Our immediate community is our principal mission field; however, before we can expect to see a spiritual transformation in the fabric of the broader community, we must engage individuals with the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. In other words, we must meet people and develop relationships with them that make a beeline for the Cross. Here are a few of these relational intersections. We won't provide real names for the sake of their privacy, but God intimately knows them by name and has numbered every hair on their heads. Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit would use our faithful witness of Jesus to provoke their radical pursuit of Him.

Missionaries in Maywood

Every mission team we host in Maywood has the privilege of performing a very special work. Missionaries pick up neighborhood refuse. It's funny how every time we do this, someone will step out and ask, "What are you all doing?" Is this the perfect opportunity to tell them that we are Do-Gooders! NO WAY! We make a beeline for the Cross and share with them about the love of Christ which is what motivates us to serve and love our neighbors.

Since March 2008, we have hosted no less than 17 mission teams. By the close of 2010, we should be near or beyond 30! Mission teams who come alongside us in Maywood help us meet and survey neighbors, pray with them, and clean-up trash in surrounding streets, alleys, and even parks. They help us run with door-to-door evangelism, Vacation Bible Schools, Backyard Bible Clubs, Sportscamps, begin new ministries on college campuses and more! In 2010, some will add construction projects to the growing list. We desire to involve Christians in ministries that continue to establish compelling platforms that win the opportunity to share about the love of Jesus which saves souls. Again, authenticity and relevancy are the rules of engagement. Meaningful contacts are made with children and adults.


Why Do We Engage People the Way We Do?

Gary Chapman in his bestselling book, The Five Love Languages, states, "We must be willing to learn [people's] primary love language if we are to be effective communicators of love."  Now look, I think that much of Christian counseling is a bunch of hooey, but Chapman is right about this! We need to know what it is that communicates love to those we intend to love. If we express our love in a manner which doesn't communicate love, then it may be as if we never said, "I love you" at all.

Similarly, we began to wonder if maybe we aren't communicating the love of God in a way that isn't meaningful to our listeners? We think we're clearly proclaiming the love of God, but people just keep saying, "Oh, isn't that nice," and just walk away? We decided to survey our neighbors at least once a year to find out our community's "love language" by asking one simple question.  What do you believe are the greatest needs in this village? Here are the answers we got:

     1) Do something about the crime!
2) "It's the economy, stupid." (Most recent development)
      3) Provide more activities and programs for children.
4) Beautify this community.

Love language #1 - We didn't know what to do about the crime problem in our town so we started hanging out with people who had a better idea. We became very friendly with our police department,  and we became active participants in M.A.P.S. (Maywood's Alternative Policing Strategy). Later we joined a local community organization and John was appointed the chairperson of the crime committee. Now, 911 is our favorite phone number and the criminal element knows it, and so do the police who are more than happy to come running!

Love Language #2 - Especially now with recent economic conditions in the world, Maywood has been especially hard hit. I wish I could win the $300 million in the Megamillions lottery so that I could single-handedly bring about economic transformation and revitalization to Maywood, but guess what?  God wouldn't get the glory, would he? The Illinois State Lottery and John Yi would get it! Also, the Bride of Christ would not have the opportunity to show herself radiant, would she? So, we got involved in another local community development organization - the most historic and prominent one in town. Their four member executive board was short one person, so when the time came to fill the vacancy, they asked, "Who would like to volunteer?" NO ONE raised their hand! The position was "Newsletter Editor." NO ONE wanted the job, but it was a full-on executive board position, and it was the only one that apparently was not an elected position! John, who's membership was ratified only thirty day prior, sheepishly raised his hand. He was immediately and unanimously approved by the quorum. What's the best way to lead? Serve!

Love Language #3 - During the first year, we began by doing what we knew: children's ministry in our home, in our backyard, in parks, wherever we could do it. Now, this work has become a mainstay. It's not something we do with leftover time, but something that is given primetime. Why? Do we really need to lay out all 15,000+ reasons? 

Love Language #4 - We were thrown a little by this one.  With all the problems in our town, beautification? We started to keep our own yards clean. Then we started to pick up after our less than tidy neighbors. Now we assign every mission team that comes to Maywood with the honor of being a servant of all! That's why every missionary puts a glove on their left hand and holds a trash bag in their right hand. So that when (and not "if") someone comes out and inquires, "What the **** are you kids doing on my lawn?!" or "Why are you doing this?" we can hold out our right hand of peace and tell them all about the love of Jesus which compels us to show and share the reason for the hope that is within us.

We feel like we're getting a better handle on Maywood's love languages every day, but in order to get it right, it's like a marriage. Once you stop becoming more and more an expert on your spouse and her love language(s), the more likely that he/she is not going to be your spouse much longer.  We want to spend the rest of our lives exegeting (studying) the Scriptures; we intend to devote just as much time exegeting our neighbors, and every emerging mission field.

Good Works that Invite Praise and Indictment

We have seen lukewarm and even cold receptions turn warm not because of our charismatic personalities, but because our ministry and mission activity is appreciated as valuable - relevant to the needs of the community. In Spring 2009, the students and administration of the Solex College  welcomed us onto their campus as their first student organization. In the summer, the Maywood Park District welcomed  and partnered with us to host Vacation Bible Schools and Sportscamps in local parks. In Fall 2009, the president's office of Triton College invited John to sit on her Community Relations Committee.  

During one of our VBS-Sprotscamps, we received numerous accolades and words of appreciation from passerbys and neighbors. Our work has made the news in an area newspaper, and praised by community advocates. Even long after events such as these have come and gone, people remember the ministry we do and its benefits to the community. 

Still, our work also invites indictment. Recently, one person affirmed our work out in the community, but then added, "The other churches in this town ought to be ashamed of themselves!" We suppose she was referring to the several other parks that laid bare and empty all summer. and the thousands of children that wander through their free hours aimlessly. Maybe, she was referring to the countless young people who go completely unreached by any church.  Perhaps she was referring to the vast majority of Maywood congregations that seem to hardly engage the cracks in their own sidewalks let alone the brokenness of their neighbors.

We receive commendations as a vote for "missionally-minded" varieties of ministry which take the salt and light of the Gospel out into the infection and darkness of the streets.

The Criminal Who Is Our Neighbor

Maywood has more than her fair share of lawlessness. It is embodied in the drug dealer, the gangbanger, the dirty cop, the corrupt politician, the evil undershepherd of God's flock, the burglar, the prostitute, the sexual predator, etc., etc., etc. They are regular people, fallen in their sin; therefore, we strive to bring the saving truth of our compassionate God by presenting His Son. Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone laid for the everlasting benefit of all who will trust Him and stand upon Him. Yet, we pray that Jesus will prove to be both a gracious Savior and a fearsome Judge. May those who love unrighteousness and lawlessness, may those who continue to hate good and promulgate evil, may these find Christ to be the Stone that falls upon them, crushes them, and brings complete ruin!

Along with the saints of old, we boldly pray their imprecatory prayers for God's swift and fearsome judgment! To those who have made it their business to harm, oppress, entangle, seduce, enslave, trip up, and distress the sons and daughters of righteousness, we pray with the Psalmists:

• Psalm 55:15 - Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.
• Psalm 58:6 - O God, break the teeth in their mouths.
• Psalm 69:28 - May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
• Psalm 109:9 - May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
• Psalm 137:9 - How blessed will be the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Or as Jesus pointedly asserts:

• Matthew 18:6 - But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

However, we also pray that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment, so that these might repent for the glory of God, and know the transcendent joy of communing with the Savior.


Our Neighbors 

We've seen 59 professions of faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior since we came to Maywood! The vast majority of these professions have occurred among young people. While we continue Backyard Bible Club (BBC) meetings, we're still hard-pressed to find local adult volunteers. Our ministry and service to our neighbors has not gone unnoticed as numerous people have commended us for our service to neighborhood. We can do no less than redirect their effusions of praise to the Father in heaven.

With our second year having come and gone, we' praise God for the opportunity of even broader outreaches to children and their families. This past summer we took the Gospel to the municipal parks! Please pray for our continuing ministry; please pray for Maywood's children and their families. Pray that our expressions of Jesus' love for them will yield greater harvests and that the outreach to kids will translate into four things: (1) the broader community's more positive regard for the Church of Jesus, and on the flipside, the indictment and disdain for those who feign Christianity or settle for "playing" church, (2) the authentic and relevant participation of neighbors (especially adults) in Kingdom ministry, (3) additional gatherings and groups - Bible studies, prayer meeting, and worship services, and (4) most importantly, the greatness of Jesus in the hearts of men and women.


The World Beyond Maywood 
(Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth)

Coming soon.