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IT WAS MANY YEARS AGO AND I WAS HARD AT WORK IN THE STREETS. Still fresh from the protection and strict rules at home, I was somewhat of an innocent. I had not asked ahead to gather some history of the area in which I was to work. It was thus I found myself during what had promised to be a quiet afternoon, crouched in a doorway while bullets flew past me. In the course of my charity ministry I had wandered into gang warfare.
Live Ammunition
There is nothing like live ammunition singing past your ear to induce prayer. All I could remember was the Act of Contrition in case I would be knocking on the Heavenly Gates in a few moments. Mom had always said to pray a Last Act of Contrition in case of my life being in danger - I guess this truly qualified. Well, I lived to tell the tale, and spoke to an armed gang member running after two other people who had just entered the area.
He was so startled to be stopped by an unarmed female preacher, that he courteously stopped, refrained from waving his loaded gun at me, and asked me what I wanted. "Why do you want to kill those people?" I asked. "They have only just come now, and you don't even know them. That would be murder." The gang member sat down next to me, with his firearm dangling from his hands, and we got talking.
After two hours, I had learned a lot about gang life. There is a code of honour, and if a member of one gang is killed, then a member of the other gang has to be 'taken out' as retribution for the death. Even if you've never met the other person; the simple fact that they are from a rival gang means they are marked for death. Even if the one member is a heavily pregnant woman.
Introduced at Young Age
We got to talking, and in the end my heart went out to the man. He had been introduced to this life as a very young boy. He never knew his father, who had left his mother when she was pregnant with him. A devoted mother and hard worker, she spent her life in poorly paid labour to put the roof over his head and the food on the table in front of him. She died, leaving him alone with no family at all. This left him, an orphan, to roam the streets, and - I surmised - needing both a parent figure and a family, he found a new home with a gang. In the gang he had a career, an upwards path of promotion, money in his pocket and respect from the neighbourhood. But the way was riven with blood.
Eye-Opener
It was an eye-opener to me just how much emotional suffering lay beneath the veneer of a heavily tattoed, six foot two man. That was the day I realised that those who become gang members are deeply in need of assistance, and that education, the backing of a strong family or support group with Godly values and a chance in life may make the difference to someone contemplating joining a lifestyle that often ends in bloody conflict and death. When we parted ways, the man reverently pressed my hands between his own, looked into my eyes and said; 'You're the first person I can ever remember who stopped to talk to me as if I was a human being. Thank you.'
I am not ashamed to admit that my eyes were wet as I left the area. I realise that entrance into the gang required either the death or rape of another. I also realised after talking to this man that often those walking down this road are initially not fully cognisant of the consequences of the decisions they are making; and eventually are trapped in the cycle of violence and gang life. And thus, the interest and support I have had for decades of the Chaplaincy Ministry.
Knives, Necklacing and Executions
I think over the years in Charity work on the streets; remembering a gang member who had been knifed by another in a street fight, smoking a cigarette with the knife still stuck in his torso. I remember victims who had been apprehended and made to undergo necklacing, petrol-filled tyres placed around their necks and set ablaze. They had survived the execution, but their faces had melted away including their eyes. All that was left of their faces were the holes of their mouths, their burnt hands holding cigarettes which gave them a comfort I - an ardent non-smoker - was deeply grateful they had. I remember relatives of gang members fainting as they came upon the executed bodies of their sons, brothers and partners who tried to leave their gang.
I think, too, of other gang members who wanted to leave their gang but knew they had sworn the oath of perpetual fidelity to the gang. The penalty of breaking this particular oath is the gang rape of your children and wife; if the baby is an infant, the same penalty applies. The terror of this penalty hangs over the head of any who wish to escape the world of gangs and begin a new life for themselves and their children.
Perhaps Divine Providence has led you to read these words.
The precept of Lumiere is 'A Light of Hope' and
'Bringing Light into Others' Lives.'
also, be aware that such a work can place your family in danger. So this form of ministry requires thought, discernment and training in order to be carried out in safety.
Chris Hoke; Gang Ministry
http://chris-hoke.com/ministry/
Chaplains Reach Out To Many . . .
http://www.crcna.org/news-and-views/chaplains-reach-out-many-christmas
Ross Kemp on Gangs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Kemp_on_Gangs
Caution; Sensitive Content; 'Necklace' Lynchings
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239201/Necklace-lynchings-shocked-Africa-Agonising-deaths-students-mistaken-thieves-burned-alive-posted-online.html
Act of Contrition
http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=43
Chaplain to Those Beyond the Gates
http://www.unchainedministrieseurope.com/news/
The Cross and The Switchblade: Book by David Wilkerson
https://books.google.ie/books?id=8zMfG-ByffcC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=gang+chaplains&source=bl&ots=v3W7q1IUq6&sig=Ze_zEye3v4B6Ri7QouMMCgpofJI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wTfvVM6YJYXU7AbI2YCQBA&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=gang%20chaplains&f=false
A Ministry of Presence; Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan
https://books.google.ie/books?id=wS-OBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=prison+chaplaincy+to+gang+members&source=bl&ots=4i4nXkgytk&sig=Soe5YLEyA3Dl7O2s1deRfxbXyHc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TTjvVM_0Fqqd7AbCqYCwAw&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=prison%20chaplaincy%20to%20gang%20members&f=false
Prison Ministry - Why not Help
http://lumierecharity.blogspot.ie/2014/01/prison-ministry-why-not-help.html
Suffering in Prison - Is There Anything You Can Do To Help?
http://lumierecharity.blogspot.ie/2014/11/laws-on-children-residing-with-parents.html
Prison Ministry. Org
http://www.prisonministry.org/donate.htm
Volunteer Chaplains of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team
http://www.hughsnews.com/volunteer-chaplains-of-the-billy-graham-rapid-response-team-ministered-in-ferguson-missouri
With thank to Chris-Hoke.com/ Wikipedia.org/ Catholic.org/ Unchainedministrieseurope.com/ Books.google.ie/ PrisonMinistry.Org / Hughsnews.com
Image by Catherine Nicolette
