Sarah Youngquist is now in her second year at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. This fall part of her training for ministry has included witness to persons on the street. Sarah asks, “Are we really that different from the homeless man selling newspapers on the street corner?”
She continues…
“Amidst the bustle of the city street on a weekday evening, a group of middle class college students stops to talk to the man selling Street Wise newspapers outside Walgreens. The man greets the students and asks them how they are. They answer with the usual replies of typical college students-busy day, papers, and homework. The man then tells them about his life since they had seen him the week before. The week before, he was regretting not having told the truth in a particular situation. He told the students that he had gone back and told the truth. He also told them that his request for housing, that they had prayed about the week before, had been denied but that he was still holding onto his faith even though it was shaky. He went on to talk about God and quote Scripture for several minutes. The man asked to pray with the students. They joined hands, bowed heads, and took turns praying for the man and themselves right outside Walgreens.
“This is not fiction; this is ministry in the heart of Chicago. This was one of my experiences while out ministering to the homeless in Chicago, or ‘our friends’ as my group calls them. I wonder though if perhaps the homeless are ministering to me more than I am ministering to them. While my group does have questions in our minds regarding this man’s recent turnaround, only God really knows where his heart is and all we can do is pray for him and minister to him. However, he taught me a lesson that night without his realizing it. He taught me that we need to take our masks down as Christians.
“So many times we put on a mask while around other Christians and act like we have it all together. We don’t share our struggles and doubts with each other. This man shared where he was at with us and asked us for prayer. He was willing to admit he didn’t have it all together, but he was not giving up or ‘bowing the knee to Nebuchadnezzar,’ as he put it. All of us have our doubts, faith that is shaky at best, and struggles. We all are broken people whether we are homeless, college students, fathers, mothers, businessmen, professionals, or factory workers. All of us know deep down that we can’t make it through life on our own. We all need Christ to come into our lives and heal our brokenness.
“While this is the initial process in salvation, we will never be perfect this side of heaven. We are in a process of constant sanctification. We need other believers in our lives to encourage us and help us along the journey. I pray that we will all have boldness like the homeless Street Wise vendor to take off our masks and expose our imperfections so that we may help and encourage and strength each other as the body of Christ.
“After my group had gone into Walgreens and talked to one of our friends who worked there, we said goodbye to the man selling Street Wise outside. I left him with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, and some Capri Sun, but he left me with food for thought that night.”
