BY EMILY LAHR
The Chicago streets were dark, except for the fading light of a dying streetlamp. No one was in sight, except for a figure leaning up against a wet brick building. A car pulls up and a kid walks over and sticks his head into the passenger side window. Without warning, the kid is pushed up against a police car and the driver is waved off. The kid was no more than 14-years-old and was already caught in the male prostitution business.
"They do not address themselves as gay, but sell themselves to survive," said Al Tauber, educational ministries director at the Emmaus Ministries in Chicago. Al and his wife, Andi, the on-the-road director at Emmaus Ministries, came to help Franciscan University students fundraise for the Chicago mission on Thursday in the Gentile Gallery. They put on a reenactment of what they call 'street sense'. More than a hundred students listened to the Taubers tell somber stories of men selling themselves to other men to survive. They also performed songs that revealed the hard reality of living on the street.
During spring break, March 11-17, the Chicago mission will travel to the Emmaus Ministries center, an outreach for men in prostitution on the streets of Chicago.
Once a week, the Emmaus staff will go out to the streets in groups of two from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., visiting with men and inviting them to the center. The team will go into the bars and clubs with the staff to witness the life on the street.
The staff and volunteers build relationships of trust with these desperate men, working together to help them get off the streets and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Students Charlie Jankowski and Kateri Lang both served on this mission trip last year and are now leading the 11th Chicago mission trip from Franciscan University. The University's students will be guests of the center for a week while the men come to eat, shower, do laundry and get off the street. There is laughter and chatting just like any other house. "For me the heart of the mission is the meal we have together behind a mural of the Last Supper," said Lang.
When the center calls dinner, everybody stops what they are doing to enjoy a meal together. The leaders said many men grew up in an abusive environment, without the security and comfort of a simple family dinner. The Emmaus staff cares so much for these men. They will call the men to make sure they are safe if they miss a few meals.
"This is a mission of love: to show them the dignity of the human person," said Jankowski. "That is why the meal is so important."
Many of these men also grew up without a father figure; some do not mind having the male attention. Tauber said that one man admitted the empty feelings he suffered.
"You think about all the men you have dealt with, but in the end you don't have a relationship with any of them," said Tauber, quoting the male prostitute.
In one of his reenactments, Tauber said the fall season is a difficult time for the men because it is near the holidays, which are especially hard without family. The men also need to find some sort of housing security before winter sets in.
Jankowski said these guys cannot go to homeless centers because the homeless know these men are prostitutes, and in some cases the homeless will rape them. "They have big trust issues," said Jankowski. "One (Emmaus staff member) will buy a man a cup of coffee for three months before the man will talk with him."