Is It Tomorrow Yet?

"I've been losing time
As the clock's gone round
Did I sleep too late?
Have I missed too much?"
- Joan Armatrading, 'Is It Tomorrow Yet'

Our streetvan hit the streets for our first 2005 cruise on Friday night. It was the same night as the Big Day Out, the annual one-day music festival. Everyone under 30 and not a few over 30 were off moshing to the Beastie Boys. So it was quiet out where we went. Almost. There are always groups of kids out on Friday's with not much money and not much to do. We talked with lots of them.

Snapshot #1
A 16 year old girl that I've talked with before comes up to me on the street. She's been under social welfare care but now she's deemed old enough to make her own way in the world. She's with a street gang and they are all drunk. We catch up.
"Where's your Mom?" I ask her.
"I don't even talk to her. We don't talk. She lives overseas."
Me - "How long have you not been talking for?"
"Since I was two". She laughs. "Ok - not since I was two but for years. She doesn't listen to me."
So I did some listening.
She met a man who thinks she could be a model and he wants to spend time with her.
So I did some advising.

After visiting under the bridges with some of the homeless men we headed into the redlight district. It was late - somewhere between 1-2am. We were busy up there because the working girls weren't busy so they wanted to stop and chat.

Snapshot #2
One of the transexual prostitutes comes over for a coffee. We get talking about things. A car pulls up and she goes over and negotiates the price, then comes back. She looks slightly annoyed.
"Am I keeping you?", I ask.
"He can wait", she says.
We talk for a while longer while three feet away from us is some guy sitting in his car waiting for a prostitute who is visibly high on drugs.
She finishes the coffee and goes off with him.

Every time I am out on the streets with the team something different strikes me. The redlight district in K-road is a giddy mosaic. As well as the brothels and working girls there are a number of licensed cafes and nightclubs. There's a glittery, brassy sort of atmosphere. As I was talking to some of the street ladies I got the feeling I was trying to talk through a wall - of "P" (methamphetamine), which has become the standard drug of choice for nearly all of them. Life has become a closed circle. They prostitute to make money for P, they use P to make prostitution bearable, they prostitute to make money for P...

Snapshot #3
Another team member and I find ourselves in a discussion on spirituality with two working girls, one transexual, one an older lady. We talk about Jesus.
"He's up there with all the others who have gone and watch out for me", says the older lady.
"I believe he's right here", says me.
We keep talking, and unknown to me the transexual has accepted an offer of prayer from my team-mate. They are standing behind me talking to Jesus while the older lady and I are talking about him.

If there was any impression I gained this time out it was that people are wasting time. Their lives are slipping away, night by night, needle by needle, trick by trick. Always passing the time and waiting for tomorrow. No different to so many other people who occupy their lives on a treadmill that they are afraid to step out of. And this is how I see it. Jesus is keenly interested in people. As I said to the ladies, "He's the power to change". Why waste time waiting for tomorrow when it's here today?

Photo Credit: TVNZ