YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME...
...but it's worth it!
By Jane
Some folks who know that I volunteer with Agape Street Ministry think I must be pretty saintly, but if they say it out loud, the angels laugh so hard even I can hear them! The truth is, I started doing it about five years ago because I thought God wanted me to and I was so grateful to Jesus for rescuing me from the pit of despair that I was willing to do anything out of sheer gratitude.
It turned out that I was half right – God was calling me to minister to prostitutes on the Downtown Eastside. I was willing to do well, not really ‘anything’, but at least anything that was ‘fun’ at least some of the time. “Fun?”, you say? “what could possibly be fun about ministering to people so desperate for cash to buy drugs that they’ll even sell themselves?”
Well, that’s where it gets interesting. Turns out that, although these ladies are desperately poor in material goods, some of them are surprisingly wealthy in spiritual goods and they love to share these as much as I do (in truth they’ve taught me much of what I know).
On Saturday night our team meets at Kateri House at 7pm. We pack our supplies – small candy bags with prayer cards in them for the ladies, rosaries, sometimes juice boxes or cookies – and we head over to the church to pray for God’s blessing on our outing.
We then proceed to walk an established route through the Downtown Eastside. If we’ve prepared properly (I find attending 5pm Mass helps a lot), people along our route seem to notice that Jesus is with us and they come running just like they’ve always done when they see him. Sometimes they cry, sometimes they laugh – nearly always they thank us, they bless us & often hug us.
If we’re open to the Spirit, we’ll notice that Jesus is also with them, and then the party really starts to rock as we all enjoy the love of the Lord in the most surprising ways and places. Our walk generally takes 2 to 3 hours, depending on how many people want to talk and/or pray with us. When we return, we pray again for the needs entrusted to us by our friends and in gratitude to the Lord for His generosity. Personally, I always go home with much more of all the good things, like love, peace, joy, etc., than I brought – presuming of course that I brought some with me ‘cause you can’t give what you ain’t got.’ Sometimes people ask me - “do you manage to get many girls off the street?” The answer is, only a few so far and sometimes that takes several attempts. What I do see though is people changing – girls who used to fight are now helping each other, others are learning to trust, maybe for the first time in years.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, people are beginning to believe – in God, in each other and in themselves. The residents of the Downtown Eastside are, like the rest of us, very broken people but, just like the rest of us, they look to find a reason to believe.
You could give them one. Anyway, if you feel something tugging at
your heart as you read this, it may be that God is calling, yes, even
YOU! If you think this is so, you’re being offered a great blessing
– trust me on this - so why not step out in faith and check
it out? Even if it turns out not to be for you, I promise that after
one night, you’ll never be the same.
