Tonight, God’s hand and God’s plan were clear.

The car we were in was rather delayed… leaving church, for a few reasons, about 15 minutes behind the others, and then it took us forever to find a parking spot.  All the while, I was repenting of impatience and trying to trust and hope that God knew what he was doing…  Of course, He was putting us in exactly the right places at exactly the right times.

Really early on, Daniel and I met a girl looking for a bus home.  We asked her if she knew the Gospel, she said “yes”, and walked us through redemptive history, quoting verses along the way.  We followed that up with the “million dollar question”: do you believe the Gospel.  “No.”

She believes in God, and Jesus, and knows the facts of the Gospel.  But she knows the cost of actual faith – that Jesus would have to take over her life – and that wasn’t a choice she was will to make just then.  Her current state is acknowledging truth in her head and wanting to acknowledge it in her heart.  But she’s not there yet.

We talked with her for about 30 minutes, trying to help her find her bus.  We found out that she’s pregnant and that if she doesn’t leave her boyfriend he’ll make her get an abortion.  So she’s pretty torn up internally and going through some crazy stuff.  We got to talk about how Christianity is about joy – a joy that is deep and true and pervasive, that doesn’t contradict sorrow and suffering but pushes on through it.

We left her with a New Testament, a Quest For Joy tract, and the Quest For Joy CD.  Pray that she would meet Jesus in a compelling way tonight.  She wants to believe.

Our next conversation was with a girl who was already a Christian, was from around here, and was churchless.  We had a good chat with her, talking through the Gospel, talking about Desiring God and what we do there, and inviting her to church with us.  We pointed her to Bethlehem’s website – pray that she gets plugged in.

The last encounter I had was really remarkable.  Bill, one of the guys we were with, and I were walking down the sidewalk and Bill suddenly stops, turns around, and says to this woman, “Can we pray for you?  I feel like I’m supposed to ask you if we can pray for you.”  Her response: “how’d you know?  My mom is about to die of cancer and my toddler is having brain surgery in two weeks.”  Wow!  We prayed for her, her mom, and her kid (who was with her in a stroller, and the happiest-looking kid I’ve ever seen.  He wouldn’t stop smiling!).  We invited her to church on Sunday – she said she’s been looking for a church and everyone she’s asked has been unhelpful.  Pray for her son, her mom, and that she’d come to church next weekend and meet Jesus!

I went into the night hopeful but afraid – it’s hard for me to start and sustain conversations with people.  I was praying that God would give me joy, and help me approach evangelism Christian Hedonistically – doing it for my joy and for God’s glory.  God answers prayer in ways we can never dream, working things out in His perfect wisdom to give us joy in Him and call people to Himself!

-Ben

It’s hard to describe the impact it had on me, but I’ll try.

1. I went into the week a bit expectant but with a bit of cloud hanging over everything.  Many people had dropped out of the trip, and some of them were commenting on the fact – “I wonder what God’s protecting us from.”  That rattled me needlessly.  The trip was awesome.  God was real to us, He was faithful to us, He was breaking down sin in our lives that kept us from seeing Him and loving others.

2. I went into the week skeptical of VBS.  I built myself a theological framework that basically said that God “shouldn’t” save the children of unbelieving parents.  God destroyed that one real fast – Pastor Frank (who runs the organization we went with) was saved by his children telling him about Jesus.

3. The day we got there (more like the hour we got there) we were brought out to the streets of Kensington to do contact evangelism.  More precisely, we went to the “number one hotspot” intersection in the entire city of Philadelphia – known for its violence, drug dealing, and prostitution.  We went with a group called Raven – “Recovering a Vision and Evangelizing Nations.” It was such an encouragement to pray with them, to listen to them, and to evangelize with them (more often than not simply watching them evangelize while we prayed).  They gave us needed hope to begin our trip – stories and experiences of how people (yes, real live people) got saved doing exactly what we were there to do!

4. Hernando Andreti – this man killed 7 people 31 years ago, was just released from prison a few months ago, and got saved through Raven’s preaching.  Pastor Frank’s been discipling him since then.  He hung out with us often, directing us in our construction, protecting us as we were out on the streets, entertaining us through his stories and guitar playing.  Most importantly, he reminded us of God’s grace – electing grace, saving grace, sanctifying grace, future grace.  He was a constant, visible reminder of the power of the grace of God to call sinners to repentance and grant us new desires to love and pursue Him instead of the pleasures of this world.

5. Nariely - One of the girls at VBS developed a crush on me.   She wrote me some pretty cute notes and made me a few cute drawings.  Sadly, she wasn’t my type – only a few feet tall and couldn’t recognize diagonals when playing Connect 4.  But she did show me that our interaction with these kids is important, and it is personal – not abstract.  In just a few days (we only had 4 with them), it is possible to connect with them and tell them about Jesus (and how they need more Jesus, and less Ben).

6. Stoch - I think that’s how you spell his name.  Friday was our day off – we went wandering around the historical areas of Philly, seeing the sights, ate Philly Cheesesteaks, etc.  God had a bit more serious business for us to take care of there, though.  After we split up into smaller groups to go browse through stores, my group (Ben, John, Paul, Sindri, Amy, Charlene) saw a sign for the Presbyterian Historical Society and went to track it down.  Turns out they were closed for Good Friday, so we kept wandering with a new goal: find a bookstore.  We found one – a liberal anarchist bookstore with a shrine to Noam Chomsky.  The small (30 books) Religion section had zero books on Christianity.  John Sullivan started reading off the titles, and then commented on how there was nothing there about Jesus.  We then hear a voice from the corner – “my theory is that Jesus was a pimp, but that didn’t work out for him so he became a prophet.”   Thus began a long (1.5-2hr) conversation.  We talked about a lot of things, got to share the Gospel with him, and in the end pointed him to Keller’s book The Reason For God.  Pray that he reads it – I think he embodies the center of its target audience.

I keep telling people that this is probably the best missions trip I’ve ever been on.  That’s quite a statement, as it’s the 13th (I think).  Part of the reason would be that now I have a much better theological framework and practical understanding of Christian Hedonism and its implications.  A lot of it has to do with the number of people praying for us, I’m sure.  But what it really comes down to is: I encountered Jesus.  He made each of the things we did (EV, VBS, construction, eating, hanging out, playing, praying, singing) impactful to me in specific ways.  I can agree with Paul and say, “your grace is sufficient for me.”  And I come away with memories of people – people who know Jesus and people who don’t know Jesus – and the confidence that what they really need is the light of the Gospel shining into their hearts to give them new desires.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone into or come out of a trip before this one with a good understanding of the reality that people need Jesus.

For lots more details, storytelling, and pictures, you can check out our trip blog here: http://cornellphilly08.wordpress.com/.

-Ben