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 • Ministries of Evangelization • Ministries of Transformation • Ministries of Education • FAQ • Annual Report  • John Green Bio • Board of Directors • Volunteers • Current Staff Openings • History of Emmaus • Contact Info  • Ways to Give • Ways to Serve • Hosting a House Event • Shopping Village • Wish List • Fundraiser News & Events  • Upcoming Events • Current Newsletter • Pressroom  • Urban Ministry Resources • Retreats • Sexual Redemption • Donating a Computer • John Green's Potpourri  • History • Vision • Newsletters • Upcoming Events • Contact Info    |  | "From Walking the streets to Walking with the Lord" The New World, June 13-June 20, 1999. By Heidi Schlumpf, Staff Writer. Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. (Luke 24:13-15) In the basement of a rehabbed building in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, a half dozen men are finishing up a dinner of homemade cheese and sausage pizza. A few straggle into the kitchen, grabbing the last of the brownies someone baked for dessert. After the meal, they retire to the comfortable couches in the living room to watch a movie. These few hours provide a semblance of normal family life for men whose life is otherwise chaotic, even violent. Most of these young men live and work on the streets, hustling as male prostitutes in Chicago's "night community". It was there – on the streets – that they were befriended by volunteers from Emmaus Ministries, an interdenominational outreach on the North Side whose motto is "Making Jesus known in the lives of young men on the streets." "The people here have shown me that I can overcome my faults, overcome my fears, that the Lord can change your life," says 31-year-old Pierrie Evans, who has been "clean" and off drugs for the six months since he discovered Emmaus. Although he has not worked as a prostitute, Emmaus considers him "at risk" because of his past drug addiction and life on the street. Like the biblical story for which it is named, Emmaus Ministries is all about conversion. It all started with a life-changing experience of founder John Green, a bright-eyed, bearded young Catholic with a passion for evangelization. While still a student at Wheaton College, Green had gotten involved with "street ministry" in Chicago after a stint at Covenant House in New York City. He vividly remembers a conversation with a young male prostitute at the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's: "It was 2 a.m. and we were just talking, when he broke down crying and said, 'For the last three years, I've gone home with the last trick each night. I'm trapped and I don't know how to get out of this." Green was moved by the man's hopelessness. "I'm a good little suburban boy. I've never been drunk, never been high. It broke my heart," he recalls. The next year, he sent a letter to the 100 people on his Christmas card list, asking for donations to start a ministry to male prostitutes. Nine years later, Emmaus employs five full-time staff, one part-timer and more than 40 volunteers. The six-flat building that Green purchased a few years ago also has undergone a conversion. The former crack house now is home to the drop-in Ministry Center, where the young men can grab a meal or a shower, do their laundry or take advantage of Bible study groups, counseling or referrals to other social service agencies. Green describes the center as a "place of hospitality, prayer and discipleship." Emmaus' offices are housed on the first floor, while Green and his wife, Carolyn, make their home on the top floor. (A former male prostitute currently lives with them.) Another part of the building is being renovated to become a residential home that will provide transitional housing for men who want to leave the streets. A handful of students from Wheaton College, an evangelical Protestant school in the far western suburbs, lives on the second floor as part of a new program in which they get college credit for volunteering at Emmaus while taking classes on site. Uniting evangelicals and Catholics is one of Emmaus' key values. "As one of only a handful of Catholics at Wheaton, I saw so many misconceptions about who Catholics are and what we believe," says Green. "I realized we were both interested in bringing people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ." But Emmaus' main goal remains getting male prostitutes off the streets and helping them get their lives on track, including their spiritual lives. "We want to get guys out of prostitution and walking with the Lord," says Green. "If I get one out of two of those, I'm happy. If I get both, I'm ecstatic." The men who benefit from Emmaus' services cross all demographic categories. They come from poor, middle-class and even wealthy families, and from a variety of ethnic and educational backgrounds. One common trait is drug addiction and homelessness. Often ostracized by the homeless community and subject to beatings in shelters, male prostitutes rarely find a safe place where they are treated with love and respect. "For a guy to get out of prostitution, it's a long process," says Green. "Somebody has to walk with them along that road." Emmaus becomes a "surrogate family", helping the young men realize they have other options besides prostitution. "They don't want to be doing it," says Green, citing research that 75 percent of male prostitutes are heterosexual. In fact, he believes many of the men have a "higher moral reasoning," choosing prostitution over stealing because they believe it is a victimless crime. But Green knows there are plenty of victims, not only the prostitutes, but many of their customers who are struggling with sexual issues and guilt. "The issue is sexual exploitation," he says. "That's what we're fighting against." Although prostitutes are among the most "over-evangelized" people in the world, Green believes the church has dropped the ball in evangelizing to them. "Evangelization is not me talking about Jesus, it's people hearing about Jesus," he explains. "That's a whole different paradigm, one that puts the onus on me as the evangelizer to adapt my style and message." To reach men involved in prostitution means leaving the middle-class comfort zone and shifting from a 9-to-5 mentality. It means hitting the streets after dark. On the streets and in the bars and clubs, the volunteer ministry teams simply build relationships. "The overall picture is to make Jesus known on the streets," explains Alfred Coleman, ministry coordinator and a parishioner at St. Basil/Visitation. "We just start a conversation with them and tell them we're here for them." Their strategy is somewhat "counterintuitive," says Joel Handy, a 19-year-old volunteer from Wheaton College who came to Emmaus prepared to preach the Gospel to prostitutes. He soon learned it was more important to walk with them than talk at them. "I just hang out with them, trying to be a brother," says the Richmond, Va., native. "It's only after we have some relationship established that we'll be able to share something as deep as religion." |