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 could go and the different places to stay away from. He was a very friendly man; very easy to talk to. My partner asked him if he could name the biggest need for the community. This question has been absolute gold this week. It gets people thinking and often times catches them off guard.

His response was disjointed and difficult to follow, but he eventually began to talk about parents and children. Here we were able to begin to talk with him about Christianity. Like so many others this week, “I grew up Catholic” was his response. I was immediately frustrated. None of these conversations have went anywhere and in my mind I didn’t see this one being any different.

Little did I know that God was going to guide this conversation masterfully. I mentioned the noise and the distractions. It was about 25 minutes into our conversation when we started talking about Christianity, and it was about 25 minutes into our conversation that all of the distractions were no longer there. We were quietly sitting on a bench in a neighborhood of about 60,000 people having a peaceful conversation with a man searching for answers.

We allowed Richard to ask questions, some good, some crazy, but by simply allowing him to ask questions we were seeing him open up and be honest. He started to talk with about the real Jesus and the differences he had heard. He talked about hypocrisy in the church, the problem with evil, a God that just wants to judge people, the validity of the Bible; you name it, he talked about it. We just listened and allowed him to dump all of his frustrations.

Slowly and gently we began to ask questions. I think the first one was very simple, “Who do you think Jesus is?” Of course there was no really good explanation of the Father and the Son and their relationship, but there was an attempt and then an honest, “I don’t know, what would you say.” From this point the conversation slowly began to change. It was almost painful at times to work so slowly into the Bible, but we were able to very delicately lead him into scripture.

The most amazing thing in the world happened as soon as we handed him God’s word. We put the Bible in his hands and asked him to read the Parable of the Weeds in Matthew 13. Suddenly talkative Richard wasn’t so talkative. We were able to slowly show him how much God loves him. At first he was showing us how there were some who were burned up, but we asked him, “But where is the wheat?” It was like he was seeing things for the first time.

Over the next 20-30 minutes we walked with him through Romans 8 and Ephesians 2. He eventually started thanking us for talking with him. He kept shaking our hands and telling us thank you. He started asking us questions about the church, and eventually took down the address and told us that he would be there Sunday morning at 10AM for worship. We prayed with Richard and asked him to try to read a few chapters of John whenever he gets a chance.

I left this conversation so encouraged. It was the first time all week that we had a conversation with someone who seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. Not only that, he expressed a desire to grow closer to God. What started as a frustrating search for someone to speak with ended with us being in the precise place that God intended.

It has been so encouraging to be here in Chicago. For the first time in my life I think I’ve realized just how many people are in need of a savior. I kept thinking back to a chapel message from earlier in the semester when we were compared to the “Butler that brings the food to the table.” It is so true! God is the chef who prepares the meal; we are simply bringing the message to the nations.

Blessings,