So after I left school I ran off to Chicago to a place called Jesus People USA or JPUSA (pronounced Ja Poo Za).  I was trying to escape the loneliness in my heart and figured a community of nearly 500 Christians living the life together according to the Acts 2 biblical model would be a great place to do that.  Unfortunately I landed in a place full of rules and regulations, basically a very legalistic approach to following Christ.  I guess I needed the rigor and direction in some respects.  Either way God used my time there to begin the process of healing that my heart needed. 

From the beginning I worked on a paint crew to earn money to support the community and it’s many good works.  We as a community operated a homeless shelter and fed nearly 500 people in the neighborhood everyday.  That work was exciting and God touched peoples lives in a real way.  I however had little to do with that work and spent many hours working for all sorts of people in the Chicago area.  It was great to work with other Christian men and our fellowship was wonderful.  We had many opportunities to share God’s love and word with the people we worked for, but ultimately it was our work ethic that spoke the most to people. 

One of the unfortunate problems living in a community like JPUSA is being at the mercy of leaders who were flawed.  Of course we are all flawed, however using a position of leadership to humiliate those around you is not an appropriate or Godly action.  Let me explain, after a couple of years I began to run a painting crew.  One summer evening we worked late to complete our job and bring home the check.  Dinner had been served hours earlier and the leftovers were already cleaned up.  I approached an elder to request $20 to take my crew out for a burger.  His response was to tell me “the bible tells us the only thing we deserve is to go to hell!”  Basically humiliating me in a room full of his family and friends.  He did allow us to get the money and we went out to eat, but I never asked that man for anything again.  I basically avoided him from that time on. 

At JPUSA the single men and women were expected to head out each Friday and Saturday evening to witness on the streets of Chicago.  I never really liked the whole passing out tracts on the street and trying to accost total strangers with the Gospel and found this task very difficult.  I thought if we could only get people to stop and listen, but how?  (This part is for you Jen.)  That is when I got the idea to do street theater.  Having some experience with mime and pantomime I approached some other folks, and we developed a group called Streetlight Theater.  It was amazing to perform on the streets and gather fairly large crowds and then share what Christ had done in our lives.  Now that was street evangelism.  We saw a number of people give their lives to Christ during those summer evenings and God was good.

Living in community I was rather sheltered from many of the things going on in the world.  I did not see a newspaper or watch much TV other than football, Bears 1985?  Anyway I had no idea of what was happening in the world from 1981 to 1988.  Thus the lost years, my kids laugh at me when I talk like that.

I met my beautiful wife Ruby while living at JPUSA.  She would tell you that our marriage was an arranged affair.  The community was rather heavy handed in many ways.  But God has blessed our marriage for 20 years and three great young men who love God.  Actually it was the birth of our first son Geoffrey that led us to leave JPUSA.  God had placed in both of our hearts a burden for the youth in mainline churches.  I think because of our upbringings, mine in the Lutheran Church and hers in the Baptist.  So we packed up our meager belongings only filling a quarter of the smallest U-haul truck we could find and headed for Western New York…