Tuesday evening, we weren't supposed to be at the lake. We had plans to attend a church service, but at the last minute, the church changed their schedule for the evening and called off the service. We ended up instead on the shore of Lake Michigan with guitars and a blanket, because God had plans for us.
When we arrived at the beach, it took us a while to find a good spot where we wouldn't be disturbing too many people. Once settled, we worshipped God, prayed, and debriefed about our day. Nearby, about 15 yards away, a man was lying on the ground. He appeared to be homeless, and we thought he was asleep, but occasionally he opened his eyes and looked over at us.
As soon as our meeting ended, a few of us felt prompted to offer the man something to eat or drink before leaving and try talking with him. No one had a bottle of water unfortunately, but one girl happened to have a cookie in her purse, wrapped up to save for a snack. She, along with another girl from our group, approached the man and offered him the cookie.
To their surprise, he was full of questions for them once they'd struck up a conversation and told him why we were all here in Chicago. He even asked them questions about Christ – did they talk to Him, believe in Him, etc. As they answered his questions, the rest of the group (all 15 of them!) slowly joined them one by one. You would think this would have frightened him away or discouraged him from speaking as openly as he had been up to that point, but he saw the humor in the situation. He said with a chuckle that the police are always checking up on him when he's lying there alone to make sure he's okay, but now that he's got a group of strangers around him, they aren't! This was also the first time he had ever had a group of Christians come over and talk to him.
We soon learned his story. His name is Dimitri, and he's a 27 year old from Russia. He used to go to church in Russia, was baptized at age 6 or 7, and attended a university there. However, he was expelled and went on to work for 2 years, saving up money to travel. He's been traveling for 3 years and came to Chicago about 6 months ago, but he made some mistakes, got into some trouble, and is now on probation and can't leave the city for another year and a half. He mentioned that if he'd "had religion," he wouldn't have done those bad things.
Dimitri is a very intelligent man. He knew about God and about the Bible, but it seems as though he left all of that behind because he had too many doubts, stemming from unanswered questions. He went on to ask us some of the theological questions that he had; many were difficult to answer. As we talked with him in this way, a nice comfortable breeze was blowing. As one of the girls explained to him how we can know God is real just by looking around us at creation, using our senses, feeling the wind (creation is proof of God!), the wind suddenly picked up, and it continued on strong until the end of our conversation with him!
We asked Dimitri if he would be here in the same place tomorrow, and if so, could we talk with him some more. He was open to the idea, saying he probably would be and that we could wake him up if he was asleep. Then one of the guys asked Dimitri if we could pray with him, but he responded that he never prays for himself, so why should we? However, when we returned to our van, we circled up, and each of us prayed and thanked God for the opportunity to talk with him, as well as for his safety and salvation.
After arriving back at our base, we debriefed a second time that night! The whole group was moved by the experience. It was clear that this evening's events were not an accident – the sudden change in plans, finding that particular spot along the lake to sing and debrief, and the cookie. God had led us there for a purpose, and we hope to be able to spend more time talking with Dimitri before the end of our trip!
