What Really Happens at Raves (4)

Prospect, Dallas, Texas 2001

10:00-12:00
We got there, we danced, met up with a bunch of our friends and kids we had been seeing at raves around Texas.

I talked to a kid who’s mom is full-on charismatic pentecostal, and dad is an Arlington cop. They don’t know he goes to rave and would kill him (and them) if they knew. He was rollin’, well, it hadn’t hit him yet. His disbelief in God was based on condemnation. “Everything I want to do is a sin, that means everything that makes me happy, is a sin.” I told him that God loved him no matter what he was doing. He asked, “How can God love me if I do the things I do?” I told him that God knew his heart and his hurts. I prayed with him. I didn’t see him again that night.

I met a kid in a wheelchair who was rollin’ too. He was inspired that I wasn’t rollin’, and I explained to him what MDMA does to his serotonin factories. He tripped out. He told me he was going to quit in the future. I asked him to make tonight his last. He asked me “Why?” and I said “because I cared about him.” He said he’d think about it. He took a flyer.

This rave was different in many respects. We don’t usually get offered drugs for free, but we did at this one. We were offered X, G, Tabs, K, Shrooms, D, just about everything. We were also asked if we knew where to find all these things by a great many people. The music was still low. People were jumpin’, no one was sitting on the floor yet.

We went with two of our friends. One was a raver who had just accepted the Lord a couple of weeks ago, and the other had been asking lots questions and we thought was very close.

Lots of people gave us lots of hugs. We make it out intent to pray for them when they are in our arms.

12:00-1:00
The later the night, the louder the music. Kids with light shows pop up all over the place. This night seems to be happening very quickly. I mean, the kids seem to be high before they get in the door, the music is faster, there are so many people.

Some girl grabs my hands and starts moving them around. I pull her close and tell her I wasn’t rollin’ and he pushes me away cussin’ me out.

Throughout the night we get lots of hugs, but they are getting longer, which means, our prayers are too…Lord, open their eyes tonight. Show them your purpose and your love.

We get a lot of funny looks and smiles after they get hugged by us.

Dancing is at a peak. People’s eyes are all wiggly and there’s a chaos that’s begun. I get offered more drugs. We get asked if we know where to get K by like 3 prople in a matter of minutes. I get offered light shows. We pass out flyers and just about everyone takes them and stuff their pockets. That’s good…they’ll read the flyer later.

This tall guy stumbles over to me (no one seems to notice). He doesn’t look good. He sort of whispers to me, “You got some water?” I was like, “Yeah!”. I grab an empty beer cup from the floor, and put his arm over my shoulder and walk him slowly toward the bathroom and set him down at the entrance. I wash out the cup, fill it with water, go back out and give it to him. “Drink it all!” He did.

I went back and got him another. What did you take? “X!” he says. What else? “I can’t remember.” I ask him if he came with friends. “I don’t know where they are!” I pick him up and take him to the EMS. We walk up to the EMS booth (the guy stumbling still) and say to them, “I need some help!”

“With what?” they said. I wanted to show them my middle finger, but I didn’t. “What does it look like?” They though he was just tired from dancing.

“He’s taken ecstacy, he’s dizzy, and he’s not sweating. He’s totally dry. Do you have any water?”

They didn’t. They asked me to bring him around and they sat him down and took his pulse.

He leaned back, but wasn’t drinking the water. He was rollin’! I told him to drink the rest of the water, and he did. He stood up, stumbled over to me and said, “I gotta find my friends”. The security guard let him into the Jungle room through the exit door, and said bye to him as he dissapeared into the bass.

The EMS guys were oblivious. They didn’t care, and it didn’t look like they were prepared.

I went over to find my friends.

1:00-2:00
My friend tells me he just bought some water for someone who was dehydrated. He said the guy couldn’t believe there was someone there who was helpful like that. My friend told him why we were there, that we prayed for kids and we tried to convince them not to take drugs.

We decided we needed to find the promoters and get some water to the EMS booth. I still couldn’t believe the EMS booth didn’t have any water. The promoters were very happy that we were looking out for the kids. They helped us out, told us where to get the case of water. The EMS guys couldn’t believe that we got water, “you must have connections”, I was like, “It should have been supplied.”

Kids started asking us for drugs again.

The “ePools” began. These are where mass Exed-up kids sit and massage each other. Kids start rubbing each other and blowing vicks in each others faces to make their senses jump. After the initial rush of E, there’s a pattern of peaks and troughs for a few hours. They start to rub each other and do glowstick shows and stuff in an attempt to enhance, or bring back the rush. We saw like 5 people barfing. We’re not sure what that was about. Maybe Shrooms. We saw some dealers with a large amount of stuff and cops in viewing distance. The cops never did anything. Maybe they didn’t see it.

2:00-3:00
Right around 2:00 I stop wanting to dance. I can’t bring myself to celebrate the way dancing makes me feel when all this yuck is going on. We were resting and watching people and we noticed the visuals. There was a trippy looking “X” and then a heart. These images flashed intermittently for a few seconds. It was like they were saying “X equals love”. It upset us.

Our friend who asked Jesus to be her priority just two weeks earlier was freaking out. She said that she had never seen what she was seeing. It was like the scales fell off. She was a raver for a while, but had never noticed, or thought that it was just a few people doing the drugs. She didn’t want to look at all the kids. It was hurting her to see all these kids walking around dead or dieing. Everyone was an ampty shell. A mask. She was weeping for them. She had to leave. That was hard to deal with.

We were all sitting in a large room with tons of other kids just sitting and talking and hanging out. Loud music blaring. Young kids totally messed up on drugs. It probably looked exactly like what my parents could never imagine.

3:00-4:00
After our friend left, I had to find the other friend we came with. I made my ritual walk about, where I walk around and pray and look for signs of kids wiggin’ out.

I decided to walk really slowly. Like slow motion slow. I was looking for people who were sitting all by themselves, on the wall, in the corner, with their heads in their hands or between their knees. There were so many. I went around and woke people up, laid my hand on them and prayed for them and asking them if they needed help. A few of them needed water and so I directed them to the EMS booth. All of them were glad that I was watching over them.

I saw a young girl writhing on the floor with her skirt pulled up and her panties quite down, and the people around her just watching. My eyes filled up with tears. I couldn’t do anything about her, just pray.

I saw a girl crouching in the corner and a boy humping at her head. Their eyes were all rolled up.

I saw a girl wearing a very small amount of clothes, laying on the floor legs spread, arms out wide, with four or five guys rubbing all over her body. I tried to distract them, but it didn’t work.

This was getting to be beyond what I could help with.

My stomach hurt, my chest hurt, my feet hurt. My smile was gone.

4:00-5:00
I finished my walk about, sat down and waited for my friend to pass. We said we’d meet at a certain place. I sat down in a very busy hallway. So many people asked me for drugs. People didn’t even seem like they knew where they were going. I prayed for so many people during that hour. One kid got pissed at me for not giving him a light show.

I was exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally drained. I wanted to be sleeping at home.

We left at 5:00.
It probably went on for another couple of hours after we left. We met up with our other friends at the car. The girl who freaked out was doing better. Scarred deeply, but dealing with it.

Somehow we got to the house were were gonna crash at. I couldn’t sleep for a while. I was sweating and freezing at the same time. My mind was racing.
Why were we doing this? Were we helping at all? The drugs were not just killing the kids, they were killing the scene. We told everyone we talked to that the scene would eventually die because of the lack of empathy and the overuse of drugs.

Why weren’t we seeing any other Christians doing what we were doing?

Have a good day.

What do you think?
1. Have you been to a rave?
2. What was your experience?
3. Are you a Christian Raver?

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