TWENTY-FOUR

WEDNESDAY 25 AUGUST
Waking up alone (well, not quite alone, I’m sharing a dorm with 15 other men!) in HK and looking out of the bedroom window was quite a surreal experience. The cloud was still covering the top of the hills across the bay in the distance but the rain had stopped. Reality soon hit me as I stepped into the cold shower and ate noodles for breakfast with chop sticks – they are slippery things for a novice chop stick handler. After breakfast it was an hour quiet time for the whole house which gave me time to reflect back on the last twenty-four hours.

So many new experiences have bombarded my senses and as I tried to sleep last night, despite feeling the effects of the 7 hour time difference, it took a long time to settle my mind. New names, new routines, new challenges all flooded in but because of the kindness of everyone - so far – it all feels okay. Not safe, but okay.

Twenty-four hours for me is nothing compared with twenty-four hours for the guys living in the house. I am staying as a guest in House 4 with about 35 other men aged 18+ all of whom are here for a reason. For most of them it is drugs, heroin addiction for the older guys (they are called ‘brothers’ in the house) cocaine, ketamine for the younger ones (they too are called ‘brothers’). It is clear that this place is not a Drug Rehabilitation Centre, it is a place where people discover the life-changing power of Jesus Christ through His Spirit. In fact, that is all that is on offer here. No medication, no substitutes, just Jesus. As soon as you walk in you see it, feel it, and taste it. Vibrant worship, passionate prayer for one another, Christ-centred community in action.

It is impossible to distinguish between helpers and the helped, the volunteers and the brothers, between those who have been here for 2 weeks or 2 years, for everyone takes complete responsibility for the other, no hierarchy, no difference because we all need help of one sort or another, we all need the power of God to heal us from something, the power to overcome.

Prayer and worship are at the heart of this place, the sound echoes around the whole complex seemingly from morning to night and it is the power that comes from it that enables everyone to have a 24 hour victory over whatever tempts and controls them. When you have been in the grip of addiction, 24 hours is a marker that says, ‘I will not be controlled by anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ, I will have no other gods.’

I’m ready for the next 24 hours. My prayer is that I will have something to give but that I will also receive. As a new ‘brother’ came into the house last night – someone who is an addict – as the other brothers and helpers get ready to sit with him 24 hours a day for as long as it takes, praying and worshipping with him and for him, I was able to share in a simple act of communion with him. This is where it all starts, and finishes, Jesus Christ who through his death and resurrection gives us all hope for the future. He shed his blood and gave his body so that I, so that the brothers, might be set free.

The next 24 hours might seem a lifetime to him, but it is the first day of his life believing and living in the name of Jesus who died and rose again. The next 24 hours for me? I pray that I too will live it in just the same way.