Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

Today I drank bubble tea[1], prayed for a man’s neck and back to be healed[2], had lunch with a Dr. Kim who is Korean and is translating Josephus’s Antiquities into the Chinese language[3], taught my spiritual transformation material from 9 AM – 4 PM[4], prayed for 15 people to be freed from self-hatred[5], listened to many stories of how God was speaking to the Chinese students in my class[6], had many feelings of being very alive and even intense during the day because of the presence of God[7], was told that a woman with inoperable cancer wants to attend my class tomorrow[8], prepared to (hopefully) meet with a Chinese teenager who is filled with anger and hopelessness and has been cutting his arms and burning his arms with cigarettes[9], ate at a restaurant that serves “Steamboat” meals[10], got treated to the second bubble tea in my life[11],  met for 2 hours with 20 Chinese teens who play guitar and I gave them guitar lessons and we worshiped together, got invited by John Hao to come back to Queens to speak at their annual conference in Nov. 2008 and John also asked me if I would go to Asia with him and speak at a conference for Chinese Christian leaders, went to Starbuck’s and walked home on a clear, cool New York City evening with jets flying low overhead into La Guardia and the streets filled with people eating and talking and walking…

…And, earlier in the day, I looked up in the sky and saw a plane skywriting the word “Geico” in the air.[12] I was staring at it, because I’ve never seen this happen over the skies of Monroe. Then some people came out of their building and stared with me. One of them cried out, “Look, it’s Geico!” Some others laughed and cried out, “Geico! Geico! Geico!” And there I was, gazing in amazement with all these strangers at the odd phenomenon in the heavens above. Dr. Kim was next to me. I asked him, “Is that God trying to tell us something?” Dr. Kim, an understated man, said “No,” and I believe he was right. Time now to go to bed…