Nathanial and I had some good conversations with the men that night. We met a couple of new hustlers. This isn't unusual as these men are always moving around the country or are in and out of jail. One unfortunate incident of the night, was, that we did get eggs thrown at us I think out of a car.We also got into a conversation with one of the hustlers that got very angry at Nathaniel. Apparently, this guy had sent off for his Social Security ID, however it got lost in the post so Emmaus never received it. The men use Emmaus' address to have post sent to them as a lot of them are homeless. In the States, you can't do anything with out an ID, so in order for him to get a job or housing, and eventually get off the streets ID is essential. Instead of talking to the post office, this man thought it would be better to take his anger out on Nathaniel. Nathaniel said that is not unusual behavior for him - but that didn't make it any nicer.
The evening for Brian and me was slightly better than the previous night. We had a few good conversations with the hustlers. One in particular was with a man, who is not a hustler, but is a homosexual man in his 40s who used to bar tend in the Montrose area for about 12 years. He's now a chef in the city but still comes back to the area to party. This man was raised Catholic and is extremely angry and cannot seem to reconcile his past with Catholicism. He kept exclaiming, "Catholics are messed up, man!" (He didn't use the word "messed," but I think you guys can figure out what word he used instead). He said the the Catholic church is the perfect place for pedophiles to hide out.
He kept saying, "I love God and he loves me...but I will never go to church again." I asked him what he thought it meant to love God, to which he repeated his previous statement. I forgot to mention that he was pretty drunk so having a conversation with him was quite difficult. I asked him if he would agree that to love God means to serve Him, to worship Him, to submit to His will, and to read His word? But he just said,"Hell no!" The conversation sort of kept going like that for about 30-40 minutes. He talked a lot about how hard it was for him in high school being gay and being terrorized, and beat up on a daily basis, by the other students. Brian and I could tell there had been a lot of past hurt in his life and we were only scratching the surface. I really hope to be able to talk to him again, maybe even have a sober conversation with him.
Around 12am Brian and I were sitting on the curb outside of a bar. It's a really good place to sit because a lot of people walk by and often 1 or 2 hustlers will come and sit with you. A police car was slowly driving down the street and stopped by us. One of the hustlers came to our defense and said, "They're just church people." The police officer, in his Texan drawl said, "Take your ministry some place else! We don't allow people to just sit on the curb!" We didn't hesitate to comply, we just moved on. It wasn't worth getting into it with him.
All in all, we can both say that our experiences with outreach has been very good. The only bad things are the mosquitoes! Every night after outreach we both come home with fresh bites! The joke goes: What's the state bird of Texas? Give up? Mosquitoes!!
There's an article that is pretty interesting; it's called Battle Scars. We should warn you though, it's pretty crude, but very informative about life as a hustler.
He kept saying, "I love God and he loves me...but I will never go to church again." I asked him what he thought it meant to love God, to which he repeated his previous statement. I forgot to mention that he was pretty drunk so having a conversation with him was quite difficult. I asked him if he would agree that to love God means to serve Him, to worship Him, to submit to His will, and to read His word? But he just said,"Hell no!" The conversation sort of kept going like that for about 30-40 minutes. He talked a lot about how hard it was for him in high school being gay and being terrorized, and beat up on a daily basis, by the other students. Brian and I could tell there had been a lot of past hurt in his life and we were only scratching the surface. I really hope to be able to talk to him again, maybe even have a sober conversation with him.
Around 12am Brian and I were sitting on the curb outside of a bar. It's a really good place to sit because a lot of people walk by and often 1 or 2 hustlers will come and sit with you. A police car was slowly driving down the street and stopped by us. One of the hustlers came to our defense and said, "They're just church people." The police officer, in his Texan drawl said, "Take your ministry some place else! We don't allow people to just sit on the curb!" We didn't hesitate to comply, we just moved on. It wasn't worth getting into it with him.
All in all, we can both say that our experiences with outreach has been very good. The only bad things are the mosquitoes! Every night after outreach we both come home with fresh bites! The joke goes: What's the state bird of Texas? Give up? Mosquitoes!!
There's an article that is pretty interesting; it's called Battle Scars. We should warn you though, it's pretty crude, but very informative about life as a hustler.
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