Mobile crisis service brings
culturally relevant Gospel to high-crime, low-income hoods.
Reverend Gilbert Abrueo understands drug
abuse. He understands generational curses. And he understands
incarceration. But Abrueo also understands what it means to be
delivered. Since he found the truth that set him free, he has
offered himself as a living sacrifice, reaching out to transvestite
prostitutes, drug dealers, gang bangers, AIDS victims, and other
lost souls that many evangelists are not willing to pursue.
“I had perfect Sunday School attendance when I was a kid, but I grew
up in a violent environment. My father died of a drug overdose,”
says Abrueo, co-founder and director of Night Runners Mobile Crisis
Service, a faith-based non-profit that depends on donations to go
into high crime, low-income areas in South Florida with the Gospel.
“When I grew up, I wound up in the Osceola County Jail. I gave my
life to the Lord and decided I would be a jailhouse preacher.”
Abrueo was facing 60 years in prison on four counts of aggravated
battery. But the Holy Ghost had other plans for the young evangelist
and sprung him from his jail cell in 1993 with 10 years of probation
and a fresh lease on life. That lease initially included ushering
and bathroom ministry, but as Abrueo was faithful in those areas the
Lord began to open the door to street ministry opportunities. Abrueo
and his wife, Evelyn, dubbed the ministry Night Runners because they
went out at night to help the single moms who worked all day,
prostitutes who emerged at night, and the chronic homeless who
needed a warm dinner and a word from God.
“Our strategy is to network with Christian organizations and public
agencies that don’t promote abortions or give out needles and
condoms so we can offer a wide variety of social services,” says
Abrueo. “We use the food wagon and entertainment as bait to draw the
people, then we love on them, identify their natural needs and lead
them to the Lord. We even have a get away car that will take them to
places like Teen Challenge or Victory Outreach right then and
there.”
Night Runners launched with a 1973 Wise Potato Chip truck cruising
through the hoods in Connecticut with peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches and a pot of coffee. Today, the ministry operates from a
high-tech mobile Command Center with hot food, clothing and grocery
distribution, medical checkups, a computer lab and more. The
audiovisual truck plays hip Gospel videos on a 55-inch television
screen for the teens while clowns and an X-box video game station
keep the children occupied so the adults can receive counseling on
the streets of South Florida’s worst neighborhoods.
“I like to think of Night Runners as the elite forces,” Abrueo says.
“The Church has generals of the faith, but I consider myself more
like a lieutenant colonel who works out in the field. We call
ourselves ‘ground pounders.’ If the enemy is there, then we need to
be there, too, with the wisdom of God. I only want to lead people to
the Lord if they understand the consequences because the Bible says
once you accept the Lord it is like a house that has been swept
clean. Unless the people are filled with the Spirit of God, those
demons are going to come back and bring seven friends with them and
their last state is worse than the first.”
Night Runners is making a measurable impact on South Florida and has
won the respect of local authorities. Rob Schelt, disaster services
director for the Martin County Red Cross, has worked alongside Night
Runners during various disasters, including major apartment fires
that left scores of low-income people homeless and the hurricanes
that battered Florida’s coasts last year. He says Night Runners is
good for the area because it helps to close the clear gap between
where needy people live and where social services are offered.
“Night Runners responds with its mobile crisis team to provide some
spiritual guidance as well as meet some physical needs,” Shelt says.
“What’s unique about Night Runners is that they go to the disaster
scene rather than having clients coming into a particular office for
help. We embrace Night Runner’s concept of meeting the needs of the
county residents through its outreach program. It requires more than
one agency to alleviate the kind of suffering disasters cause and
Night Runners does make an impact.”
Whether it’s a major disaster or just some desperate souls in an
economically depressed neighborhood, Night Runners has a fellowship
– not a charity – mindset. That means going where the people are.
Just as Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners at Matthew’s house
(despite the Pharisee’s objection) Night Runner’s volunteers spend
one-on-one time with the lost in their own back yards. The mobile
ministry’s volunteers visit the same neighborhoods repeatedly to
build relationships as they discern and meet specific needs.
Abrueo says a charity mentality is counterproductive to his mission
and warns against this approach because it breeds a
“take-what-I-can-get” response from those who need the Gospel much
more than a hot bowl of soup. Night Runners is about sharing the
Word of God to those with an open heart, not merely distributing
food and clothing to those with an open hand. It’s a hard core
ministry where life and death are literally daily issues. Through
the years Abrueo has seen the good and the bad. He has experienced
heartache and pain along with glorious salvation miracles.
“We are not a kumbaya organization,” Abrueo says. “We are a rescue
operation. We don’t have a three-point, 45-minute message. You can’t
bring the church to the field. We show movies that give them the
Gospel message in a way they can understand. I like what St. Francis
of Assisi said, ‘Preach the Gospel always and when necessary use
words’. You have to demonstrate the Gospel of the Kingdom.”
The Lord has used Night Runners to reach countless souls over the
past 14 years. There’s the deadbeat young husband who gave his life
to Jesus and got a job at Home Depot a few days later. There’s the
husband who beat his wife and wanted no part of “religion.” The
couple ran into Abrueo’s ministry in a park, got saved, and saw
complete restoration of their marriage. Abrueo takes care to help
new believers get plugged into a strong local church – one free of
religion - as part of his follow-up ministry.
“I see more damage done by churches than by dope,” Abrueo says.
“Religion destroys lives. Religion will kill you. Relationship will
raise you up. A pastor once told me I had to make up my mind to be
either a feeding program, a referral program or an evangelistic
program. But Jesus didn’t choose. He fed the multitudes, but that
did not make him a soup kitchen. He healed the sick, but that didn’t
make Him a free clinic. Jesus fellowshipped with the people and met
their needs where they were.”
Pastor Jonathan Benz of Covenant Center International (CCI) in Palm
Beach Gardens helped bring Night Runners to South Florida about a
year ago. Abrueo and his family are members of CCI, but the
evangelist still spends most of his time in the harvest fields. Benz
says when you speak with the Abrueos evangelism “oozes out of their
pores.”
“Reverend Gilbert evangelizes in ways that society can receive
humanitarian assistance without being put off by a Christian
message,” Benz says. “Many times Christian ministries want to bring
the church more than the Kingdom. There’s a difference. When we deal
with the community we are to bring the Kingdom to the community -
not the church. Night Runners maintains a good balance in being
culturally appropriate without compromising the Gospel of the
Kingdom.”
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