The Homeless Man, and the Modalist, and Me

First a little background: If you know me well enough, you might know that I have a broken heart for the homeless. I have a few homeless friends around Chicago, Darryl, on state street; David on Roosevelt; Eugene, and a couple others. Sometimes I help those guys out with some change or a couple dollars. Mostly I bring them food, that's what I do with most of the homeless people I meet. I don't mind, actually I enjoy, talking with Chicago's homeless. As far as a few of them have put it: it makes their day for someone to just make eye contact or smile. So what a blessing it must be for some person to sit down next to them and chat for a half hour.

I am just like every other person in Chicago most of the time however. In fact I would say that I am worse in some respects. Not only do I avoid eye contact, but sometimes I lie to get out of giving. For example, just last week a man asked if I could help him get some food. I gave him a gospel tract and then lied about having any money. The conviction came immediately. Then I told him I had money to help, but it's not mine, another thump by the Spirit. I eventually gave the man enough to get a sandwich, we talked for about 5 minutes, he told me about his ten year old son in Madison, WI. He was trying to save enough money to take a bus there. His eyes began to water as he talked. Hope crept in as he talked about how close he was to getting the money he needs.

That night I was reading Matthew. I was again rebuked by God when I read Jesus' words:

40"If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
41"Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
42"Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

I made so many excuses to avoid the homeless, after all, how do I know what they will do with whatever it is I give to them? Or what if they do something to me? After reading those verses I can't seem to make those excuses in my heart anymore. I'm not saying I will give a dollar to Every homeless person I meet on my daily commute, that's just not feasible, but I can't ignore them anymore. I know that what every man needs, even the homeless man, is much greater than a dollar. Praise God that so many of Chicago's homeless are born again.
Please pray for me in this area. Also would you join me in praying for Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, a mission that ministers to the homeless here?
That was the Background, now for my story:

I gave been so encouraged lately. I like to go to different parts of Chicago to pass out million dollar bill tracts. In the past couple weeks, I have been told by several people when I hand them the tract that they have seen them. Keep in mind that there are 6x10^6+ people in Chicago (for those LAYMEN who aren't so familiar with scientific notation, that means more than six million). I did some math, if I passed out 100 gospel tracts a day, in different areas of Chicago, and accounting for population growth, it would take me over 200 years to meet someone who already had one. I guess I should get started, huh? BUT, one homeless man this morning (Peter) showed me one that he had in his pocket from a week ago. So apparently I fell into a 1 in 75,000 chance (I did some more math) of finding someone who I gave one to earlier last week, OR I'm not the only person saturating Chicago with the Good News. Obviously we both know the answer is that I'm not alone, I know this for a fact (my roommate and several friends have some beautify feet!) But should I not act as if I am the only person out there? Of course. So onto the Modalist:

While I was talking with Peter, a bull came running out of a China shop next door (Dunkin Donuts?), and began "witnessing" to me and Peter. This particular bull was a oneness Pentecostal. A LOUD one, I tried sharing my faith with her, but she wouldn't let me get a word in edge wise. Apparently I am a pagan, polytheistic, deceived, young man who needs to read Acts and be baptized again, but this time in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. If you don't know much about Oneness, or modalist theology, check out this site, its got a lot of good resources.

When she left, Peter and I continued talking. I discovered he was born again. Praise God.

Blessings come through Chinese food too, and not just the fortune cookie.

I was talking to friend of mine last monday about how I think I need another job to help pay for rent. He told me that he just got a job delivering Chinese food. I laughed and teased him, until he told me about how much money he made. Apparently downtown Chicagoans are very generous tippers. Anywho, after class on last Monday he drove me to the L station that was by the Chinese place he worked at. I jokingly said "maybe I should apply there too." He told me they were hiring, a joke turned to reality and I applied. Earlier today I got a call. "Hi this is Johnny from Yang's Chinese..." So to make a long story short, I now officially give downtown Chicago their long sought after Kung Po Shrimp and Beef Chow Fun.
I have three jobs now plus I'm a full time college student, My commute to and from campus is about an hour each way. You think YOU'RE busy... you probably are, but me too.

Subterranian Evangelism

Last Friday I went downtown Chicago with a group of 6 or 7 people (some from my church, others I never met). Most of them were from Moody Bible Institute. I was going to go meet them on a busy sidewalk to help gather a crowd for open air preaching. I got off the subway and it was raining real bad. So check this out: I gave Bethany (a friend from Church) a call to ask what's happening, where they were. She answered and said that they were at a subway platform a few stops away. So I got back on the train and when I got there I met up with everyone. First thing I said was "How did you get phone reception down here?" She looked at her phone (which didn’t have any reception) looked back at me and said, "I was wondering the same thing when you called me." For those who don't know what its like 100 feet below ground, one of the aspects is ZERO phone reception. I mean you don't get any at all, even walking down the steps to the platform.

Here's the conclusion we came up with: The cellular signal emitted from the phone was actually amplified by the cylindrical shape of the concrete walls. Coupled with the electrical field given off of the third rail of the train tracks running parallel along both sides of the tunnel, and the conductive steel columns traversing up through the concrete shell of the subway walls into the earthen subsurface above the tunnel itself, the digital cellular signal actually converted itself into an analog signal on it's conical path from the phone antenna but not before penetrating the central hub of the storm drain tunnels, thereby emitting the signal throughout all of Chicagoland, which probably caused electromagnetic interference and possible electro-meltdown among all cell phone towers in the area directly after hanging up. Sorry Chicago. or... God may have had a part in it. Anyway the whole time was a blast. We passed out hundreds of tracts, witnessed to oodles of people and even did some open air preaching in between trains stopping. YES, two minute Gospel presentations are possible. There was a cop watching us the whole time, but he wasn't watching the guy playing blues guitar loud enough to drown us out. I hope it was because he wanted to hear the gospel (Yes, he did) and not because he thought we were causing trouble.

I witnessed to a Jewish girl who seemed truly convicted of her sin. She clung to every word I said, every verse I quoted. She heard the Gospel of the Messiah but I don't know what she did with it. Pray for her, God knows her name.

first blog

I decided to finally post a web log, im a little behind the times.

This summer I was in Maine, I "threatened" to shave my hair off several times over there. The same hour I got back to chicago I did it. I like it. I'll post a picture. I was told the shirt matches my Eyes.