ANN FEATURE: Gang Members Subject of Bible Study Outreach; Zoning Issues May Threaten

July 6, 2004 Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States …. [Ansel Oliver/Mark A. Kellner/ANN]

Life for inner-city gang members in this city of 123,000 people, located 20 miles south of New York City, can be brutal, even fatal. Just ask the family and friends of 15-year-old Jose Luis, known as “Sleepy” to his gang-member friends.

In January, “Sleepy” was gunned down in gang-related violence, and Seventh-day Adventist youth pastor Laffit Cortes of Trenton, New Jersey, drove across the state to deliver a eulogy and rebuke church members for letting Sleepy fall away from faith. He encouraged Sleepy’s gang to retaliate in a different way — by building each other up.

That challenge led to a weekly Bible study, led by Cortes and a few other Adventist young adults. In January there were 20 kids. Now, as many as 60 kids meet in a basement garage Monday nights.

This work, which has seen several “gang bangers,” as the young hoodlums are known, walk away from their associations, is facing a new challenge. City zoning officials are planning on July 8 to inspect the basement where meetings are held, following complaints from neighbors about the noise a gaggle of young adults make on the street before the Bible study, and afterward, when a pickup game of basketball forms on a nearby court.

For these kids in Elizabeth, a territory of 12 square miles that is the fourth-largest city in New Jersey, unemployment, illegitimacy, drug addition and gang violence exert massive pressure. Gang members can be seen as having power and wealth, although both can be short lived, as demonstrated by the shooting of young Sleepy.

Now, in addition to watching out for each other physically, Adventist young adults hope these gang members watch out for each other spiritually.

The kids said they wanted to start a church. Although it’s not officially connected with any organization, youth pastor Cortes said they could start one. They’ve named it “The Ghetto Church.”

James Black, youth director for the church in North America, visited the group a few weeks ago.

“I went in there and some were cussing. But outside [of] a few dynamics,” he says, “at the core of these kids, you wouldn’t have known these weren’t Adventist kids. Only problem is these kids got some challenges with the streets. They’re no different than kids I meet at these conferences.”

He shows a group photo that was taken at the end of the meeting. The young adults look happy, but their lives reflect the challenges — and street patois — of contemporary urban life.

“This kid here was the brother of Sleepy, the one who was killed,” says Black, pointing to one figure. “He said, ‘I’m a baby Crip. Someday I’mo be a big Crip.'”

Black adds, “The average age here is 13 to 15-ish. This guy in back, he’s ‘OG.'”

The letters “OG” stand for “Original Gangsta,” the man in charge.

During prayer request time at a Bible study, one kid said he saw his father commit suicide when he was seven. He’s 15 now and still dealing with that. Another said he didn’t know where his mother was — probably on a street corner. He was going to go look for her as soon as they were finished.

Black says the group then divided up into groups of two to pray. He paired off with a kid who said he didn’t know how to pray.

“Yes you do,” Black said.

“No, I don’t,” the young man replied.

“Well look, you see me?”

“Yeah,” the youth answered.

“Just talk to God the way that you talk to me,” Black said.

“Ohhhh, I can do that? Alright,” he said.

He looked at Black and said, “God I want to pray for…”

“And then he started talking about stuff,” says Black. “Then I prayed the same way he did. Then I said, ‘Let’s say ‘Amen’ together.’ And so we said, ‘Amen.’

“That kid, he said, ‘Man [that’s] dope!’ [That’s] alright,” Black says with shoulder, arm, hand and head gestures.

“I was angry at the church,” says Cortes. “They thought [Sleepy] was a brat.” During the funeral Cortes asked if anyone could tell a little about 15-year-old Sleepy. Twenty kids came up wearing their gang flags and colors. He talked to them while they stood there for half an hour.

“Retaliate in a different way,” he told them. The different way, he said, was to show concern for themselves and their lives; the Bible study, a weekly haven from the gritty life of the street, was born.

An Adventist young adult, Christian Farias, who is an unofficial leader of the group, asked participants one night, “Is this a church?”

The kids replied, “Naw, dis ain’t no church. There’s no statues, no pews.”

Christian said, “This is a church. This is how early believers worshipped.”

One kid, also named Jose, said, “Man, [this] is da ghetto church.” Kids laughed, but the name stuck.

“We asked them, ‘Why do you come?'” says Cortes. “They replied, ‘Because we feel the presence of God, and we come for peace.'”

All they know about Cortes is that he’s a pastor from Trenton. They asked why he was so interested in them. He said he had never seen the passion they have. “I told them, ‘You are the one’s who are open to the word of God,'” says Cortes. They are only learning that an organization called “Seventh-day Adventist Church” exists.

And while the kids are learning about who and what Adventist Christians are, church members such as Farias are fulfilling what they see as a special responsibility: reaching out to neighbors in need with the precious truths of the Gospel.

Farias, who works by day and is a journalism student in the evening, said the killing of the young gang member, Sleepy, who once had an Adventist affiliation, was a wake-up call to him that he should reach other kids who don’t have a faith base for their lives, especially if they once were part of a church.

“They just can’t be out there and not come back,” he said. By having the Bible study available, Farias and Cortes are able to offer these children of the street “God’s time” for them.

Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.