Witnessing...a twenty-four seven ministry. (Part 1)

My hometown of Kalamazoo Michigan is a smaller county with a population of about 240,000. Of those residents, almost 85% are white, and most are Christians. It's safe to say that my upbringing was quite a sheltered one. After graduating from my upperclass Catholic high school, I decided to see what the rest of the world had to offer...I chose to study in Chicago.

The college where I chose to study was a polar oposite from where I grew up. Columbia College Chicago is a liberal arts school located in the center of the big city. The student body was made up of blacks, whites, browns, purples and pinks. There were Democrats and Republicans (at least four of them), Christians, Muslims, Jews, and the largest percentage were Atheists. From freshmen move-in day until the ink dried on my degree, I was learning about Business, but more importantly about different cultures, religions and political beliefs. I had no idea that my actions and beliefs would have such a dramatic impact on many of my classmates and friends.

Just a few months after my 18th birthday, I moved into my dorm with 3 other guys. We would all become well known as the most outgoing guys on campus. We were commonly referred to around campus as either the "Party People" or simply "501". They all knew who we were, but unfortunately, people never got to know us as individuals the way that we would each have liked them to.

If you have watched television shows such as the "Real World" or "Big Brother", then you know what these television networks attempt to assemble when casting. They usually include a gay guy, a homophobe, a tree-hugging liberal, and a conservative religious type. When we all moved in, God must have been enjoying the aforementioned reality shows, because He assembled us in a very similar way. The guys in 501 were Rob the Comedian, James the Cook, Kevin the Potato, and myself.

James was a free spirit from the East coast. When I first entered our dorm room, I heard somoene in one of the two bedrooms so I knocked. James answered his door in a tie-dyed t-shirt and a bandana tied fasionably around his long nappy hair. His Bob Marly poster and wet towel under the door made me wonder if he might participate in the use of a certain controlled substance. It didn't take long to confirm those assumptions, but what a cook he was. I would come to know James as a very kind-hearted guy with a lot of talents and a tough addiction.

Kevin was an Irish Catholic kid from the southside. (AKA, Potato spent many nights partying hard with his good friend Jameson, Jameson Whiskey that is.) Kevin shared a room with James, and they were both partiers, but chose different guests and party favors. Kevin was very much against smoking and illegal substances, but he loved to drink and become quite loud and boistrous. The idea of a party to James was a few friends turning off the lights, smoking and playing his guitar. There were certainly some conflicts that arose from this living arrangement.

Rob and I shared a room. He was an extremely outgoing young fella that lived to make people laugh. He would laugh at you, with you, at himself, or at different situations. After years I started to see that he didn't really find enjoyment in laughing, but it was seeing people laugh at him that gave him true happiness. After about a year and a half of living with Rob, we would learn that he was gay. It didn't completely shock us, but we were taken somewhat by surprise.

As we were unpacking our stuff on that late summer day, Rob pulled out a menorah, and placed it on his desk. I didn't hesitate to inquire as to why he was displaying that. I wasn't being rude when I inquired, I just had never met a Jewish person before. In fact, I didn't really know that Jewish people existed here in America. Rob would go on to tell me that he is Jewish, but that his faith isn't really important to him at all.

Chapter to be continued...