The day began with a beautiful morning at Belmont Harbor where each of us were able to spend an hour with our Lord. As we watched the fish in the water, listened to the sounds of the birds, and felt the breeze around us, it reminded us that God is in control, and we are not. We spent this time praying, reading His Word, and truly resting in His presence. We realize that God doesn't promise us a less busy life when we pray. He promises us a less busy heart. We realize that in order to truly spread His Word and love people with the love of Christ, we need to connect, listen, and "hang out" with God.
The rest of the morning was filled with a long walk around Chicagoland, checking out Wrigley Field, comparing various churches in the neighborhood, and even getting a free slurpee from 7-11! Although the morning was tiring from the long walk, we were ready for our first day of ministry.
Did you know that there are 80,000 people that live within a 1/2 mile radius around the church? Did you know that 70% of the people in this area have a bachelors degree (while the national average is only 30%). Did you know that so many of the people hear work very hard to just be alone? So, what did we spend out evening doing? We spent our evening connecting with the people around us. In other words, we did something that our parents told us never to do--talk to strangers! Because this community has used education, homosexuality, pride, and wealth to build walls between them and the gospel, we decided to ask God to begin to break down these walls. Our team was split into a few different groups and we stationed ourselves around various outside areas. We were able to strike up conversations with people , asking them questions about their faith, their response to the church, and even if they have heard the gospel before. It was our mission to just be a listening ear to many of these people and for them to understand that the gospel is a message of love, not hate.
Many students were rejected, some were encouraged, and a few came back in laughter in response to the conversations they had. The surveys we conducted allowed us to simply connect for just 5 minutes with single mothers, homeless teens, homosexual couples, and even other high schools students. This exercise is allowing us to stop and think about the people that Jesus ministered when He was on earth. We want to learn to love the unlovable and introduce them to the one that truly is love.
Tomorrow, we are heading to the beach to continue meeting people and surveying them. We hope that the surveys will be used as a tool to not just connect people to us, or to the church, but to connect them to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.