Home Away From Home

This last week my School of Evangelism (SOE) team and I went to Chicago for urban missions. We stayed at the YWAM base there and did a variety of activities including prayer walks up and down Devon Street, which has many different nationalities including Indian, Pakistani, and Israeli. We visited a Mosque and a Hindu temple to learn about their beliefs. We heard from a few different speakers about urbanization and God’s plans in it all.

So you may be asking “what is ‘Urbanization’ and what’s so important about it?” I had the same question and I’ve learned a lot this last week. First of all, the world is becoming “urbanized” meaning that more and more people are moving to cities. There are still people that live in the country but most people are moving into cities for jobs or other various reasons. At the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus gives us a command saying “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” This is what we call the Great Commission. Go literally means a change in location; and making disciples is what we need to be doing. I believe Jesus is still calling us to the remote places of the earth, but He also calls people to major urban areas. When you go to another country or people group, you must learn the language and the culture. You must travel and adapt to different living situations. It’s worth it to spread the gospel and make Jesus known if that’s where He’s calling you to, but when they start moving to us- they are doing half the work. They start to adapt to our culture. We just need to make ourselves available to them. They are right outside our door and half the time we don’t take the opportunity to reach out to them.

I have lived in Chicago my whole life and never had this revelation. What a crazy thought! The nations are coming to us and all we need to do is be available and ask God what our part is.

The leader of YWAM Chicago, Brad Stanley, had an incredibly huge heart for this city and for God’s purposes. It was an incredible time to be under His leadership and learn so much from Him. Plus riding in a 15 passenger vans with dozens of crazy YWAMers is priceless!