When God connects the dots, sometimes the line leads to Pittsburgh

I often tell people it’s impossible to discern the will of God ahead of time. You may guess a few things right here and there, but by and large, if you try to figure out what God is doing in your life, you will often be shocked by some of the curveballs he throws at you.

But looking back, things are different.

Looking back, you can start to connect the dots and figure out what he has done.

I think this is actually a good thing to do. When you look back and start to put things together — and see how he has weaved a thread from one moment of your life to the next — you can see how reliable he has been and how much he has had a plan all along. This helps, because even though you will continue to have to march through life not seeing the entire path, you will know you have a God you can trust as you take whatever your next step.

A cool example of this — at least from my own life — happened this past weekend.

In the spring of 2022, during one of my many mission trips to Pittsburgh, I ended up offering a free Bible to a guy named Zander at the corner of Fifth Ave & Wood Street. I don’t know what it is about this corner, but I have begun to refer to it as the Nexus of the Universe, because every time I end up there, something memorable seems to happen.

Zander said he loved what we were doing and told us he was the assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh, about 40 minutes south of the city.

That was the end of it, until seven months later when my family and I found ourselves on another mission trip to the area. We are not usually there on weekends, but this time we were, so we needed a church to attend Sunday morning. Naturally we thought of Zander and CCSP. We attended and heard a terrific sermon from the book of Daniel, and while we were there, we met Zander’s father-in-law, the senior pastor, Tim.

Once again, I thought “that was the end of it.” We went to a nice church, met a nice pastor — and that was seemingly it.

But this year, my street ministry efforts have evolved into a formal nonprofit ministry focused not just on evangelism but evangelism training. As I sought out churches to work with this summer, I thought what could it hurt to reach out to CCSP? So I sent Pastor Tim an email.

It turned out he was interested.

This weekend, after a few months of planning with Tim and his elder board, CCSP hosted Rachael and I, as I conducted a 3-hour evangelism training seminar in their fellowship hall. Afterwards, we hit the streets of Pittsburgh with a team of nearly 20 people — a staggering number! — to hand out more tracts and booklets and Bibles than I could wrap my mind around counting.

I thought the training went really well, but the street outreach we did was just as special. The group divided into a bunch of smaller teams — made up of both men and women of a variety of ages, even including some kids — and we all made our way around the downtown area, sharing the gospel with everyone we could.

Some of the highlights for me were sharing tracts with a rapper and his entourage as they recorded a music video, and praying with a man named Jamie who broke down crying after being offered a pocket gospel. He had been in jail for a DUI and had just gotten out of rehab. He was waiting for a bus to Harrisburg to reunite with his daughters when we found him.

Jamie cried because he just couldn’t believe someone cared enough in this dark world to come up to him and talk to him like this. We were able to pray with him twice before he went on his way.

Rachael struck up a conversation with the father of Pittsburgh Steeler Miles Killebrew, and we even got on a hot streak at where else but Fifth & Wood, the Nexus of the Universe.

Afterwards, all the teams got back together in Market Square, and I started asking people how it went. To a person, all I heard was that everyone had had the experience of a lifetime. Things went so well, the church immediately got to work planning its next street outing for December. (I can’t tell you how much I wish I could be there for it. I absolutely LOVE these people.)

I can’t look forward and say where all of this is going. I know I will be having further conversations with the elder board at CCSP about how to build on this momentum, but I also know better than to try to connect the dots in our lives before God has even revealed them to us.

What’s amazing, though, is to look back and see how he has connected the dots we already see, starting with that first encounter with Zander in the spring of ‘22 and leading up to this moment when a team of nearly 20 CCSPers hit the streets of Pittsburgh with the gospel, many for the first time in their lives. While I can’t predict the future, I know from experience we serve a God who can, and he’s a God we can trust. I know he will use these people and their obedience and willingness to serve him to do great things in my favorite city.

I want to close by thanking Tim, Zander, Andy, Mike, Jan, Rachel, and everyone else at Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh for hosting Rachael and I and giving us an incredible experience this past weekend. What an amazing time it was, serving an amazing God. We adore your church!

-JDM-