A Ministry of Presence

David Wang is a professor of architecture at Washington State University. An artist, a former seminary student, a researcher and a writer, his life revolves around the very heady world of academia. Partly for that very reason, he sought out the opportunity to volunteer at the Union Gospel Mission.

“I deal with ideas, concepts, books, and I’m very prone to those kinds of things, but what I’ve come to appreciate at the Mission is that ideas and concepts and books are not enough to embody the gospel. Christ did not send concepts. He came himself . . . and he came to a world that is very needy.”

Twice a week for approximately two hours, David enters the life of the Mission’s day room, the area where homeless guests who are not in the recovery program check-in and spend the majority of their time. David joins in – talking, taking a walk, sharing a meal.

“I enjoy just hanging out in the day room. I like to meet with the men and engage with them directly, talk with them, challenge them about the issues of life, and if the occasion warrants, pray with them . . . It’s not the kind of demographic that I am accustomed to, but precisely for that reason, I really enjoy it.

“People are hungry. They may not know they are hungry for the gospel, but they are hungry. They are open. Christ can be spoken of, and there’s receptivity.

Before volunteering at the Mission, David was involved in short-term mission work to China. “I got to thinking, here I am, saving up my pennies to go once a year to China. What am I doing the rest of the time? I began to be convicted that I don’t need to be going to other places to do on-the-ground, gospel-related work. I need to be doing it day in and day out right here in Spokane.” And for the past three years, he’s been doing exactly that.

Volunteer work, David said, is about “putting yourself in the midst of what Christ is doing. It’s not really you going in there and doing some great thing.” There’s freedom in that. “I just feel like I am a little speck in a wonderful work that God is doing. I don’t have to be nervous about it. All I have to do is be that little speck but be faithful in being that little speck.”

In return, David said, he is encouraged by seeing the gospel in action.

“I can get the concepts elsewhere. This is where I experience the Body of Christ in physical form, Immanuel, God with us…It’s just a matter of going back there, sitting down and starting conversations.”