Update #5.5 - In Which We Realize this is not Purdue

While I was in the library, I managed to get my hands on "a map." I put the word in parentheses because it accomplished only one of the two functions it was meant to. Maps are used to a) tell you where you are, and b) tell you how to get somewhere from your present location. Not realizing that this was "a map" and not a map, we found our way to Purdue University only to realize after an hour on campus that Purdue University is not in the city of Indianapolis. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is in the city of Indianapolis.

The good news is that even though we weren't where we thought we were, it soon became clear that we were, in fact, exactly where we were supposed to be. How do we know this? Cornelius.

Normally we change the names of people in this blog, but in this case, the name was far too telling. Cornelius...please don't sue.

Flashback to I-65 yesterday morn:

"What are you reading, Alan?"

"Acts. I'm seeing what different tactics the apostles used to evangelize."

"Hmm. You know, they had an advantage. It seems like God is always putting people in there way and telling them exactly where to go. Like with Cornelius. Peter's sitting on the roof and has a vision. Off to Cornelius he goes, but doesn't know why until he gets there. I'd like to have a Peter-on-the-roof moment."

"Yeah..." So we prayed that God would put people in our way today - people he wanted us to come in contact with.

Four hours later found us in the science building of IUPUI, walking into every open office and handing out the Lennox-Dawkins radio interview to interested parties. Just as we were pressing the elevator button, we noticed a student in the lounge area packing up his books. I'd go into the whole conversation, but this post is long enough already. To tell it short, the student's name was Cornelius and he was a fellow Christian who expressed his gratitude for "people like us."

Bold, he called us. Courageous and confident.

"Whenever I try to do stuff like that, I'm so afraid of being rejected."

"If only you knew," we told him. "I wish we could say we were comfortable doing the things we've been up to the last few days, but we're not. There's a reason we left our own state to do this - it would have been even more terrifying back home, amongst people we know."

And it's true. Some of you have told us you can see an increasing boldness. We feel an increasing exhaustion. Some of you have told us we are courageous. We appreciate that, but let me tell you, we don't feel all that courageous. So many conversations that don't go anywhere, so many opportunities we see missed, so many times we'd rather sleep than engage our neighbor.

Thank you all for your continued encouragement - I've never felt like I needed it more. Thank you Cornelius for being an answer to prayer - we left you with great confidence in God's power.

We are not fearless. Brave, perhaps, but not any more than what is common to man. "When you're scared but you still do it anyway," says Coraline in the book after her own name, "that's brave."

~Alan Halbrooks