Something else that happened this week was our "experimental ministry" day. Given the incredible cultural diversity of the Bay Area, we have found ourselves consistently engaging students of other ethnicities besides Asian American. With our "experimental" day, the goal was to push that even more and go to a historically black school like Laney College in Oakland...just to see what would happen. Can a bunch of Asians help launch an Impact movement in Oakland? What do Asians know about African American ministry anyway? Well, that's why we're calling it "experimental"...Leave San Jose and drive about an hour to Oaktown. Our entire team is doing this together. Laney College is actually quite busy on Wednesday. We set up the same types of stuff around campus and also have a group that will focus just on prayerwalking the campus and intercessory prayer. Off the group goes, acting like this is totally normal! Maybe it should be. Anyway, the visual hilarity of seeing a short Asian girl approach a group of football players was priceless.
Saw a group of football player type guys, hanging out after lunch. I kind of have the idea that it would be good to approach them and immediately wonder where that came from. I'm an ESM Regional Director now...I should be foaming at the mouth to do this! But I'm not. I really start to feel like I should go up to them so, instead, I sit down on a bench and wait for that feeling to go away...which it unfortunately doesn't. Unable to put it off any longer, I go up to them and ask if they'd mind giving their opinions on our board over there. One of them reads the first one asking about "Who was Jesus, REALLY?" and promptly tells me that he's Muslim and can't answer that question. Right about this time, another dude comes over and the first thing I think is, "Wow, I think this guy is from the Nation of Islam!" because he looks like a mini Louis Farrakhan, with the suit, bowtie, and the works.
Not wanting a confrontation with the Nation of Islam, I try to quietly fall back as they're all exchanging greetings. Apparently "Louis Jr." is tight with the group. Forunately, the guy that initially answered my question has broken off from the crowd and is actually reading some of the boards. So I ask him if he had any opinions on the topics NOT regarding Jesus. Apparently, Freedom is a favorite topic of his and so we talk for about 15 minutes about what it means to be truly free. I even asked him how devout he was in his Muslim faith. He said something like, "yeah, I guess". His answer led me to think that, if I was actually friends with this guy, that we could actually have some really great conversations about Jesus. All this took place within 10 feet of his friends and the guy from Nation of Islam. If they would have cared to listen, I'm sure that I wouldn't have gotten 1 minute into that conversation before I had to start answering questions about how the Bible is tainted because it's been translated and other arguements that usually come up when talking to hard core Muslims. Maybe an Asian dude talking to one of their boys just wasn't threatening enough to actually pay attention...I don't know. I'm glad that they didn't, though.
Met a really great female student while at Laney, too. She's the head of the only Christian group on campus and is actually already connected to the SF Metro ministry and knew all about the Impact Movement. What an incredibly driven and talented leader! Some in our group spent quite a long time sharing about our Project, our vision, asking her how they could pray for Laney College and the believers there. It really was a mutually encouraging time. In the end, she shared about a burden that God has laid on her heart to see some type of ministry to reach the Asian students that go to Laney and the nearby Chinatown area of Oakland. To hear this African American student share about a vision that God has given her to help reach Asian Americans was a total surprise and an incredible blessing. To have her affirm our motives (and even our efforts) to share Christ with African American students at Laney that day was sweet, too. I pray that God grows all of our hearts to love and reach out to those who are different from us.
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