Our Gospel Journey

Mark 6:7-13
7 And He called the twelve to Him and began to send them out two by two and gave them 1authority over the unclean spirits; 8 And He charged them not to take anything for the journey except only a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belt; 9 But to have sandals tied on; and said, Do not put on two tunics. 10 And He said to them, Wherever you enter into a house, there remain until you depart from that place. 11 And whatever place does not receive you nor hear you, as you go out from there, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. 12 And they went forth and proclaimed that men should repent, 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed many of the sick with oil and healed them.

- Our Staves

How the gospel trip began:
One day in my morning time with the Lord, I was struck by the fact that the Lord thrust out the twelve to preach the gospel by charging them not to take anything for the journey (Mark 6:7-13). I have been serving the Lord full time for the last twelve years. But I felt like the Lord was challenging my supposed living by faith. How much did I trust the Lord? I know that the Lord is real. But could I really trust Him for providing my meals and shelter? After having these sensations and conversations with the Lord, I did not know what to do but to file them away in my memory.
Few days later, maybe even one or two weeks later, a stranger came into town. I met through a mutual friend. His name was Daniel Boone. Not only did we have the same first name, but it was his real name. I could only think with glee the song that my childhood friends teased me with: "Daniel Boone was a man. He was a real man!" It was God?s sovereign arrangement. He was on his way to Montana but his car broke down temporarily, long enough to meet me.
But I had no clue that our Lord was arranging our meeting together. For some reason that morning, I was more relaxed and was in a helpful mood. I offered to drive around the neighborhood to see if his transmission was okay. Since everything seemed fine we decided to chill at Starkbucks, since Daniel was a lover of coffee and cafes.
We had a very general fellowship but our fellowship led to his recent trip to Florida. After a Christian conference, Daniel and some brothers were inspired to go to Superbowl to preach the gospel. Afterwards, they were dropped off two by two at different cities in Florida to continue their gospel journey. When I heard his testimony, my spirit was stirred up and could not resist asking, "Daniel, how would you like to go on a gospel trip with me?" Daniel was a very easy going guy. He simply agreed to my pleasure. He later told me that when he promised to go on the gospel trip, he didn?t realize that it was going to happen so fast.
After our meeting together, Daniel went back home instead of continuing his trip to Montana; he did not want to risk another break down. Daniel and I started to fellowship and pray over the phone for two to three weeks to prepare ourselves for the gospel trip. We decided on the dates, March 28 to April 2, 2005 and also decided our route, Interstate 55, from Chicago to Peoria, stopping at different cities. We first prayed over Mark 6, considering what not to bring. We weren?t going to bring money, credit cards, toiletries, extra clothes including underwear, etc.; Like the Bible says, we only wanted to bring our staff and the clothes and shoes that we wore. We were also encouraged by the Lord that we weren?t going alone. We had the Lord, His authority, and the homes that were going to take us in.

Monday, March 28, Day 1:
The exciting day finally arrived. It was a pleasant 60/70 degree weather. Almost prepared by God for our journey. After having a big lunch at my home, we started to shed our belongings as "[Jesus] charged [us] not to take anything for the journey except only a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belt; But to have sandals tied on; and said, Do not put on two tunics" (Mark 6:8-9). We decided that our "staff" was our Bibles, hymnals and my car. We needed our Bibles and hymnals for our spiritual strength and my car to travel 170 miles to Peoria. Maybe next time, we will go on foot. This trip was easiest to pack: nothing. How I wish all my trips were like this. Just pick yourself up and go. We wore our winter coats and dressed simply for the journey. No money or credit cards. We only left with my wife?s encouraging words, "Our heavenly Father will take care of you better than I." As we were leaving, we were filled with nervous excitement. And it was 3pm in the afternoon.
We drove for about one hour and half and stopped at Lockporte, Illinois. We decided to knock on doors in a residential area. The first person that we ran into was Ferando, a seeking young Christian. He recently moved from Cicero to Lockporte to disassociate himself from a gang. He told us that he did not want to die like his friends and he was looking to settle down with his family. We fellowshipped with him about the Lord and our gospel trip and he was so open to us that he offered his home for us to stay that night. We could not believe what was happening. The first person we met was open and was going to provide shelter and food. We were jumping for joy. We told Fernando that we will come back after preaching the gospel that night and he was eager to do since he also had other things that he had to take care of.
After meeting Fernando, we continued to knock on doors in the neighborhood. We were hoping to find people that could gather together. We met another open person in the neighborhood and continued our gospel into shopping malls and fast food restaurants. Overall it was an exciting gospel time. Around 10:30pm, we wrapped up our gospel, tired from the day and headed to Fernando?s home for fellowship, food, and shelter.
However, when we got there, there was no one home. We parked our car in front of his home, fell asleep waiting for him. Later that night, we saw his car parked in the drive way, but no one answered when we rang and knocked on the door. We slept very uncomfortably in my car, waking up multiple times to turn on the heat in the car.

Tuesday, March 29, Day 2: Trial
Next morning, we moved on to nearby McDonald?s to wash up. It was a weird feeling going into McDonald?s without any money. I hurriedly grabbed some salt packets to brush my teeth with my finger and to wash up there. It was refreshing but it was also nerve wrecking, thinking that any moment someone could kick us out. Without any incident, we were able to move on from there, but we could sympathize with homeless people who had much worse situation than us.
Every morning, individually we spend some time with the Lord. Then we got together to pray before we set out on our journey. This morning, I was wondering why the Lord didn?t feed us like the birds of the air. But then I read about the children of Israel complaining to God about having no food and no water (Num. 21:5). So I couldn?t figure out whether I should let God know my rights or to be quiet about my needs. At least, water was free in America.
Initially, we visited Joliet Penitentiary to look for a brother working there. But without success, we moved on to Lewis University. The students expressed their negative feelings about organized religion. However, they seemed very open to talk about making God real in their lives. We were very encouraged how open they were but we could not help noticing our stomachs? growling. If we were prepared to go on a camping trip or if we had decided to fast, it might have been more bearable. However, thinking that we were deprived of our right to eat and sleep in a home, it was very disturbing to us. We kept turning to the Lord. But it was definitely discouraging.
Around 2:30 pm, we left the campus to go further on I-55. Our next stop was Coal City. Since we were hungry, we decided to continue preaching the gospel; Paul?s words very clear to us: no work, no food. At a farm house next to a dirt road, we met two young men. The younger one definitely had a salvation experience and the older one was seeking God. However, they made it clear to us that they were not interested in further fellowship. But they were interested in letting know about their grandma, who practically lived at the church. We definitely wanted to meet this radical Christian. So we went off to meet her.
We tried to look for her church, but we failed. So we continued on our bread-winning work, preaching the gospel door to door. On one of the doors, we met a Christian lady, who knew Barb, the radical Christian. We got directions from her and we went off to her church again. Not unlike my church life, there were only older sisters cleaning the hall. We offered to help but they seemed wary of two grungy young men. Barb was very eager to fellowship with us but did not sense our need. However, there was another sister, who went on mission trips before, asked if we were hungry. It was the gladdest thing that we had heard that day. By God?s sovereign arrangement, they had a funeral meeting the night before and they had plenty of left over chicken, refried beans (Barb?s recipe), fruit salad, etc. It was 3:45 pm, when we had our first God provided delicious meal. We gulped our food down with much thankfulness. We also very enjoyed Barb?s prayer for us on our gospel journey. God?s family is indeed wonderful.
We were so strengthened and encouraged that we marched right into apartments and trailer homes. It was surprising how many people were opened to us and desired further fellowship. When it got dark, we decided to continue on I-55 and stop at a next city, Pontiac. The name was attracting enough. We drove into a empty parking lot to rest. Afterwards, we drove on the main road of the town to look for anything significant. Only thing significant in our sight was a church. So we decided to go there to look for a Bible study. There were some men practicing music and some others planning an upcoming event. However, the only Bible study that was going on was a high school girls? Bible study. Normally, we would not consider joining such a Bible study. However, when the girls were so strong in encouraging us, we could not help but to join them. These girls were definitely seeking God and it was a very satisfying Bible study to us. At the end of the Bible study, as were exchanging email addresses, one of the girls, Abbey, remarked that her parents were tent gospel preachers. How often do you get to meet a tent gospel preacher? We were definitely up for that!
We found out that Abbey?s house was one of the houses that we were planning to visit. It was a house with a cross carved out as a window on the front door. Other than the initially shock of any parents who may feel when their high school daughter brings strange men into their house Abbey?s parents, Bill and Jane, warmly opened their home to receive us. We found out that Bill was a pastor once. But to be true to the gospel of Christ, he quit his job and started to serve with a group of believers, who preach the gospel by setting up big tent in cities for ten days straight. Through this means, they preach the gospel to those who could not and would not come to a building called "church". We heard many wonderful stories of their adventures with Christ and their testimony of living by faith. If it were just stories, it would been like Prodigal Son coming home to receive the best robe but Jane would not stop brining out the food as we fellowshipped. It was around 10 pm when we received our second meal of the day. Pizza and those miniature egg rolls surely did the trick.
To our relief, as the night grew late, Bill and Jane offered their trailer home for us to stay over night. As the Bible promised, "Wherever you enter into a house, there remain until you depart from that place," our Lord of the harvest was preparing homes so that his workers could be taken care of. This was better than a five star hotel. In our trailer home, Danny and I were beside ourselves, praising the Lord. Things that we only read about were happening to us. That night, I found out that Danny prayed that God would take us to a home, where people were likeminded as us. I don?t know about Danny, but I made sure that the first thing I did was to take the needed shower and slept in His bosom.

Wednesday, March 30, Day 3: Empowered by His faithfulness
The next morning, I could not but come to the Lord in repentance. His faithfulness just exposed all my murmurings of the previous day. In my shame and my joy of following the Lord, I gladly offer myself to Him again.
We had a very nice breakfast and fellowship with the family and Roger, a fellow co-laborer in Christ. We had very heart felt prayers for each other and without asking they gave us $90 for the journey. This was especially touching since we knew that they did not give to us out of abundance but out of their heart whose eyes are in the heavens. They extended their hospitality for us as long as we needed. But we thankfully declined their offer because we knew that adventure was only a week and our Lord had much more to show us.
Initially, I felt that we only needed $20 for the gas. But Danny felt that we could use the money wisely for His purpose. We agreed that this money will be used as today?s manna, for it may grow worms tomorrow and the Lord will give us fresh provision for tomorrow. First thing we did was to go to Walmart to buy some necessities: two tooth brushes for 44¢ each; a tooth paste for 88¢, a bag of disposable razors for $3.97; a bag of white tube sox for $3.97. We were too cheap or forgot to buy underwear. However, we felt glorious as we washed up. I remember smiling as I saw my teeth bright and clean.
After cleaning up, we spent some private time with the Lord. Then we used $20 for gas and decided that buy $53 of groceries for the poor. We went to Aldi?s and made 10 bags of groceries and set our hearts to the poorest part of the town. We didn?t know what to expect. But we were fearless and joyful to follow our Lord?s own commission to announce the gospel to the poor (Luke 4:18).
The "poorest part of the town" was not what I expected. I am so used to the ghetto?s of Chicago and this section of the town was in no comparison to it. Only thing poor about them was that they lived in trailer homes and some had pit bulls to guard their homes. But other than that people were very normal, friendly and lived comfortably. As the norm of this gospel trip, the first family we encountered was Santos and Tish. Santos gladly invited us in and fellowshipped with us for at least one to two hours. He was ready and open to receive the Lord that day. His wife also was very open to us to hear what we had to say. Afterwards, we met many others who were eager and willing to talk to us. Some of them, we may not find them at churches. But surely we could not say that they were not seeking. I wonder if churches should be much freer in how we meet so that we can meet and fellowship with people in their own environment. Santos, Danny & I felt that a good American and Korean BBQ must be one of the things that we do with the friends that we met that day.
Around 4 or 5 that afternoon, we stopped at a Burger King for lunch. And we had about $3-$4 remaining to our name. We felt good about the way we spent our money as wise stewards.

Wednesday, March 30, Day 3.75 to Friday, April 1: Gospel Adventures

After lunch, we continued our journey to Bloomington. We initially tried to preach the gospel at a mall and a library. But we felt a little out of place. So we continued on to Illinois State University campus, where we felt the Lord was with us as we preached the gospel there. We experienced some genuine prayers to receive the Lord and some exchanging of phone numbers for further fellowship. We were surprised in our gospel trip to find that the harvest is indeed white; surprising number of people were ready to hear the gospel and were seeking fellowship.
As we got tired that evening, around 9pm or so, we decided to go back to our car to rest. As we were going to our car, we had to pass by a rowdy outdoor fraternity party. I couldn?t believe that they were having a party on a Wednesday night. Probably, the Lord couldn?t believe that we were passing them by because we were too intimidated by them. We kept our mouths politically correct as we passed by them.
To my relief, my conscience was no longer bothering me when we were in the car. We decided to pray a bit before we rested. However, Danny started to pray that no one of those fraternity kids would die that night without hearing the gospel. I could not help but be bothered in my spirit. I gladly admitted to the Lord and Danny that I was weak, i.e. a chicken, and that I was unwilling to be martyred that night. The Lord just had to realize who He is working with.
However to my disbelief, Danny got up and said that we had to go back to them and preach the gospel. Originally, he had no intention of going back to them. But when he heard my confession of weakness, he was stirred to go back. We got out of the car and sincerely prayed to the Lord as I was walking the plank. I really thought that something terrible was going to happen that night.
As were approaching the fraternity party, we saw two students with their beer observing the party from their porch. We preached to them sober gospel about not wasting their lives. One of them was very attentive but I don?t remember if we got his information or not. I was too scared or intense to think too clearly. Afterwards, we jumped right into the party area and started to preach the gospel to small groups of people. There was one girl, who was very offended by the fact that we were preaching the gospel to her. She was challenging us by saying that she was already saved and that she was okay to drink beer and party like that. But Danny challenged her by quoting Revelation 3:16 "because you are lukewarm?I am about to spew you out of my mouth." She retorted by saying, "I know I am saved because I received Jesus in my heart." But Danny filled in spirit did not let her go. "Do you think that you are not lukewarm? Because if you are, He will spew you out of his mouth." The girl went away from us sorrowfully. But I believe that it was a healthy message that she had to hear.
That night, we also met Brian, who decided to procrastinate and fellowship with us, because he wanted God to be real to him. I don?t know how helpful we were but he was thankful and decided to buy our third meal of the day at Steak and Shake. He also offered to check if friend will let us sleep in his room. But for some reason, neither of us picked up on that clue and parted our ways exchanging our contact information. It was already one a.m. and we were satisfied to sleep in our car. For some reason, with our stomachs full and realizing His faithfulness, we joyfully fell asleep in our car.

Our Bickering
From day three in Bloomington, Danny and I started to argue about each other?s presentations of the gospel. Danny?s gospel was a hard nosed "Sell all and follow the Lord" gospel and mine was a gentle approach for sinners to receive the gospel. The argument got so bad that I even wanted to quit right there and go back home. However, we had enough sense to realize that what we were doing was wrong. We knew that we had such a wonderful trip because we had each other. We calmed down, talked some more and prayed. The Lord was really good to us to restore our hearts together. We had one more bout together but the Lord was faithful to bind us even tighter. I feel that this was a great lesson to us. As we struggle for God?s purpose, I feel that it is normal to fight. However, we cannot be derailed. We must come back to Christ, who breaks down our natural men to remake us and knits us together so that we, the transformed believers, can fulfill His purpose together. This is our salvation and the real glory to Him.

Conclusion: Life to my moral car
There is more to tell of this compact blessed week. But I must conclude with the finale. On Saturday morning, in Peoria, I saw my gas gauge and it was quarter tank full. If I am not mistaken, I get about 300 miles or maybe 350 miles per tank. Hence, for us to travel 170 miles on a quarter tank seemed impossible. However, that morning, I had a sensation that I was not the one being tested but that our cool Lord was putting Himself on the spot. On one hand, we trusted the Lord. But on the other hand, we were nervous as we sang hymns to turn our minds to our spirit from our gas gauge. We were thankful that the quarter tank was not going down too easily. However, when we got to Joliet, we got the orange empty light on and that started to really make us nervous. I started to drive on the right lane just in case my car stopped. When we got to the southwest side of Chicago, the light was still empty. When we got to downtown, it was still orange. Then when got out of Irving Park exit it was definitely on empty. But somehow, our car cruised into the parking lot and we could not hold our ecstasy. For few minutes, we clapped to the Lord because He deserved it. We praised Him and thanked Him for all that He is and was to us. Oh Lord, "What is man, that You bring him to mind? Or the son of man, that You care for him?" (Heb. 2:6)
Before we left on the gospel trip, Danny and I enjoyed 1 Cor. 9:7-14: "What soldier ever serves by his own wages?... ?You shall not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain.? Is it for oxen that God cares? Or does He say it altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written?.So also the Lord directed those who announce the gospel to live from the gospel." I would like to tell the Lord, I believe Danny echoes me, that "Lord, I claim Your promise and command. I do want to announce the gospel all my life. I never want to get a job to entangle myself; what soldier ever gets a side job to support himself. Oh Lord, as you promised I would like exercise my faith to live from the gospel. May this be fulfilled in our lives!"