"Into their inner circle..."

A guy who I don’t know very well, but have seen around for the past few months approached me while I was standing on my porch. I will call him Marcus. He is the brother of a guy who I will call Montray. I have known Montray for many years and he is one of the guys who I am able to serve hamburgers to on Wednesdays. He asked me, “Why did you choose to move here? How did you gain the acceptance of the people here?” I told him the story of why I was originally drawn to John DeShields (JDS) and how long I have been ministering here. He grew up in JDS, but had been in prison for 10 years and just got out in June. I knew that one of his other brothers had been shot several years ago, but while talking to him, I found out that he has lost two brothers to shootings incidents. Marcus told me that he lives in a nearby city, but comes to JDS often to check up on his brother Montray. I was so encouraged by what he told me and about what he has observed in the guys that I serve on Wednesdays. It made my day! He told me many things, but this is what stood out the most to me. He said “I was so surprised to see these guys who I have known for a long time, letting you, a Caucasian, into their inner circle.” Marcus mentioned that his cousin, who he never would have thought would interact with me, does now and he has seen him open up. He said that he has even seen some of them guarding my porch! There are times when I wonder what kind of difference I'm making in the lives of these guys, because they don’t say a whole lot. But today, I think God let me see that I am making a difference and I am very thankful for this inside information from someone who is familiar with the people here in JDS.