I apologize for the delay on this update. There was a lot to process. I would need multiple updates to give all the details of this experience, so I will just give the highlights.
Friday was a very long day. Friday morning, we continued with the demo work then went back to the main building for showers and lunch before going out on our first outreach.
We split into two groups, each group had 2 staff members of the Rock with them. Each group started on a different side of the street and we just walked through the streets praying over/with people. Words, pictures and videos cannot encompass what we saw, smelled and felt. We could very will have been on the set of a zombie apocalypse movie. People hunched over, still standing but leaning so far forward their hands touch the ground, motionless for what could be hours due to the effects of the tranquilizers (Tranq) laced into the heroin or fentanyl. It’s called “dipping”. Open sores all over their bodies. Many of them had partial or full amputations of limbs due to the those sores getting infected and ultimately gangrene setting in. The “tranq” eats away the flesh which causes the sores.
Kensington isn’t a city, it is just a neighborhood in Philadelphia, but the illegal drug sales in the neighborhood of Kensington amount to just shy of One Billion dollars a year.No that is not a typo. there are individual corners that sell $60,000 worth of illegal drugs a day.
Many of us had prayed and fasted the days leading up to the trip which helped us to not be completely overwhelmed. Melissa and I have also been seeing many of the same things, just on a smaller scale, in our ministry in SE Roanoke.
While “tranq” doesn’t have much of a presence in Roanoke yet, we fear it won’t be long.
After that outreach, we came back to the main building for “Game Night” with the youth. When I hear game night, I think board games. That was not what they meant. To them, game night is a little basketball but mostly this absolutely chaos version of dodgeball they call Ultimate Dodgeball. In ultimate dodgeball, there are no sides, there are no teams. You can form alliances but for the most part it is every man, woman and child for themselves. When you get hit, you have to sit down right where you were when you got hit. When the person who hit you gets hit, you can get back up and continue playing. This supposed to go on until there is only one person left standing. After what seemed like an hour (I’m not sure how long it actually was), they ended the game with several people still standing. I am 53 years old and probably shouldn’t be running, ducking, diving and rolling on a concrete floor. But I did it any way and had a blast. I wasn’t even that sore afterwards.
After game night, around 8:30 pm, we went to do another outreach called “coffee shop”. They open up another of their buildings to serve coffee, iced coffee, a meal, snacks and juice to anyone who wants it, all for free. They do this every 3rd Friday of the month. Most, if not all who come are homeless addicts. It gives the Rock staff and any visiting teams a chance to minister and witness to them in an enclosed setting. Melissa and I stayed outside to help invite people in. Shortly after it started one of the staff noticed a man across the street who was lying partially in the street with no signs of life. Her, a male staff member and Melissa went to check on him. They could’t fell or see him breathing and his pulse was very faint. One of the staff member administered a dose of Narcan, nothing. They kept trying to get him to come too as they waited for EMS. They administered a second dose of Narcan, still nothing. Just as the ambulance arrived he came to. And Melissa convinced him to go to the hospital. Shortly after that a male staff member and I saw a fight starting across the street and one man pulled what we thought was either a piece of pipe or a machete ( it was dark and hard to make out). We both yelled “weapon” and the staff member, who is also a police officer in the district, drew his sidearm as he was running across the street and flagging down 4 uniformed officers. They caught the man, it turn out to be a piece of pipe, but because he didn’t actually attempt to hit anyone, they let him go.
After coffee shop, we went back to the main building to debrief, the Rock staff debrief, not just everyday but after every outreach. It helps to get it all out and talk about what they saw and did. They also do devotionals every morning.
Saturday morning we did another outreach, walking through the streets praying for people, then lunch and a quick run through of the skit of the prodigal son we were going to be doing in the park later that afternoon. Melissa and I were the pig farmers that hired the prodigal son during the famine. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. We did face painting and crafts and hot dogs and bubbles, some played basketball with the older kids and some played on the playground with the younger kids. I can’t go into all of the details of what was happening with some of these kids, it’s too heartbreaking. Just pray for them.
Saturday evening, a young couple that works at the Rock took the team out for authentic Cheesesteaks. I am a bit of a cheesesteak snob but these were by far the best I have had. We had a great time talking and laughing as we ate.
Sunday we packed up and attended their Sunday Service. We had put out close to 100 chairs earlier in the sanctuary but that was not nearly enough. A few more rows were added during the service.
Pastor Buddy is an amazing pastor who truly cares for the people of Kensington. Earlier in the week, I was able to sit down with him for 30-40 minutes to talk about the ministry we are doing in SE Roanoke. I wanted his insight and advice because while SE Roanoke is not anywhere the same magnitude as Kensington, it is still very similar. He asked about my testimony and a few personal questions to discern my character and then asked me to walk him thru, step by step through what a Tuesday afternoon doing ministry in SE looks like. He wanted as many details as possible, asking questions along the way. After I had given him every detail I could he gave me a few pointers but said that we are doing all the right things. To just keep doing what we are doing, to not change anything unless God says to, and he said the best thing we could do was to “get out of the way”. Meaning, don’t over think it, just be obedient to what God was telling us to do and let Him do the work. I left his office feeling incredibly encouraged.
We got home late Sunday night and we did our Tuesday outreach with some fresh perspective and a whole lot of encouragement. The last few Tuesdays, the conversations have been well received. Multiple people have requested that we help them to get to a good church. Which is something we need prayer for. We have not been able to find a good, solid, Bible teaching church that will let homeless and/or addicts through the doors. Many of which want to change, they just need help. They need people who will show them the Love of Christ right where they are. We have a heart to do that but we can only do so much on a street corner for a few hour a week.
As always your prayers and support are needed and appreciated. This week, we could use some snacks and drinks for this coming Tuesday.
Thank you and God bless you
Derek, Melissa and Alex
Buchanans in the Wild
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