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Lori and I looked up as we rounded a downtown Chicago corner onto Argyle St. A man in his 40's wearing a white zip up sweat shirt was there, smoking the remains of a short cigarette. He was missing a front tooth.

    “No, I don't have anything to spare,” I said as I looked him in the eyes.  “How you doin today?” I turned to face him.
    Carl is 49 years old. He's lived in Chicago all his life and has never married. His brother died. His mother and sisters moved to North Carolina. He was raised in a Baptist church as a child. Now he's homeless. Carl wanted cigarette money because all he could smoke was discarded ones on the ground. We told him he needed to quit those things and find some food. He showed us a partial package of cookies under  his arm a girl had given him earlier in the day.

  Carl said he did two years in Jail for jumping the turnstile on

“The El,” the elevated train in downtown Chicago. As we prayed with Carl there on the corner I prayed that he feel the Holy Spirit and his guardian angel with him and that he not be afraid. I asked God to give Carl hope and determination to make his life better, that he would always know that God loves him.

Was that so hard to do? Would I do that in downtown Tyler, Texas? Would these kids do that in their home town? Honestly, no. We're not in a ministry mode at home. We live in our own self-centered world and we've got somewhere we need to go. That's way past our comfort zone.

     What makes it different on a missions outreach?
        1.We're in a city we don't live in