I went to Hastings tonight and ran into my friend Patrick. Patrick is a super nice guy who cuts hair, and also an award-winning drag queen named, Bianca Bliss.

I met Patrick last spring when a couple of us were having what might be loosely described as a Bible study at The Shaft, the gay night-club in town. Mike and Dustin (the owners) were kind enough to allow us to do that each week, and we had a handful of patrons talk with each Thursday.

Every time I talk with Patrick, or pray for him, I am reminded of a conversation my wife and I had with him a few months ago.

On the last Saturday each month the Shaft has a drag show. The club is packed out with people, and while everyone else was dancing and going wild, my wife and I talked with Bianca for half an hour.
He told us of growing up in church, and becoming a youth-pastor in a “spirit-filled” church in Texas leading a youth group of 300 kids. He had always been confused about his sexuality and certain attractions he had. When he voiced some of this confusion to church leaders, they fired him, told him he was going to hell, and said he was not welcome back. It crushed him. His whole life was those kids, and that church. He had nothing.Needless to say Patrick is not big on church, but he said two things that stuck out to me still to this day.He said he prays everyday, and that he always asks God to change his lifestyle.

And when we asked what the gay community in St. Joe needed most from us to serve them. He said they need hope. He thinks so many of them, when brutally honest, don’t have a sense of hope in their lives.