Burdened (Boston 4)

Throughout the week we helped Redeemer Fellowship (the church we stayed at) with a little church promotion. The 14 of us had the servant task of hanging flyers on doors. The goal at the end of the week was to hit every door in the city of Watertown. I thought it would be a very easy task at first, however, as the week moved on, it began to be the most tiring job ever. We arrived in Boston when it was 45 degrees, and by the time we started door hangers it was in the upper 90's. I had a tan...and I'm black.

We went to many different sites in Boston. One of the places we had gone was Quincy Market. Quincy Market was another place where we had a chance to minister with our small teams. Someone caught Clay's attention, and he left without us. Caleb and I were walking and praying for someone to talk to, but in my head I just didn't think that we would find anyone. Quincy Market was a tourist attraction mainly, a place to shop and find cool Boston gear. We literally asked God to bring someone to us; someone who would literally get our attention first and that would be the sign that we needed. Something else I learned in Boston was that praying in full faith changes things. Not. Kidding. At. All.

As we walked past these two hustlers we slowed down a bit. I'm sure both of us knew that one of them were going to ask us to help him out.

Dwayne was his name. His friend left to go to another place. I know that through talking about Boston in the past few posts I've talked about some wacky people, myself included. Dwayne was a piece of work. He was a couple of inches shorter than me, bald, & had a harlem-ish accent (yes, we were in Boston. I know the difference). He told us a bit about his story before we could even say anything. He told us that he was fresh out of jail and for community service he needed to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club. Caleb and I knew that it was illegitimate from the second he showed us the contribution list. It only had two names on it and it looked like a copy of the original. No matter how crazy his story was, or if he was lying, God gave us this opportunity to talk about Jesus. So we took it.

Caleb had cash on him. He told Dwayne that he would give $5 to the "Boys and Girls Club" if he would just listen to us for a minute. So we just started to ask Dwayne about his life and then he started talking about God. He told us that God makes mistakes.

Just to pause for a second for everyone who is reading this (if anyone reads this anymore, I'm pretty sure I use this blog to talk to myself), God does not make mistakes.

Caleb and I looked at each other. We knew that we had to speak into that false perception. Dwayne continued with his explanation of why God makes mistakes. He said that when anything happens in the world such as bombings, natural disasters, and wars, that God is just trying to cover up His mistakes. Dwayne continued saying that he should have been a mistake, and that he didn't understand why God hadn't taken him away yet. We tried to talk to  Dwayne, but nothing got through to him. He wouldn't let us finish what we were saying and he even interrupted us when we tried to pray for him the first time.

After about 15 minutes of trying to hold a conversation, Dwayne finally asked for his $5 from Caleb. By this time, Clay showed up after a conversation with another guy and we asked him if we could pray for him before we leave, and he said of course. Dwayne did this thing where he prayed with his arms out wide. When we tried to pray in a huddle he made sure that we all had our hands up. Caleb began to pray for Dwayne.

All of a sudden this girl walks up to us as we are praying, drunk as a skunk. I never understood that metaphor but, it rhymes, so there it is. She asked us what we were doing. We told her that we were praying for our friend Dwayne, and she asked if she could join us. We knew that she was joking, but that didn't mean that she couldn't be prayed for as well. Joni joined in, basically mocking us at first. A few seconds later, Caleb started praying for her.

Joni's friends were pretty plastered as well, but they seemed to be better off than her. They asked Joni to keep walking and at one point attempted to pull her away. Joni literally changed. I felt her hand grip Clay's shoulder as her friends tried to pull her away. She went from making fun of us to actually receiving the prayers we spoke to God for her. Her whole countenance changed, and after the prayer we could see that even her eyes changed. I noticed that she had a cross hanging off of her necklace (though half the world has one). She looked at us and thanked us sincerely. She walked off, and after Dwayne got his money, he gave us a bro hug and left as well to get a few more dollars for the night.

God literally brought two people to our attention. So much that they approached us before we could get to them. My faith grew about 2 stories taller that night as God continued to bring people to us. If I were to list every person we met, it would take the rest of the summer. 

------------------------

Two nights after that, we went back to Harvard Square. For myself and many others, it was the craziest night of the trip. I met a 15 year old that live in the Pit (talked about in the last blog post). I met a girl heavily addicted to self harm, with cuts all over her body. I met a heroin addict. However, none of that compared to the next person I will blog about. 

Clay and I sat with this man who walked away when he found something better to do. Before he left his friend came by, and we introduced ourselves to her. She was very reserved at first, but she talked. She said, with a tone of uncertainty in her voice, that her name was Richard. She told us to call her Richie. We probably hang with Richie for an hour.

Here's her story: First of all, she's 19 years old, on her own. She is from New York, and she left her parents to live in Boston, where things aren't looking too hot for her. She grew up in a religious home where her dad was very strict. She was whooped a lot by her father along with her siblings. All of her life she felt that she was supposed to be a boy. She finally told her parents and they couldn't believe it. Basically an outcast of her own family, she left home in pursuit of happiness. A life where she would not be judged and loved for who she is.

I got to understand how she felt, not because I've gone through that personally, but someone near to my heart has: my own sister.

Suddenly this outcast became a member of my family. I was able to ask and tell Richie everything I have ever wanted to say to my sister. Before I asked anything, I told her that I believe in Jesus. I felt like it was important that I said that before I told her anything else. After that, I got to tell her how much Jesus loves her and what His love for all of us led Him to do on that cross. I also told her that no matter how messed up she thought she was, that Jesus still loves her. I had a chance to tell her a bit about my sister, and how much I love her. She told us that she knew we were sincere and caring, not like other religious people who go out to the pit with their "Turn or Burn" signs. Clay and I just continued to encourage her until he left to meet another friend that he met the night before last.

As I continued to hang with Richie, I really wanted to ask her something I never had the guts to ask my own sister. "If the right man came along, would you marry him?"

She stopped for a bit, and looked me square in the eyes. "Yes," she said. "If the right one came and treated me right."

I couldn't tell you how happy I was to hear that. This girl was homosexual, yet she still had a deep desire for a man. Due to all the crap men have done in her life, she began to be turned off by them. Every person has a story, it's very rare that you wake up one day and decide to act a certain way of like your own gender.

Richie began to get really thirsty and I told her we could go to CVS to get a drink. She laughed and said, "I'm not allowed in there." I'm guessing she stole something and was banned from the store. Her favorite drink was Brisk Lemon Iced Tea, so I went to the store and got it. By the time I had returned, someone had given Richie a bottle of alcohol in a brown bag.

---------------------------------

Trying to not pay attention to the alcohol, I gave her what she originally wanted, her Iced Tea. She was super appreciative of it. Around that time, a random show started that featured some guy with long dreadlocks. His show name is Snap Boogie. He knew how to draw a crowd. He would pick on Asians and hot girls. It was funny at first, but it probably took 15 minutes before he ever did anything. We all went over to watch Snap Boogie, and Richie came along, nearly done with her bottle of alcohol.

After the show was over, I knew I needed to talk to someone else. Richie was too drunk and would never stay on subject, and there were times where she would tell me how cute I am. So to avoid that awkwardness, I stepped into another awkward situation. I found Molly ministering to a homeless man, and a few hundred feet away approaching swiftly, I saw a drunken Jester, followed by his gang, making a b-line for Molly, who had her bible open in front of this poor man. If you don't remember Jester, I talked about him in the post, Hippie Love.

I knew that he would try to ruin what God was doing in that man's life by interrupting Molly, so I stepped to him and he recognized me. We conversed for a few minutes, but nothing special. He told me that he was hanging out with his friends and they wanted to get a drink, so he went with them and had a bit too much. He walked off after those few minutes and went to see other people, praise God. Afterwards, Molly got up off of the ground and told us that the man had just committed his life to Christ.

"What?!?"  The idea of that happening in that moment was insane to me, I didn't have a clue that was going on. We then went to Starbucks to get the man something to eat, along with Caleb H. When I first met Caleb, he was very quiet. However when we would minister, God used his ability to converse a whole lot on the trip. I hope he sees this so he can know that, if he didn't already.

We went to Starbucks and got him something to eat, then I left Molly and Caleb with the man who had just gave his life to Jesus. His name is Jimmy, and he had long, black hair like a rock star.

As I walked back into the pit, Sarah told me that there was a girl who was taking her clothes off and warned me not to look over that way. As I walked trying to find someone else to talk to, I see a half naked, drunken Richie swinging her jacket in the air. I couldn't believe it.

There was a man Travis talked to who was about to fall over a ledge because he was so drunk. Roswell was  talking to this teenager who lives in the streets and was totally turned off by Christianity. Caleb P was chasing around a little girl who's mother didn't keep up with her. Chelsea and Alfonso were talking to a girl who was born with boy organs, and they didn't know what they could say to her. I stepped back and my shoulders got really heavy. I could feel the hurt in the atmosphere. I wanted to cry but, for some reason I couldn't.

After being flirted with, lied to, and smoked out of the pit, before we left I was able to chill with a guy named Geoffrey. He was very sincere and open with me, and he wanted prayer. He told me that it seemed like all of his friends were dying lately. After I prayed for him, I went to the first guy I had met that night and tried to finish up a conversation with him, then finally asked him if he wanted prayer for anything. He looked at me and said, "Yeah right," and took off on his bike. I don't know why, but I was really hurt by the look he gave me. Not that it looked like he meant any harm, but that it seemed like he knew that prayer wouldn't do anything for him. 

-----------------------------------------

We all left the Pit that night brokenhearted. I had never seen all of us this quiet before, and I knew that each one of us were thinking something. We prayed, and left around 1 or 2 in the morning to go back to Watertown. 

That night we felt a small fraction of what God feels for His creation.

(...to be continued)