India Chicago Style

Big India must be sweeter still.

So it looks like you can't get deep dish in Little India but there are Cubs fans. Its a unique assembling between eastern and western cultures Chicago style. Its like being in a Bollywood film but without all the dancing and drama. This strip of land on Devon St. smells great, english isn't commonly heard and they sell rice in 25 pound bags. The Jewelers display pieces you wouldn't find on the Magnificent Mile: much detail and craftsmanship often just gold by itself without any stones. Simple in material, complex in craft. The Sari stores seemed to be on every street corner bragging about the brightest fabrics.

Upon arrival, I'm hearing the Gospel message being shout out loud on the street corner: "Your works will not save you. Your works will not save you. Your works will not save you." That was some "up-the-gut" evangelizing. I thought to myself: "I haven't learned this approach." It turns out it wasn't a Moody student, rather an old man who faithfully goes there to do open air preaching. Before I could get a question out, he switches to Hindi and keep on preaching. Eventually I got to speak with him. His name was Benjamin he was a real encouraging sign to me.

We got schooled on cultural differences, in the South Asian Friendship Center. This guy introduced himself as: "Cicero but my friends call me Billy". So I was like: "hey Billy" and he corrects me "its Cicero." To make things even more awkward, I uttered: "oh I live in Cicero." The guy was telling me not to eat with my left hand. And not look the women in the eyes. He offered his opinion that doing street evangelism with Muslims was a waste of effort, In his opinion relational evangelism, holistic outreaches, is the only lasting impact. Couldn't you say that about any type of people you evangelize? The soundest advice Cicero gave was: "Don't be PC. If you have the attitude of not wanting to rock their boats, that's exactly what's going to happen. Keep in mind that you are telling them that Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation and direct communion with God. -That should in every way rock their boats. Don't stand down, get offended! Be offended when they say to you: 'well you believe in three gods. Or Jesus wasn't the son of God.' throw a fit, show the scriptures invite them to correct their misunderstandings of Christianity." You would think after that I could call him Billy.

So we split up into groups, some right next to a mosque, others next to a huge muslim bookstore. We had four or five posts along Devon. I was on the eastern most side Devon across from Hema's Kitchen. Which comforted me to look at because that where my brother goes to get his Indian food. He told me the owner is a Christian and has a habit of visiting the tables of her guests and sharing her faith with them.

We were given hundreds of tracts in three different languages. I was giving out all the Arabic tracts upside down. There was no image so I thought the binding of the tract ought to be on the left. At the end of the day i look closer to see that the binding needed to right. Kind of a learning experience. Ever see the Rob Bell "Nooma" Video series specifically the one called Bullhorn. Anyways it critiques street evangelizing, he describes it as Bible thumping: "go ye to hell." He suggests that street evangelists often bypass the love message that was central to Jesus. Anyways with that fully in my mind, I prayed for the love of Jesus to be on our hands and words, I prayed for the recipients of the tracts and insisted to focus on the questions people had. I wanted to be able to communicate how the love of Jesus personally changed me. I wanted to effectively describe my deep and dear relationship with Jesus. I hoped not to sound like: "the cross or the lake of burning sulfur. Choose today!"
However truthful that is, God will do the convicting.

The before I started handing out tracts I tried to slow the people down, by just saying: "Hello would you like to talk about God?" Or "I have good news of love in Jesus Christ." These were my catch phrases. Most of my encounters that didn't turn into a conversation were ended by comments like: "Not now." "Later." or even more disturbing "I'll be fine." Still most people weren't receptive, I was often ignored and one group cursed at God and me. So after a while I realized that even if I was wasting a tract by simply handing them out. At least the tract will get more words in with them than me just asking a yes or no question on the street corner. The tract is more relational than me on the corner. If the people slowed down, I did my best to interrupt the direction they were walking. I was eager to listen but so many wouldn't stop (it was cold and rainy).

One thing that kept me totally encouraged was the person I was teamed up with. She was determined to bless each and every person that walked by. Even those with the mean spirited answers she would bless.

Two teenagers stopped to talk. They stated that they grew up muslim. I asked if they knew about Abraham and his sons. They said yes. So I continued about how God promised to make his offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky. Then one of them spoke up: "Yeah I know. But do you really think that we all came from two people?When did Asians look the same race as blacks or whites or hispanics? If we all came from one couple how can we look so different. Aren't we all products of incest." I told him these were good questions that the Bible can shed light on. (My Apologetic lens seems rather fuzzy in the area of racial origins.) I told him that it was generations later that God gave commands about who to lay with. I offered to find out these answers for him. But he didn't want to give me his information.

Next time I want to have an answer for those questions. I learned through that encounter that the knowledge gained this semester in apologetics is a very little piece of the puzzle. I think the hardest Muslims to talk to about Jesus were the ones who ignored us so really there is little to be anxious about. even if we are evangelizing at the door of a Mosque. We ended with a prayer walk through the neighborhood praying out loud for the Holy Spirit of God to expose the lies of Islam and awake the community to the Truth in Christ. At the risk of harassing customs, I ate my Tikka Masala with my left hand.