Part 2 - Thursday Night

Below I posted another BHer's story from last night. To expand on that and share my experience of last night, I'm going to start off from when we walked across the street to the donut shop where several guys and a few girls were hanging out by the bus stop...


I was happy to see 'Art', who last week and come to bible study and actually talked for a bit. I'd asked him what he does down here and he dodged my question and took off last week. This week he told me that he comes down for regular clients, and that he's been prostituting for 3 months. I didn't realize it had been so little time that he'd been doing that. He said that prior he'd come down to hang out, smoke weed, kick it with friends, but wasn't 'doing business' at that time. But after a stint in jail and a crazy-expensive ticket from an accident and a suspended license, he'd started out here to make easy money. We actually had a pretty good talk (not only about Urban Outfitters and discounted designer shoes) but about how quickly this area can bring people down and put them in a cycle of drugs/prostitution/jail/etc. I tried my best to convey how badly he needed to finish his GED (which he's almost done with), get a job and get out of this area before it sucks him in completely. He responded, "you're speakin truth, girl, and I appreciate that."


A bit later we all headed down to service together...much of the group excited about it, the rest coming along as a result of nothing better to do. (see post below for more bible study details). Afterward, we broke up into groups as we always do. I was with a girl (a real girl) named Diamond, a guy who goes by Fresh, and another girl I'd never seen before but who knew them both. After a while, Charlie joined our group and the lively discussion about how stupid both Samson and Delilah were (at least that was their take, that they both seemed to be a disgrace to their genders). It was an interesting dynamic, because Diamond grew up basically being beat over the head with the bible by her grandma, and Fresh knew almost nothing about it except that he'd always felt condemned by Christians for being gay/bi-sexual. It opened the door for a lot of truth-sharing, setting the record straight about misunderstandings, and getting to share more of who God is and why we need him.


I was so energized by the conversation with Fresh, because if you look below, this was the guy in the blue baseball cap. He hadn't even really wanted to come, but as we discussed, he was so tuned into the conversation. Even when distractions abounded, he kept focused and kept going with the conversation. Even when his friends all headed off to the donut shop and asked him if he wanted to come, he kept telling them no and that he'd hang out with us a while longer!


We went off on some tangents and some things went undiscussed that would have been really good to clear up, but we still got the chance to share a lot with him. He told us he was glad he'd come and would definitely come back next week...and that he didn't feel that same marginalization that he'd felt at churches before. I also invited him to come to church with us on Sunday and he said he might. But he did want to take a bible and get a chance to read it for himself to see what it actually said. Please pray that he'd come back next week and would continue to have an open heart and mind to Christ.