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 that I know very little about and tell people about Christ. Ultimately with a similar mission as John, only that we come after Christ has lived, died, and raised.

We split into groups and spread out through the city. It immediately struck me just how many people walk around with their cell phone out and headphones in. I had two things come to mind. First, how in the world do you walk around in a city without looking straight ahead, and second, these people send a message that they don’t want to be interrupted based on their body language.

I realized that we were going to have to be strategic in order to have conversations with people. Our first break came during the filming of an Oreo commercial. We were standing around when a giant blue Oreo robot came rolling by. This allowed for us to talk with the film crew and then eventually to get into conversation with many families and confused people who were walking by. Also, I may potentially be on an Oreo commercial so that cool.

As I began to get more comfortable talking with people I realized that I tend to dominate conversation. This makes it hard for me to get the other person talking and answering questions/raising objections. I also realized how important it is to listen very carefully to every word that someone is saying. When we hear something like, “I grew up …” our response should be something like, “I hear you saying that you grew up …, how does that direct your life now?” This was difficult for me at first.

At about the midpoint of our day we ran into some of the Black Hebrew Israelites. This was pretty discouraging just because they claim to study scripture, but totally twist Old Testament passages. The conversation with them was good until we tried to move to the gospel. When we began talking about they kept repeating that they were cursed or under a curse. I tried to briefly explain that the Old Testament demonstrates God bringing a people from all nations, but they weren’t hearing it.

We had several good conversations with some sales representatives. I found that telling them I would give them as much time as they need as long as they give me 30 seconds really gave me a great opportunity to laugh and cut up with them and then to very clearly present the gospel and allow for them to ask questions. Through this we had Jameena tell us that she intended on attending the Church of the Beloved and that she was thankful for us coming here. This was encouraging!

Continue to pray that we would have, at the very least, opportunities to speak with people. If it means a complete loss of cell phone coverage so that people would get their heads out of their phone, I’m okay with that. Many of the people here grew up associated with some religion but have sense stopped practicing. The harvest really is plenty, but the workers were VERY few. The good news is that one worker with the Holy Spirit has more power than necessary for this mission.

Blessings,