Pre-preaching on the bus

While meditating on my passage for this Sunday, I met Mike reading his Bible on the bus. He had to work on Wells St. today, but still wanted to be faithfully in the Psalms to start his day off right. I got to pre-preach a one-minute version of my message to him when sharing what God has been doing in my life. Pray that he may find time to attend our church sometime; he said he may just show up when he doesn't have to work.

Standing on Michigan Avenue

Dennis had been telling me about this guy named James who makes a practice of standing out on Michigan Avenue passing out tracts at least five days a week, and today I finally got to meet him. Although wearing a tie and handing out chick tracts doesn't seem too culturally relevant to me, I was amazed at his heart for Jesus. His faithfulness to the ministry God has allowed him to have is absolutely astounding. Praise God for this charismatic brother in Jesus!

Jesus & government

While just trying to start a conversation on my commute to work, I asked Leon what he was doing today. He, then, started to explain how he was going to see an attorney concerning his father's stay in the nursing home. He kept on talking about how the government wants all his dad's money and how he was going to make sure that it doesn't get it all. As the conversation moved to how hard Leon has worked for his money, I asked him if he was a Christian. He said that he is and through talking a little bit more with him he seemed very Biblical in his beliefs concerning Jesus and humanity. Pray that he'll have a passion for Jesus, not just a passion against government taking his money.

Just moved to Chicago

While riding the train back from work, God opened up a door for me to talk with Israel. He kindly allowed moved his papers, so that I could sit next to him. He has just moved from Connecticut to the Chicago a couple months ago and is still in the process of feeling at home here. Eventually, I asked him if he went to church. To my surprise he said that he would like to, but hasn't since moving to Chicago because he doesn't know where to attend. I invited him to River North, and he not only asked me to write down the address, but said he would probably come in the next couple weeks. Praise God!

Is God really good?

Usually, I don't have to talk too much with people at church about whether Jesus is good or not, but today was different. God allowed me to talk with Ron about his struggles to embrace Jesus. He wants to trust God to answer his prayers, but still wants it to be in his way and his timing. Pray that the "Bridge" will allow Ron to connect with a good, local pastor who can invest in him and show him the reality of Jesus.

Yeah, I'm Kenny's friend

When I sat down to Mary as we were eating pizza, she told me she is a Kenny's friend. I was really excited that he invited her and started to ask her questions about what she thought of the movie we had just shown. Her answers seemed fairly optimistic at first, in terms of her being a Christian, but before too long I realized that she had given up on God. Instead of turning to God in the tough times, she has chosen to look inside of her self and blame God. She kept giving the answer that it doesn't really matter what she thinks about God, so I pleaded with her, for her own well-being and satisfaction, that she embrace Jesus. Pray that God will soften Mary's heart.

Brother Paul

At Pizzology last night, I had the opportunity to interact with a guys who called himself "Brother Paul." He claimed to be a pastor at a nearby church, and even though I was a little bit skeptical (because he was coming to our homeless ministry), he surely enjoyed talking about Jesus. Please pray that he will realize that the point of the cross isn't just to help a person turn his or her life around and live a "successful" life by the world's standards. Pray that he will come to the conclusion that we are so helpless that Jesus is the only One we can turn to.

Praise God for a few kids...

Yesterday, our Summer Bible Time team was disappointed that no kids came out, and today the first hour seemed like the same would happen. Right as we had given up in our own efforts, God miraculously blessed us with 8 kids who came at different times during the morning. Hopefully, God will use our short time of interaction with these kids to impact them for eternity.

Jewel-Osco & Jesus

While making a quick stop at Jewel-Osco this morning for some ice, I met DJ - the security guard for the parking lot. He saw the Baptist name on our van and asked if I was the reverend. I explained that I'm not the pastor, but just a Christian. He said he was one too, so we talked for a while, and he seemed quite honest and genuine.