Drag Prayer Request

Asking people to pray for the Drag. We must have a bad batch of drugs being distributed (a form of "K2-Spice"). While we don't condone drug abuse, we also don't want people falling prey to bad drugs that send you to the hospital and even kill.

Remember, there is no need to pray against people who use this or any other drug.  Pray for people. Pray that the substance goes away. 

Here's a quote from a client who is now several days sober of drugs.

"I never wanted to use drugs. I just got trapped.
All I was trying to do was feel normal."

Pray for the clients. 

Street Youth Tied to UT Christian Missional Community

SYM works on the Drag with street-dependent young people. Most clients are college-age and virtually all are under 30. We involve students as volunteers constantly. We have no faith requirement to volunteer.

Rethinking Christian Labels

We often have volunteers that attend churches; to be sure. But we frequently have people who grew up in church but who don't feel very "religious" anymore. It is clear that volunteers often respond to the same messages we give our clients. Christians don't need to be hypocritical or judgmental. They can be transparent and radically accepting. Rethink what it means to be Christian.

Rethinking Working Together

We also have volunteers who are of other faiths. We have people who grew up Jewish. We have volunteers who attend the local Mosque regularly. We have Buddhists who help out. We see no reason to accost their faith. However, we don't change how we talk with our clients, except to acknowledge that not everyone helping today believes in such and such. If it leads to discussion about comparative beliefs, there is no reason to feel threatened. Nor is there any need to "win" any religious debate today. We can work together and serve together without fighting. Often we agree as volunteers that any faith in something is better than no faith, hopelessness and despair.

Rethinking Community

We work in the UT West Campus neighborhood. We believe that students, residents, businesses, churches, artists, visitors, tourists, musicians, and street-youth all have a place in the neighborhood. We believe that our neighborhood would be diminished without any one of these groups. We love to see the neighborhood working together to end violence, crime, littering, hate, and more. We love to see the neighborhood pull together for tree planting, beautification, mural restoration, art installation, building rejuvenation, new businesses, new services, and more. Everyone can play a part. We think it's important to recognize that everyone brings some strength to the neighborhood. It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe. We're better pulling together than apart.

A View From The Outside

We were recently interviewed by Grant Gordon, a journalism student at The University of Texas at Austin. Below is an article he wrote. The article does not necessarily represent the views of Street Youth Ministries. We are sharing the article because it shows how easily it is to view the Drag as a battleground between the homeless population and others. SYM seeks to see a strong community on the Drag that includes the homeless young adults, who are also part of the neighborhood. 
We'd love to know your thoughts!

September 30, 2013

Street Ministry Youth Protects Local Homeless

AUSTIN - Local homeless people on the western edge of the University of Texas campus are being driven away from the city, and Street Ministry Youth leader Terry Cole is trying to help them.

Cole is the sole employee of the volunteer-driven organization, which serves nearly 100 homeless youths weekly on the area known as “the drag.”  He fears that due to changes recently made by University and city officials, the homeless will be forced to leave their current places of residence.

“The student government and the city recently removed all public water fountains from west campus intentionally to drive out the homeless,” Cole said.  “They made a desert to try to push them away.”

Along with the water fountains, Cole is also worried by the lack of public restrooms in west campus.  He believes the city officials are “not interested in creating more public restrooms,” but rather they “just want the homeless to leave.”

Street Youth Ministry’s mission statement is “To know, love, and serve street dependent young people,” but the current state of homeless relations in Austin is not helping Cole’s cause.

“We are in an unfriendly place right now because there is a lot of change on the drag,” he said.  “There’s a lot of stress, with mom and pop stores closing down and being replaced by national chains.”

The Street Youth Ministry helps the homeless by finding specific needs for each homeless youth on the drag and eliciting from the community to serve them.  Sometimes, however, these men and women have needs far more significant than simple material items.

“They want somebody to listen to them.  Somebody to talk to.  They don’t want to be invisible anymore,” said Cole, who personally visits and gets to know several street-dependent youths each day.

One such youth is a man who asked, for the purposes of this article, to be referred to as Kool-Aid.  Kool-Aid takes residence between the Chipotle and the CVS Pharmacy on 22nd and Guadalupe.  He has been living on the drag for two years, often sleeping in nearby parking garages.

Kool-Aid ended up in his current position by “making ignorant decisions” and “hanging around the wrong crowd,” but today he holds no grudges.  He never takes it personally when he is ignored by those who pass by.

“I understand it.  Everyone’s going through a different struggle every day,” Kool-Aid said.  I try to see where they’re coming from too.”

Kool-Aid chooses to live in a specific area on the drag because he feels as though he is surrounded by “good people” such as one of the local store owners he has gotten to know, who, according to Kool-Aid, lets him use the restaurant to access the bathroom and get water.

Some of the business owners and vendors in the area have been, at one point, homeless for six months, so some understands the struggles of Kool-Aid and other homeless men alike, and disagree with the city’s quest to rid itself of the homeless.

“Wherever you go, there’s going to be homeless people no matter what,” said one business owner.  “So as long as they’re not bothering anyone, I let them in the store to get food and water.  You never know the circumstances they’re in; it’s not fair to judge all the homeless.”

Not all business owners believe that homeless people cause a threat to civilians, but rather feel as though they just need people around them who care.

“The homeless need people to give them encouragement, and if I can be that person, then I’m going to be that person.”

Cole feels “it’s really good for all of us” when stores allow the homeless to use their restrooms.  But at the same time, he understands the risks involved.

“It’s tough because there are drug users among the homeless.  About 25 percent of them use hard drugs, and a bathroom can be a safe place to do that.”

But Cole doesn’t believe that the homeless cause a safety threat to civilians.  Regarding the reputation of the dangerous homeless man, he called it “a pretty huge myth.”

Kool-Aid is just one example of the many who have been touched by Street Youth Ministry.  One objective of the foundation is to help the homeless not only materially, but spiritually as well.

“Because we are a Christian group, faith matters.  We ask them if they want to talk about faith, but we don’t force it,” Cole said.  “We discover what they want in life.”

Cole and his almost 100 yearly volunteers (half of whom are students) lend a listening ear and display a welcoming attitude to the homeless people, serving as a beacon of light and hope in their otherwise often bleak lives.

As the city tries to push the homeless away, Cole knows that now is the time they need him most.