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Final Day

The Final Day Saturday, July 1 st was our final full day in Chicago. We had no real plans other than helping with an international church service late in the afternoon. After a long week, the opportunity to sleep in sounded very nice. At about 8:30 AM most of our team members were up and ready to go. Pete’s coffee had become a regular spot for me in the mornings. If I’ve learned one thing over the last few years it’s how important it is to show your face in the same place in order to build relationships with the people. I noticed that even though I had only been coming in for a few days, the workers now greeted me with a much more friendly smile. Pete’s was about a 2 block walk from our hotel. As I turned out of the door I noticed I had a missed call from an old friend. It was the perfect day for us to reconnect. I didn’t have anything planned until later in the afternoon and so I immediately called to see if we could get together. I had absolutely no clue the meeting th
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Friday, June 30, 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017 Yesterday was far and away the best day of the trip thus far. We had the opportunity to meet with a man called Richard for about 2 hours. We had walked around the Wicker Park area in frustration for around an hour. It seemed like every road we turned down was empty so we just kept walking. We met Richard right at the point where we had decided to turn around and go in a different direction. When we walked up there was a large group of teenagers playing loud music and riding around on bikes. It was a difficult environment to talk because of the noise and all of the distractions. My group sat on a bench for about 5 minutes and then decided to ask a man a few benches over where we could go to find a decent crowd of people. As I have seen so many times this week, a simple conversation starter often times leads to an opportunity to share the gospel. In this case we had the opportunity to hear Richard talk about the area and the different places that we co
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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Thursday, June 29, 2017 God blessed me and my partner with the opportunity to have several gospel conversations yesterday. Unfortunately, many of these conversations ended abruptly.  I kept telling myself that they do not reject me, they reject him who sent me. Fortunately God allowed for the seeds of doubt to quickly die, but they were replaced with a sadness. Being here has made me realize just how many people are without God and have no true hope in this world. It’s truly crushing! There were many friendly faces and many people who were easy to talk to, but most people were not open to hearing the gospel message. I’ve learned the importance of conversation. Not just talking, but true conversation. It’s easy for us to approach people with an information dump approach where we unload all of our years of Christianity into a 3 minute apologetic for the validity of Christ and the necessity of the gospel. Unfortunately, facts don’t save people, the Holy Spirit does. Now yes,
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Wednesday, June 28, 2017 Wednesday was our final full day at the conference. The worship has been great, but because there are many speakers from various denominational backgrounds I have found myself questioning a few statements. While there have been obvious soteriological and theological differences, there has been one common theme or emphasis from many of the speakers. If you don’t share the gospel, no one hears the gospel. The common saying, “Share Christ with everyone, if possible use words” appears to be a cop out. We must have real conversations with people. We must also realize that these conversations are probably going to be messy; they are probably going to make us feel uncomfortable and put us in places that we would not normally be. When we do finally have the opportunity to share Christ with someone, we should be careful to listen. I have heard example after example of how the person being witnessed to has voiced certain concerns or problems that can easily
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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 After walking around 10-12 miles on Monday, Tuesday was a much more relaxed day. We are attending the Amplify conference on evangelism in Naperville. I think the big takeaways from the conference yesterday were the following: 1.)     We have been saved for the glory of God, to participate in the mission of God. 2.)     Jesus did not come to be like us, he came so that we would be like him.   3.)     God is patiently drawing people to himself, and he uses us to proclaim the gospel of Christ. 4.)     We are ambassadors for God and our lives should demonstrate holiness. 5.)     No one person is more or less deserving of hearing the gospel. Reflecting back on the events of Monday I realized that one truth was absent as I went out with my group. We operate from the position of power and authority. The creator God has called and saved me, and he is capable of doing the same thing to anyone who he desires to save. Through the anxiety of sharing t
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Monday, June 26, 2017

Monday, June 26, 2017 Monday started at about 10:30 AM. We caught a train and rode over to a local technical college where we met up with some members from the church of the Beloved here in Chicago. We heard testimonies from two Chinese students who had recently come to know the Lord and who were now actively sharing their faith with others. We had planned on staying around the college throughout the day, but for whatever reason there just wasn’t anyone around. We jumped back on the trains and rode back into central Chicago. On the train I decided to read Luke. Luke 1:16-17 really stood out to me: 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. It was a comforting passage in an anxious moment. We were about to step out into a city tha
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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017 The very first thing I hear out of the mouth of my little girl is, “Daddy, I don’t want you to leave us.” I immediately began to question why I decided to go to Chicago. There are plenty of other people going on the trip, why did I have to sign up to tag along. In that moment, when she brought me almost to the point of tears, I realized that she doesn’t understand the mission that God has given me as a believer. Over the next few minutes I began to explain to her how there are many people who don’t get to hear about Jesus. They don’t have parents that pray with them. They don’t have anyone to read the Bible to them. I told her that because Jesus loves me, he sent someone to share the gospel with me. I then told her that God was sending her daddy to tell people about Jesus. At that point, crisis was avoided. I no longer had the urge to fight back tears of sadness, but I did still have an anxiety about the trip. As we loaded the car to head to church
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