Billy Bob

“Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”   Mt 18:14 NIV

Philip Bray founded an Atlanta street ministry called SafeHouse Outreach. He writes: “One day a little boy made a hand gesture at me, the kind male prostitutes make. So I stopped my car and lectured him, thinking he didn’t understand. But he said, ‘I’m just taking care of business. I live here in Cabbagetown, and my brother taught me the trade.’ I asked, ‘What’s your name? How old are you?’ He replied, ‘Billy Bob, and I’m eight.’ In shock, I said, ‘Surely you wouldn’t have many customers?’ He said, ‘The younger you are the more money you get. I make two hundred a trick; my thirteen-year-old brother only gets twenty dollars because he has AIDS.’ I pleaded with him to let me help him start a new life, but he said, ‘I can’t. I’m my family’s ticket out of the ghetto.’ For weeks I kept trying to reach him. Then one day the police found his mutilated body in a dumpster, murdered by one of his customers. In street ministry not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes the pain and despair is just too much.” Then Philip adds, “But there’s hope! Jesus died for the Billy Bobs of this world, just like he died for the Billy Grahams. That’s why I’m out here working in the streets.” Jesus said, “Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” That means you are called to leave your comfort zone and reach out to a hurting world with the love of Jesus! 

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