Emmaus Ministries

Last week, Wheaton College celebrated “Missions in Focus.” Christian outreach organizations set up in the Beamer Center to let students know about opportunities to serve. I visited the ministry tables and met Rikki from Emmaus Ministries.

Emmaus Ministries is “an outreach of hope and redemption for young men in the inner city who are trapped by male street prostitution, generational poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS.”

Rikki gave me a couple of DVDs with the stories of some of those men. This weekend, I watched them. The story of one young man stays in my memory.

He grew up with a violent alcoholic for a father. Sometimes that father would get arrested for beating his kids so badly. But he would always get out of jail within a few days and come back.

When he came home, he always gave money to his wife to give to the kid who had been beaten the worst, often this young man. “Maybe it was his way of apologizing,” he said. The violence never stopped–nor did the cash “apologies.”

This set up a wierd dynamic in the young man’s experience. He would get beaten, and then he would get paid. So when he ended up living on the street in Chicago after he left home, it wasn’t so difficult to transition to prostitution.

“You get used to it,” he said.

No one should ever have to get used to chronic physical abuse and assault.

Where there has been no prevention of such violence, where the intervention of the criminal justice system has failed repeatedly, there must be a new kind if ministry that offers redemption through the the love of Christ.

Emmaus Ministries does this through street outreach, a drop-in ministry center, and a rehabilitation house. Their ministry meets the real physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of men on Chicago’s streets. I thank God they exist.

PRAY for Emmaus Ministries. I asked Rikki what they needed prayer for, and she said: 1) that men on the street would not freeze from the cold during this winter season and 2) that men would be open to receiving Jesus as they study the Bible together. She mentioned other things I cannot remember, so pray as the Holy Spirit directs!

Praying for Rapists

On Superbowl Sunday, I was with friends, and I picked up one of their magazines, “O,” to read during the commercials. In Oprah’s magazine was a testimony written by Beverly Donofrio, an American writer living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She was raped by a serial rapist living in her town on 23 July 2006. When the attacker entered her home, she did not talk with him, as he wanted her to do, but started praying the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” in Spanish. When the rapist asked her why she was praying, she said, “I am praying for you.”

The man left her home after one assault instead of the several he had perpetrated against four other women in the town.

When Beverly Donofrio made her story known, many others began praying. She wrote that fear would titillate the rapist and resistance would infuriate him, but prayer made him leave her house. Within five days of her story being published in her town, the rapist was caught.

As I read this story, I was reminded of the power of God to answer prayer. JSASSN International is first and foremost a prayer ministry, and Beverly’s story is just one more reason why it should be. God’s power to answer prayer is why I began praying last night when I came home and found a “Sex Offender Notification” had been mailed to me from the DuPage County Sherrif’s Office.

A convicted sex offender has moved into my neighborhood. His name is Ross J. Scanio, and he has been found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against his family. He is a Caucasian, six feet tall, weighing approximately 280 pounds, with brown eyes and gray hair. By law, he is required to notify the Sheriff’s Office when he moves into a new neighborhood, and by law, the Sherrif’s Office must notify those living nearby so that they can take precautions to protect themselves and their children.

When I looked at the picture of this man’s face on the “Sex Offender Notification” mailing, I thought about how sad he looked. I thought about how this man would not be welcomed here like other neighbors. Who would go over to his house and offer him a meal or an invitation to come to church or just friendship? I thought about all the small children in my neighborhood under the age of ten. I thought about how their parents might feel getting this mailing: afraid. But fear doesn’t deserve to have power over anyone. God is the One with the real power.

So this is my prayer: Heavenly Father, You in your sovereignty know everything. I pray that You would bring your salvation, your redemption, and your heart-healing power into the life of Ross Scanio. God, I pray for his family, that You would heal them completely. I pray for my neighbors and their children, that You would take away their fear, cause them to put their trust in You, and protect them from all harm. I thank You for your promise in your word that no weapon formed against us will prosper. God, I thank You for your might and your power to redeem that is working, even now, in ways that we do not understand. AMEN.

January 2008 Update

January 2008 has been a good month for JSASSN International.

I launched the JSASSN website, connected with several prayer partners in the western and central regions of the United States, and most importantly, had three major conversations with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse about their past experiences. I continue to pray for these three women that God will heal them completely and strengthen them in their innermost being.

I also had a significant conversation with Mark Labberton, author of The Dangerous Act of Worship and senior fellow with the International Justice Mission. I learned that there is an IJM chapter on the Wheaton College campus that meets on Thursdays at 7pm to pray at the Brown House. I also began a conversation with a woman from my church, Church of the Savior, who works for the state of Illinois in sex trafficking prevention efforts.

JSASSN’s existence is starting to become known among my friends, relatives, and colleagues and, of course, to people on the web. I am praying that God will build the ministry with a strong foundation so that, as the walls go up, they will stand.

Dr. Jane Beal
JSASSN International