Passion
Jorge Angulo
The first time I ventured out on the streets of Hollywood with Broken Hearts Ministry, I was nervous, terrified, and excited all at the same time. In many ways I can liken my emotions on that night to many of my experiences on those big roller coasters at Six Flags. They call them “thrill rides” for a reason. The second night out with Broken Hearts, I sat with several others on a sidewalk outside a laundromat as we listened to Antquan Washington preach a 15 minute sermon. In many ways I thought it all to be totally absurd. “Preaching to addicts, prostitutes, dealers… waste of time but bold nonetheless.” It didn’t take long though for me to see positive results from Antquan’s preaching and the rest of what the Broken Hearts team was doing.
The more I witnessed positive results from the street preaching, the more I admired Antquan. Since he stood and we sat as he preached, I looked up to him more and more in both senses. Antquan had and continues to have a passion to bring the healing truth of the Gospel of Jesus to the broken and hurting. You could say he was and is on fire. Likewise, you could say that his fire spread onto me too. It wasn’t long before I began considering preaching too. My gut reaction though was “Shu! …Right! …As if! …Like THAT will ever happen!” I can’t remember the specifics of how it came to be but after some time I gave my first street sermon, then another, and another… I’d like to think that I am pretty good at it now.
I got a gentle reminder a few months ago about how I basically sucked when I first started preaching. Antquan saw that I had a passion to preach even if I lacked the skills and natural talent. So he continued to allow me to preach despite my flaws. Unbeknownst to me at that time several people loathed my preaching. More than one person approached Antquan privately and pleaded that he would stop permitting me to preach. One person said once, with a tone that was less than enthusiastic, “What?! Jeremiah is speaking again?!”. I think if I had known what was being said about me in private back then I would have been crushed and would never have spoken in public again, anywhere, ever. Knowing what I know now, I am forever grateful to Antquan for seeing what many others couldn’t see.
This brings me to the point of this story. The reason Antquan brought up that ugly past is because history is repeating iteself with someone else, Jorge Angulo. The only negative things I have heard about Jorge’s public speaking ability have come out of his own mouth. He is his own worst critic. But otherwise his story is nearly identical to mine. He doesn’t have some of the natural talents that society expects in a persuasive speaker, but he does have the same passion that Antquan and I have.
Last night, Jorge gave his first parking lot sermon. He was supposed to deliver it last week but because of the bomb scare he got another week. That’s roughly two weeks to prepare and to dwell on the emotions that come with public speaking. …On a bit of a side note, although I have been preaching for a while now, I have never been the person who does the intro. Getting multiple people to focus on one thing is a daunting task on a busy Hollywood street. Frankly, I have been too timid to do it and Antquan is really good at it. Last night, I did the intro for the first time ever. So, there were two firsts last night.
When Jorge stood up to speak he was noticeably nervous. He kept his arms close to his side, clenched his Bible and notes, and was barely audible over the sounds of the passing cars. One of our friends from the street was standing next to him and another was sitting near me playing with a ball and thinking out loud about pizza. Jorge’s audience consisted of five members of the Broken Hearts street team, the two men I just described, and one more person. It was plainly obvious that Jorge was anticipating a different audience. He even hesitated part way through his sermon and told us so. He continued to struggle forward with the sermon he had planned for a few minutes before Antquan, no joke, pulled Jorge’s Bible and notes out of his hands and said with a smile, “Continue.” Jorge faltered for a few seconds and then it was as if a switch had been flipped inside of him. I don’t remember his exact words but they were something like this: “…Let me tell you what’s really been on my heart to share.” At this, Jorge’s voice rose several decibels and his arms began to move freely about. He went on to preach to us, the Broken Hearts team, about how we are missing the call of Christ to take up our cross daily, to sacrifice our “life” for Jesus’ sake. I had to hang my head and stare at the sidewalk as I listened because everything he said was true. There are many things in my life that I cling to instead of Jesus.
But that’s not all. As Jorge preached to us everyone shifted. Other team members responded like I did, but just as importantly, our friends from the street shifted too. The man who was standing beside Jorge sat down to face him. The man with the ball stopped talking about pizza, put the ball away, and focused solely on Jorge’s words.
When Jorge had finished sharing his thoughts, Antquan stood up and tied up some lose ends with scripture references, led us in prayer, and then broke us into groups for discussion. I bee-lined straight to Jorge. The first words out of his mouth were “I was horrible, wasn’t I? … I was rambling all over the place and I am not sure that I made any sense!” I couldn’t have disagreed more.
