A Bullet for Jesus

Vorwort
A fiction novel based on true events and reported first hand by one who lived through it. How a team of young men and women, mostly volunteers, chose to live in a violent neighborhood in New York City, among youth characterized as Unlovable Drug Addicts and Gangsters Rejects of Society, changed their area from one terrorized by drugs and gangs. And how the leader of the Puerto Rican gang is changed by Jesus. Our hero is continually confronted by those who want to kill him, will he survive? Will his faith survive the daily dangers and God's silence? Does God really care about him? This novel is the first written by a Young Life volunteer.

Autorentext

Jim Boyd has spent most of his adult life living and working among troubled teens. Daily, he faced the possibility of danger and death. He is a former Pastor and retired U.S. Army Chaplain. He has experienced life in various cities around the world. Married, he has 3 children and 3 grandchildren. This is the first of his trilogy of novels dealing with living among violent youth to proclaim the wonderful news of Freedom found in Jesus Christ.

Klappentext

"But Bill isn't there some other way? I didn't give up all I had and come here just to let some 'punk' gang leader kill me?" "Well Jim, there's the door; you can either go out, turn left, walk down to the corner, face Eddie, and see if he really intends on killing you: or you can turn right and run for your life; hoping he doesn't catch you. Either way, your life and ministry here are probably over. You must decide whether to stay and fight for those you love or run away to live another day. No one can make that decision for you, not even me." Jim was called of God to leave the college ministry where he was working at the University of Maryland and move to New York City to join with Young Life in their work with violent youth and gang bangers. Never did Jim imagine that when we say we are willing to die for Jesus, that one day he would have to face that ultimate challenge. "A Bullet for Jesus" is based on a real story. A faced paced thriller filled with danger, romance, joy and tragedy. A young man with high spiritual values jeopardizes his very life while trying to help those caught up in a world of drugs and violence. What he encounters though will not only change his life, but put his very faith at risk.

Zusammenfassung
But Bill isn t there some other way? I didn t give up all I had and come here just to let some punk gang leader kill me?

Leseprobe
Every day the newspapers explode with the tragic headlines of another teen killing innocent people. Teen violence today is one of the worst tragedies America has ever experienced, and it is one of the hardest and the easiest to correct. I will show you one approach that can hopefully end teen violence. New York City is a city of contradictions: alive by day and dangerous by night. Even in the nicest neighborhoods, you can be faced with a crazed drug addict who will kill you to get the money he needs to buy more drugs. Life, your life, means nothing to some of the most hardened teen criminals stalking the big cities of America. Are we to remain victims of this cancer? Where is God in all of this? Many of the teen criminals come from the projects located all over the city. The projects consist of old dilapidated, tall, drab-colored government apartment buildings, many as tall as forty-two stories with just four taking up a whole city block. Inside of this block live thousands of often desperate people jammed into small apartments with no air conditioning and the oppressive heat rising up into their rooms at night. With not enough space for a family of five to six people, they often share beds or sleep on the floor. Sometimes they even go up to the roof to sleep or just go outside to roam the streets looking for trouble. Many are a people without hope. Their educational dreams are usually destroyed by an inept system before they reach the ninth grade, and many of them fail out. Jobs are scarce, and the future looks horrible. Welfare is often their only salvation, drugs their only escape from this ugly reality. Gangs form within each city block to protect one another and occasionally to attack, rob, or kill one another. One wrong word or look could accidently lead to violence. Each person carries a sense of despondency and arrogance. This leads to an atmosphere of extreme violence. Into this nightmare and deadly life, God called a young man, Joey, to live among these outcasts and show them as well as teach them that there is a God, and that He knows of their hurts, frustrations, and fears. Joey wanted to bring light into this darkness. It was not an easy assignment, but a challenge that Joey accepted. The question was; how he, a white man, would be received into this often-violent community of blacks and Hispanics, many of whom saw the white man as the cause of all their misery. Would he last a day? A week? A month? Only time would tell. Four years later God called me, another white man, to walk alongside Joey and hopefully to bring more of God's love to the city's unloved, those whom the good people of society only pray they will never encounter. The summer I arrived was particularly hot and oppressive. One spark, one wrong look, one police car passing by could easily set off an incident of violence that could end with several people getting hurt. This is a story about Young Life in New York City as told by one who lived through it. It is a story of love and danger of hope and tragedy of miracles of God