Jesus and gangsters

The other day a couple Latino gangsters came by to hang out - Juan and Jesse (not their names). My co-worker, Chris, walked in on Jesse chilling in our Family Support Center. Jesse said he always feels at peace there, but whenever he thinks of coming by he always gets distracted by something coming up or by dark thoughts and ends up not coming. So Chris starts praying for him, just blessing the good stuff he is feeling there and has an image of a banqueting table covered with glorious food and the invitation from God for Jesse to eat, eat.

Jesse pictures this but quickly the plate in front of him is pushed away and replaced with a plate with a five-pointed star in the center - this is a satanic symbol. Chris invites me to join in praying and the more Chris prays, the more Jesse gets distracted and agitated. He talks about thoughts of murder and feels like he wants to jump up and hit people and run out of the room.

I tell him, "We can pray for you and you might feel some measure of relief from that, but you need to pray and ask Jesus to come in to you and to help you." So he does and things get worse for him. I have this thought about a "deliverance" type prayer that leads you in claiming Jesus as Lord, to confess and repent of your sins, to receive washing through the blood of Jesus and to break off all demonic assignments.

I bring it into the room and hand it to Chris. He reads it quietly and agrees that we should lead Jesse through it. He reads it out loud so Jesse would know what he was agreeing to. At that moment, Juan says, "Hey man, I gotta bounce (go). I'm late to see my girl." (Juan has left his girl hanging for hours in the past...) Jesse says the same, that he has somewhere he suddenly has to go. He says he could come back another day and we can spend the whole day praying. We ask him if he'd be willing to take five minutes and he relunctantly agrees with Juan scowling at us. Jesse repeats after Chris with a few breaks to explain terminology. At the end they are ready to go. Chris asks Jesse if he feels any different and he says, No. Then Chris asks him if he is still having evil thoughts in his mind and he says, "Hey, I haven't thought of those in a little while."

There is still more work to do with these guys, but it was beautiful to see Jesus moving to bring His shalom into gangsters.