The Journey Doesn’t End.

So here I am, in the middle of a whirlwind of concrete and metal, of blazing sirens and squealing tires, of tunnels and towers, of rich and poor, fat and fit, male and female, black and white, young and old, and everyone in between. I am in Chicago.

It amazes me how there are opportunities for ministry everywhere. Really, we cannot escape them. They are in friendships, in the words we exchange, in the places we visit and the restaurants we eat at. God is omnipresent; and so he is everywhere. People are everywhere. And everywhere that people are, there is God at work, moving and speaking and creating – ministry is simply seeing and seizing the opportunity to join him wherever he already is.

As an RA I have already been encountering day in and day out the endless opportunities to leave a lasting impression in the lives of these guys. I love them. They’re amazing people and I’m so fortunate and blessed to be able to participate in their lives and their spiritual care and formation. I am deeply honored and humbled at the thought that what I do and say will be watched and noticed by the 22 guys I am proud to say are on my floor: Culby 18. It’s scary – to think and to know that I will mess up, I will make mistakes, I will be careless and proud and rude and self-seeking (very opposite of 1 Corinthians 13′s definition of love). It is humbling to trust that God will teach them and grow them and accomplish through me – despite me – everything he has set out to do from the foundation of the world.

I hope to be a good steward of their lives while I am able to care for them.

Please pray for me, for the floor, for leadership and love and humility, for unity among the guys, for patience and perseverance in me, for clarity and character and courage. Pray, pray pray. Please pray.

I hope that this summer – in your involvement and participation in the ministry I am doing and have been doing – has been as much a blessing to you as it has been to me and to those I have been ministering to. Your support has been undoubtedly and exceedingly important to me. And I’m so thankful that you would want to be a part of what God is doing in my life and in the lives of those I am with. He is using you, right where you are. And that’s amazing.

This fall, I am continuing my studies at Moody – this is my senior year. It has gone by so fast! I am shocked at how quickly life slips through my fingers and I can’t believe that in 8 short months I will be graduating. Unbelievable. I’m so excited. My time at Moody has, without question, been the most incredible part of my life so far – learning so much, both in classes and in relationships, from authors to professors to friends. I really don’t know how I’ll react to leaving this place. I need to – to remain here would be an attempt at preservation, resistance to change, and actualization of stagnation – but I will miss it terribly and will think fondly back on college and the unbelievable ways that God taught me and broke me here.

For those of you who would be interested in further supporting me and my studies at Moody, I am in need of books that I have no idea how I am going to buy. As some of you may know, my dad has been without a job since last December, and we’re praying he finds one soon. I’m currently seeking out jobs here in Chicago, applying for Financial Aid, and may be pulling a loan from Sallie Mae. I don’t mean this to be a pity party, but as men and women who have shared and participated in my life this summer, I want you to know where I am financially at this time. The last thing I want to do is pretend like I have it all together – too many pastors and too many churches have played that game and reaped the results of putting on a proud mask for everyone to see. There have been plenty of pastors and churches who have also done the opposite: been horrible stewards of the care and generosity of the body. They, too, will reap their reward.

I do not want to fall into either of those camps. I hope to stand in the honest space between.

I believe not only in words but action that in meeting the needs of the body of Christ, we really and truly look more like him and bear his image more clearly. Some have not been called to do ministry in the way I am doing ministry. Some are encouragers; and so they should encourage. Some are men and women of vision; and so they should look to the horizon and get others excited about the potential they see. Others are hospitable; they open their homes to whoever needs a place to stay. We are the body, and we care for one another.

I care for the men on my floor. I cannot feed them, and I have nothing to give to them except my time and my life. And so I give it, in the mornings or at coffee shops, in their rooms or talking on a park bench, through dark hours of the night and into the dawn. I give my life, and I give it all, because Christ gave his. There are men who struggle with pornography or gambling addiction, men who are still working through the scars left by their abusive fathers, men who cry because they feel inadequate and unfit to do ministry, men who are looking for prayer and for support, for someone to weep with them, to listen to them and say nothing, to sit with them in the pain to simply understand. These are the pastors and missionaries and counselors of our future, and I hope that by giving my life they may later give theirs a little more fully.

My aim is not to guilt you. I am sorry if that is what this feels like.

If it is, disregard this completely. Duty is cold and heartless, guilt-driven, overshadowed by shame. That is not something I want to be a part of. If you feel drawn to participate in my life because of joy and because of love, then I gladly urge you to help. Then it is blessing. Then it is good.

If you are – out of joy – interested in how you can help me this semester, send me an email. I love to hear from you. I want to fill you in on how your investment in me has turned out this summer in more specific ways than what I’ve posted online. I love the comments I get on here and I love when I see more people have been reading what’s been going on. You may email me at:

antonio.robledo@moody.edu

I love you all, and I am deeply grateful and indebted to you. I hope that I may have the opportunity and the honor to serve you in return in a more immediate way, very soon. Shalom.