LOCALLY SOURCES

Back in August, I told one of my colleagues that it would be a slow month, but that was then and this is now. In October, more than 500 people attended services at Midway Airport Chapel and SKYWORD Ministries had one of her best months in every respect: ministry, attendance and giving. It is a new day, post-pandemic, and the Lord is, dare I say, “rocking our ministry!” It has been fun, joyous and a whole new paradigm for us.

A few months ago, the good people of Midway Airport decided to give the chapel a whole new public address system and at the same time, they replaced the broken, non-functional speakers throughout the airport. The results were nothing shy of dramatic. Our attendance is over double what it used to be and so is the ministry and giving. Previously, a typical service was between one to three people, and if there were four, five or six people, well that was a big service. Now, our low-end attendance has been three to four folks, and we are welcoming seven to nine people, even up to 19 or 20 a service.

And the great news is that we have gone from 12 services a week to 17—three services a day Monday-Friday, and two on Sundays. The excitement among all the SKYWORD team is palpable. We believe the Lord is truly blessing the ministry and for our part, we seek to proclaim a strong gospel message that brings all praise, honor and glory to the Lord. And the response has been remarkable.

I’d like to share some stories about the people I meet.

At a chapel service where all four people were Roman Catholics, I joked with them that I was the lone protestant. I preached a gospel message to an attorney, a retired HR director, a retired schoolteacher and a businessman. The moment I finished, one woman practically shouted out, “Awesome,” and another person replied, “Amen!”

Or the chapel, where we sang “All Creatures of Our God and King,” with an LDS bishop in attendance that day. Recall these words to the hymn: “Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit, three in one.” and you’ll understand why I had to laugh when I realized I didn’t plan it but it happened. And for those of you who don’t get it, our Mormon friends do not acknowledge and believe in the Trinity as we do, and the chapel was full of others who did!

Four women, all nurse anesthetists come into the chapel and said that they had just come from a conference for their work. Imagine the chances in trillions or octillions that the one other person who came to that particular chapel service was another woman, completely unrelated to the group, who was by profession a nurse anesthetist.

The chapel service was a wonderful ordinary one, except that David, a freshly minted Green Beret, was there. After the service, he was quite moved and thanked me profusely. By the way, he’s on a team of twelve that gets to blow up stuff.

Or what about Natasha, in her late thirties with tattoos all around her face and neck. She was a woman at the well kind of woman with a checkered past. She poured out her heart to me in the chapel office (door always open) and told me of her very real conversion but how hard it is for her at church, where many judge her for how she looks (she tried to remove the tattoos with no success) and where they didn’t spend time to see what a beautiful new woman in Christ she is becoming. She regularly communicates with me, asking questions about the Christian life and the Scriptures. She also has thanked me for taking time to respond to her. What a blessing she is. Even today I received another text from her thanking me for taking time to respond to her . . . What a blessing she has been to me, and a marvelous trophy of grace.

Another amazing thing that is happening at the chapel is that we are starting to get some regular attenders from those who work at the airport. There’s John from admin who comes up to four times a week, and Frank from safety who comes once or twice a week. Charlie with the USO comes, and so does Sandy, who brings Karen from the security agency. There’s always a marvelous response from these individuals who express great appreciation for the services. We continue to welcome pilots and flight attendants, especially from Southwest Airlines, some coming back as often as they can.

I have been part of SKYWORD Ministries at Midway for more than 20 years, and the daily chaplain for the past seven and a half years. Through the years, there are travelers who come back and tell me how they were in chapel years ago and they are here again because of their positive experiences.

So, so many continue to tell us daily how much this SKYWORD chapel ministry means to them and how they heard the service announcements and felt God prompting them to find their way to the chapel. They tell me and the rest of my colleagues how the chapel service has made their day or brightened their day or lifted them up. They are grateful to us and to God for this ministry. Lives are touched every day—many in the services and no small number who come to me for spiritual counsel.

We could use a lot more targeted prayer. We are on the front lines, and many come to services who don’t know the Lord or who are in sub-par churches that are probably not preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I end with this story. Pastors from Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire have recently been to chapel and loved it. We also have many priests and monastery brothers and sisters of the Roman Catholic Church who come into our chapel. Many to attend services, some, never. Recently a priest from Lithuania was in one of my services. Afterward he specifically told me, with great enthusiasm, that he so appreciated my gospel and the ways I illustrated the biblical text. He was so grateful and to say he gushed might just be the right word. What an encouragement to know of the impact we are having by God’s grace, on the lives of those in the ministry and even across big denominational lines.

Pray for us and if you ever want to attend a service at the Midway Chapel or come down for a service on the third Sunday night of the month at Pacific Garden Mission, let me know. Thank you for praying and supporting me and SKYWORD MINISTRY as we seek to bring praise, honor and glory to Jesus Christ.