who had just been robbed in one sense. The drug dealer was the one that had beaten him up. We told him that an ambulance was on the way, but he refused and said he would be fine; he added that he'd survived worse. He wiped the blood off of his face and thanked us and shook our hands. He asked which way the bar was, and then just strolled down the street as if nothing had happened. Nathaniel and I were pretty unsettled by all of this.
We then went on to Cousins, the local drag bar. We talked to one hustler the whole time. He told us that he is seriously wanting to do rehab and would come to the House of Hospitality on Thursday to discuss it more - I hope he comes! He also told us that he can't stand women. He had been sexually abused (technically raped) by a female friend of the family, which explains his negative association with women. Therefore he concludes that he's homosexual. Nathaniel was explaining to me that often times hustlers get confused about what they prefer sexually after they've had sex with so many men. They sometimes enjoy it, even crave it, although at one time in their lives they preferred women.
It's hard to think about the things kids have to suffer at the hands of adults who are angry, confused, and probably have experienced similar abuse as children. Someone once asked me, "Why bother helping male prostitutes? If this is the life they choose, then leave them alone. It's their choice and therefore their fault for being in the situations they are." Emmaus has a great promotional pamphlet about this concept of Choice. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but it's something to this affect:
The choices they had, and the choices you had, were very different.
And maybe if you had the choices they had, then maybe you would be a prostitute too.
No comments:
Post a Comment