rain, personailty types and prostitution

It’s raining in Chicago. Wow, that sounds like an opening line for what is sure to be a whiny ballad by some inner-city singer-song-writer. But it’s true, it’s raining in Chicago. I know because this morning I woke up early and took a shower so I could walk over to Starbucks and get some coffee for breakfast, only to realize mother nature would not allow this. Still, God is good! Instead, I decided to update my blog. 

The past two days have brought a lot of wonderful and unsettling insights. Monday night we had an open forum about faith. We talked about hell, homosexuality, the holy spirit, etc... (And that’s all before 10:30!) Then we played some team building games and went over our ennegram. An ennegram -for those wondering if I just made up a word- is a tool for figuring out your personailty type. Once you know how you process things, you can better figure out how to communicate with others. It also helps you realize why certain things bother you, or, why others dont. I found out I’m really most of the personality types, but bascially I’m a nine, “The Peacemaker.” Peacemakers are usually the mediators between their friends, which is good. However, they are also forgetful, indecisive and stubborn. Not good.

Tuesday night we were invited to a dramatic monologue performance about living and working on the streets. I wasn’t entirely sure what this meant and none of us knew where it would take place. Come to find out, all we had to do was cross the street to a place called “Emmaus Ministries.” We approached the building, where a man who looked exactly like every picture of Jesus I’ve ever seen, came bounding to open up the gate. Turns out his name is Al and he and his wife work at Emmaus. We went down into the building’s basement where they have a community house. I’m not sure what I expected, but the basement was warm and inviting. It had a long dinning room table and a cozy living room area. We gathered in the living room where we were joined by the new staff memebers of DOOR Chicago. We intorduced ourselves to Al and he to us, then he went on to explain that Emmaus Ministries helps men in prostitution start new lives, free of addictions so they no longer feel the need to sell their bodies. Not your every day run-of-the-mill ministry, huh? It was certainly the most interesting Tuesday Night I've ever had. Both great singers and actors, Al and his wife (Andi) sang and recited some of their clients personal reflections on being a male prostitute in Chicago. They were unbelieveably moving. It strikes me now how none of their stories placed blame on their families, society or even those who first introduced them to drugs or alchohale (although arguably they are entitled too).  Instead, they took complete ownership of their lives and cast their burdens onto this Jesus, the only person whose ever loved them without wanting anything in return. Freedom. Freedom is the heartbeat of Emmaus Ministries. Please keep them in your prayers.