Have you ever lived in a city—yet felt like your heart belonged somewhere far away? 

“He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.” 
Psalm 107:7 (NIV) 

Perhaps you still go to church regularly, work hard, and try to live faithfully amidst the bustle of urban life. But have you ever paused to ask: 
“What does God see in this city—this place I live in every day?” 

Ray Bakke—a man raised in the forested hills of Saxon, Washington—never imagined he would one day live in the heart of Chicago. He grew up in a small, quiet community where his faith was shaped by a Swedish lumberjack who faithfully taught Sunday School for ten years. Faith back then felt peaceful, simple—seemingly distant from the chaos of the outside world. 

But then God led him to the city. Not to pass through, but to live. To learn. And to be broken. 

Bakke once dreamed of becoming a history teacher or a football coach—familiar role models for a small-town boy. But God had other plans. He brought him to Moody Bible Institute, where he met his wife Corean. Together, they entered ministry in some of the city’s most marginalized neighborhoods—places marked by poverty, racial tension, confusion, and deep pain. 

There, Ray was not just a pastor. He became a grieving father after the death of his infant daughter. A survivor of a gas explosion that nearly took his life. A patient, hands blistered and burned, cared for by refugee doctors—immigrants from China and Cuba who called Chicago “the Promised Land.” 

And it was in those painful days that God’s Word came alive with powerful clarity: 

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 
Jeremiah 29:7 (NIV) 

Ray was shaken. Perhaps he hadn’t loved the city—because he hadn’t truly understood it. But God wasn’t retreating. He stayed. And He called Ray to stay too. And when Ray chose to stay, he began to see the city differently—not just as a place of chaos, but as a place where God was already present—hurting, weeping, and working. 

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.