Thursday, July 26, 2007
DAY 4--Thursday Evening
Tonight was a wonderful way to close out an amazing and powerful day! We got dropped off downtown by the Sears Tower and had a little time to kill while waiting till 6pm when we had dinner reservations. We had a little fun with the cameras and jumped around a little bit. Some of those pictures may make the blog...
As we were wrapping up and about ready to head to dinner, a man approached us and started talking with us. He started by saying "Listen to your moms and dads! Listen to Jesus! Stay in school young people, don't ever drop out!" We were caught a little offguard, but decided to talk with him for a few minutes. His name was Rolan and this is his story.
Rolan is 46 and currently does not have a job nor a place to stay. He is in good health and is trying desperately to get a job. He wants to work and he wants to share Jesus with others. When he was younger, his little sister was raped and killed by her boyfriend. Rolan was so upset that he went after the guy and murdered him. And for this Rolan got locked up in prison. He was truly filled with sorrow for taking the life of someone, even someone who had done all that to his little sister. Well while he was in prison he found God. He began to read the Bible while in prison and during our conversation was steadily quoting more Scripture than any of us could probably say from memory. He told how he had seen so many awful things in prison, guys getting murdered, beaten and shanked and he recognized that the only reason he made it out alive was because of God. Since then he has been sharing his story with others and encouraging young people to listen to their parents, stay in school and follow Jesus. Rolan asked if he could pray for us, but before we did, he shared another lesson learned with our students. He explained to the students that we are to love everyone and share Jesus with them and if they are positive influences to our lives than we are to stay around them, but those that are negative influences we need to still love and share Jesus with, but we need to keep our distance so that we are not pulled down. The students got a chance to pray for Rolan and Rolan prayed for us.
It was an amazing experience and one that I'm sure these students will not forget for a long time and to some this may have been the highlight of their trip.
After we stuffed ourselves at Giordano's we made our way all the way up to the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower and had some time to look around all of Chicago. We gathered as a team and talked about what we had done that morning and how much of an impact we had. The team then had some time to personally reflect on the morning and to be honest with themselves about giving it their all this morning. They looked specifically in the areas where they had been praying and were able to identify many of the buildings and remember praying for all the lives that interact with that building. It was a really cool moment of reflection.
Well, it's off to bed now and we'll finish strong tomorrow! We'll be going strong all the way through to 8 o'clock tomorrow night when we pull into the GCC parking lot!
See everybody soon!
As we were wrapping up and about ready to head to dinner, a man approached us and started talking with us. He started by saying "Listen to your moms and dads! Listen to Jesus! Stay in school young people, don't ever drop out!" We were caught a little offguard, but decided to talk with him for a few minutes. His name was Rolan and this is his story.
Rolan is 46 and currently does not have a job nor a place to stay. He is in good health and is trying desperately to get a job. He wants to work and he wants to share Jesus with others. When he was younger, his little sister was raped and killed by her boyfriend. Rolan was so upset that he went after the guy and murdered him. And for this Rolan got locked up in prison. He was truly filled with sorrow for taking the life of someone, even someone who had done all that to his little sister. Well while he was in prison he found God. He began to read the Bible while in prison and during our conversation was steadily quoting more Scripture than any of us could probably say from memory. He told how he had seen so many awful things in prison, guys getting murdered, beaten and shanked and he recognized that the only reason he made it out alive was because of God. Since then he has been sharing his story with others and encouraging young people to listen to their parents, stay in school and follow Jesus. Rolan asked if he could pray for us, but before we did, he shared another lesson learned with our students. He explained to the students that we are to love everyone and share Jesus with them and if they are positive influences to our lives than we are to stay around them, but those that are negative influences we need to still love and share Jesus with, but we need to keep our distance so that we are not pulled down. The students got a chance to pray for Rolan and Rolan prayed for us.
It was an amazing experience and one that I'm sure these students will not forget for a long time and to some this may have been the highlight of their trip.
After we stuffed ourselves at Giordano's we made our way all the way up to the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower and had some time to look around all of Chicago. We gathered as a team and talked about what we had done that morning and how much of an impact we had. The team then had some time to personally reflect on the morning and to be honest with themselves about giving it their all this morning. They looked specifically in the areas where they had been praying and were able to identify many of the buildings and remember praying for all the lives that interact with that building. It was a really cool moment of reflection.
Well, it's off to bed now and we'll finish strong tomorrow! We'll be going strong all the way through to 8 o'clock tomorrow night when we pull into the GCC parking lot!
See everybody soon!
DAY 4-Thursday
Today was INCREDIBLE! The team got WAY beyond their comfort zones today! Even the leaders got a little bit stretched by everything we did today!
Quick recap, on Monday the team spent time in Little India and really expanded their minds and did some mental work. Tuesday and Wednesday we were at Lathrop Homes doing some serious physical work as we were cleaning, painting and moving furniture.
Well, today the team got to do some serious spiritual work! We headed downtown where Bus Driver Phil dropped us off by the Art Institute. We broke into our three teams again and spread out to cover a large portion of the city in prayer. Each team had several streets they were responsible and we spent about 3 hours walking down the streets, praying for every building. The team prayed for the workers in the building, for those that lived in the buildings and the patrons that would visit the countless stores and restaurants. Jeff and Sarah's team got to pray for those filming the new Batman movie in Chicago. Loretta and I's team had several federal buildings, including the courthouse and post office as well as the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
All in all we covered every building from Michigan Avenue west to Upper Wacker and from Congress Parkway all the way up to Upper Wacker. All in all the team walked a total of 10.5 miles and covered every building along those stretches in prayer! You should be proud of this team! They were hot, they were tired and yet they persevered and kept pushing through! Afterwards we enjoyed lunch out by the planetarium and looked back at the awesome skyline! We're currently back at the hotel for some quick showers and then it's back into the city for a fun evening. I'll tell you if you can keep a secret because most of the students don't know yet...
Alright, we're going to load up on the busses and head down to Giordano's pizza in downtown Chicago which may be the most amazing Chicago Pizza EVER! And the best news is we have a group deal set up and it's an all you can eat buffet! Then it's over to the Sears Tower to go ALL the way up to the skydeck to have a sunset view over the city and ALL the buildings and people that we spent the entire morning praying for! Should be a cool night! More pictures to come this evening!
Hard to believe it's Thursday evening already...
Quick recap, on Monday the team spent time in Little India and really expanded their minds and did some mental work. Tuesday and Wednesday we were at Lathrop Homes doing some serious physical work as we were cleaning, painting and moving furniture.
Well, today the team got to do some serious spiritual work! We headed downtown where Bus Driver Phil dropped us off by the Art Institute. We broke into our three teams again and spread out to cover a large portion of the city in prayer. Each team had several streets they were responsible and we spent about 3 hours walking down the streets, praying for every building. The team prayed for the workers in the building, for those that lived in the buildings and the patrons that would visit the countless stores and restaurants. Jeff and Sarah's team got to pray for those filming the new Batman movie in Chicago. Loretta and I's team had several federal buildings, including the courthouse and post office as well as the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
All in all we covered every building from Michigan Avenue west to Upper Wacker and from Congress Parkway all the way up to Upper Wacker. All in all the team walked a total of 10.5 miles and covered every building along those stretches in prayer! You should be proud of this team! They were hot, they were tired and yet they persevered and kept pushing through! Afterwards we enjoyed lunch out by the planetarium and looked back at the awesome skyline! We're currently back at the hotel for some quick showers and then it's back into the city for a fun evening. I'll tell you if you can keep a secret because most of the students don't know yet...
Alright, we're going to load up on the busses and head down to Giordano's pizza in downtown Chicago which may be the most amazing Chicago Pizza EVER! And the best news is we have a group deal set up and it's an all you can eat buffet! Then it's over to the Sears Tower to go ALL the way up to the skydeck to have a sunset view over the city and ALL the buildings and people that we spent the entire morning praying for! Should be a cool night! More pictures to come this evening!
Hard to believe it's Thursday evening already...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Day 3--WEDNESDAY
Today was another FANTASTIC day over at Lathrop homes! We got a TON accomplished! Split into the same teams as yesterday we started tackling projects left and right. We took the truck and trailer with us today and offloaded ALL the furniture and beds that we brought with us. Everyone pitched in to get everything wiped down, freshened up and vacuumed clean, ready for delivery.
Team by team, we loaded up in the back of the truck with a few items at a time in the trailer to drive a block down the street and start on some new apartments while finishing some apartments from yesterday. Jeff and Sarah's group spent the day working with Trina. They were able to put together a new dresser that Trina had gotten for her daughter and they also assembled a new stand for her living room. We had brought a donated bunk bed with us but after a few minutes found out why a stranger gave it to us for free... There were several mission parts to the bed like side rails and braces and a few other important parts. So the team kept working and cleaning and Jeff and I made a run to a local furniture store and bought Trina a brand new bunk bed for her girls. Cool thing is today was her daughter's 5th birthday and she gets to sleep in a brand new bed with a brand new mattress!
Loretta and I's group headed over to help Flora out. We tossed out a really old couch that was beyond any hope and replaced it with a couch that had been donated from one of you guys! It was pretty apparent that the apartment could benefit from some deep cleaning so the team jumped on it and worked like crazy until lunchtime. After lunch it was back to Carol's apartment to help her continue on with the massive project of cleaning her apartment. We brought with us two donated dressers and a brand new bed for Jason. Jason is Carol's 18 year old son who has decided to join the national guard in order to help make a difference and to earn money for college. He was extremely grateful for the new bed and new dresser. We also helped fix her younger son, Jasper's, dresser that had been falling apart, but just needed a little TLC with some nails and a hammer! Carol was so grateful for all the help that the team had done over the last two days and is determined to finish the projects we helped her start so that if and when we ever come back to help again, we'll be proud of her continued progress!
Dave and Carol's group helped deliver furniture to several different places. One apartment they delivered a brand new bed for Lillyanna who just had her baby on Saturday. She had been sleeping on a twin that was in worse shape than anything that anybody reading this blog has probably ever laid on, much less slept on. They also helped deliver to about 2-3 other apartments in the morning that had different items of furniture that we delivered. After lunch they hopped on over to Flora's apartment to do some painting and final cleaning.
This evening then it was off for round two at Wendy's! Apparently the team enjoyed it on Monday so much they were ready to go back!
As were were sitting around this evening after dinner, we spent time talking about the day once again and sharing stories of what we all did and of the amazing experiences we had. If you are a parent of a student on this trip, you should be proud. If you are a freind of someone on this trip, you should be proud. If you are the son/daughter/spouse of one of the leaders on this trip you should be proud. This team gets it. Their actions over the last 3 days has shown that the words "Other People Matter" are a lot more than a catchy phrase or cool shirt. This team has shown love to other people by serving, by talking, by caring, by acknowledging someone else in this world other than themselves. The residents we worked with over the past two days many times could not put their appreciation into words and sometimes it spilled out in tears of joy and thankfulness that someone cared. There are over a dozen residents in Lathrop homes that have witnessed firsthand the love of Jesus because of what your students are doing. There are hundreds more residents of Lathrop that have been impacted by seeing your students love and care for and clean for total strangers when many times they are not even willing to help each other out as neighbors. The impact is far from over. Dyla and CeCe from Service Connector are so grateful, impressed, amazed and in awe of this team that they extended an open invitation to come back and help pretty much anytime! And I think we'll take them up on that offer!
The team is doing well. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for the comments. Keep on praying, keep on commenting. The kids love hearing encouraging words from back home. And remember that you are as much a part of this team as those of us sitting here in Chicago. Your support, your encouragement, your prayers, your money :), and all the years of you raising such good kids has made this trip what it is. There is NO way this could be possible without all your support and of course your permission for me to take your kids to Chicago!
Good night! Be praying for the team tomorrow! We will be stretched and pushed beyond our comfort zone in a big way tomorrow! We'll update tomorrow evening!
Love from CHICAGO!
Johnny and the team.
Team by team, we loaded up in the back of the truck with a few items at a time in the trailer to drive a block down the street and start on some new apartments while finishing some apartments from yesterday. Jeff and Sarah's group spent the day working with Trina. They were able to put together a new dresser that Trina had gotten for her daughter and they also assembled a new stand for her living room. We had brought a donated bunk bed with us but after a few minutes found out why a stranger gave it to us for free... There were several mission parts to the bed like side rails and braces and a few other important parts. So the team kept working and cleaning and Jeff and I made a run to a local furniture store and bought Trina a brand new bunk bed for her girls. Cool thing is today was her daughter's 5th birthday and she gets to sleep in a brand new bed with a brand new mattress!
Loretta and I's group headed over to help Flora out. We tossed out a really old couch that was beyond any hope and replaced it with a couch that had been donated from one of you guys! It was pretty apparent that the apartment could benefit from some deep cleaning so the team jumped on it and worked like crazy until lunchtime. After lunch it was back to Carol's apartment to help her continue on with the massive project of cleaning her apartment. We brought with us two donated dressers and a brand new bed for Jason. Jason is Carol's 18 year old son who has decided to join the national guard in order to help make a difference and to earn money for college. He was extremely grateful for the new bed and new dresser. We also helped fix her younger son, Jasper's, dresser that had been falling apart, but just needed a little TLC with some nails and a hammer! Carol was so grateful for all the help that the team had done over the last two days and is determined to finish the projects we helped her start so that if and when we ever come back to help again, we'll be proud of her continued progress!
Dave and Carol's group helped deliver furniture to several different places. One apartment they delivered a brand new bed for Lillyanna who just had her baby on Saturday. She had been sleeping on a twin that was in worse shape than anything that anybody reading this blog has probably ever laid on, much less slept on. They also helped deliver to about 2-3 other apartments in the morning that had different items of furniture that we delivered. After lunch they hopped on over to Flora's apartment to do some painting and final cleaning.
This evening then it was off for round two at Wendy's! Apparently the team enjoyed it on Monday so much they were ready to go back!
As were were sitting around this evening after dinner, we spent time talking about the day once again and sharing stories of what we all did and of the amazing experiences we had. If you are a parent of a student on this trip, you should be proud. If you are a freind of someone on this trip, you should be proud. If you are the son/daughter/spouse of one of the leaders on this trip you should be proud. This team gets it. Their actions over the last 3 days has shown that the words "Other People Matter" are a lot more than a catchy phrase or cool shirt. This team has shown love to other people by serving, by talking, by caring, by acknowledging someone else in this world other than themselves. The residents we worked with over the past two days many times could not put their appreciation into words and sometimes it spilled out in tears of joy and thankfulness that someone cared. There are over a dozen residents in Lathrop homes that have witnessed firsthand the love of Jesus because of what your students are doing. There are hundreds more residents of Lathrop that have been impacted by seeing your students love and care for and clean for total strangers when many times they are not even willing to help each other out as neighbors. The impact is far from over. Dyla and CeCe from Service Connector are so grateful, impressed, amazed and in awe of this team that they extended an open invitation to come back and help pretty much anytime! And I think we'll take them up on that offer!
The team is doing well. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for the comments. Keep on praying, keep on commenting. The kids love hearing encouraging words from back home. And remember that you are as much a part of this team as those of us sitting here in Chicago. Your support, your encouragement, your prayers, your money :), and all the years of you raising such good kids has made this trip what it is. There is NO way this could be possible without all your support and of course your permission for me to take your kids to Chicago!
Good night! Be praying for the team tomorrow! We will be stretched and pushed beyond our comfort zone in a big way tomorrow! We'll update tomorrow evening!
Love from CHICAGO!
Johnny and the team.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
DAY TWO!
Today has been AWESOME!
This morning the team got up and enjoyed a delightful contintental breakfast at the Heart of Chicago motel and spent a little bit of time reading through I Thessalonians 1 & 2. Each morning we will spend time together reading the Bible and talking through what we're learning. It seems to be a pretty good way to start off the day!
We then headed off to Lathrop Homes, which is a government owned property that houses hundreds of residents. Many of these residents have ended up here becuase of life circumstances and family issues that have put them in a position where they couldn't provide for their family with "regular" housing. We are partnering with Service Connector which is connected to Chicago's human resources department. They have case managers that work with the residents and then connect with us to let us know what needs done and where it needs done.
We split up into three teams and started tackling our list of apartments! Some residents were in need of a little extra help cleaning up their apartment while some needed some extensive cleaning! Students were great at helping the residents feel loved and valued as they were working away! And from what I hear several teams had the opportunity of meeting some cockroaches!
The team that I was with worked with a lady named Carol who has 5 children aged 12-18 and you can tell that they mean the world to her and like most moms she would do anything for her kids. She had a LOT of clutter in her apartment that ranged from shoes to piles of clothes and bikes and more clothes and papers and more clothes. It was difficult for our team to all be in one room because of the lack of space. Loretta, Blake, Whitney, Tailore and Halley got to work helping Carol sort through stuff, deciding what was needing to be tossed and what could be donated to help others. Even though Carol had so little in her life, she still wanted to give what she had to help others! Myself, Cory, Grant and Chris tackled the bathroom and entryway. We cleaned every inch of the bathroom and knew we did a good job when the kids came home and said how they had never, ever seen the window sill that clean. We wrapped up the bathroom and entry way with a fresh coat of paint. The girls later tackled cleaning the kitchen with Carol and then we ended the afternoon with a coat of paint for the kitchen too.
Jeff, Cody, Scott, Austin, Sarah, Nikki, Valerie, Peyton, Kelsey and Becky started the day off doing some extensive cleaning to help out a gentleman who was in danger of losing his apartment if he couldn't get things turned around. They worked extremely hard and got it done before lunch. In the afternoon they tackled another cleaning project in which they also did some painting.
Dave, Hayden, Josh, Tyler, Carole, Kirsten, Kira, Olivia and Gabby tackled some of the lighter cleaning projects and were able to get two completly cleaned before lunch. The residents had intended for help only cleaning one or two rooms, but Carole wouldn't have any of that and they took on a bunch more. In the afternoon they continued on and helped clean up a couple more apartments.
We're off to dinner in a little bit so that's all for now! Jeff will be posting some pictures from today a little bit later on!
This morning the team got up and enjoyed a delightful contintental breakfast at the Heart of Chicago motel and spent a little bit of time reading through I Thessalonians 1 & 2. Each morning we will spend time together reading the Bible and talking through what we're learning. It seems to be a pretty good way to start off the day!
We then headed off to Lathrop Homes, which is a government owned property that houses hundreds of residents. Many of these residents have ended up here becuase of life circumstances and family issues that have put them in a position where they couldn't provide for their family with "regular" housing. We are partnering with Service Connector which is connected to Chicago's human resources department. They have case managers that work with the residents and then connect with us to let us know what needs done and where it needs done.
We split up into three teams and started tackling our list of apartments! Some residents were in need of a little extra help cleaning up their apartment while some needed some extensive cleaning! Students were great at helping the residents feel loved and valued as they were working away! And from what I hear several teams had the opportunity of meeting some cockroaches!
The team that I was with worked with a lady named Carol who has 5 children aged 12-18 and you can tell that they mean the world to her and like most moms she would do anything for her kids. She had a LOT of clutter in her apartment that ranged from shoes to piles of clothes and bikes and more clothes and papers and more clothes. It was difficult for our team to all be in one room because of the lack of space. Loretta, Blake, Whitney, Tailore and Halley got to work helping Carol sort through stuff, deciding what was needing to be tossed and what could be donated to help others. Even though Carol had so little in her life, she still wanted to give what she had to help others! Myself, Cory, Grant and Chris tackled the bathroom and entryway. We cleaned every inch of the bathroom and knew we did a good job when the kids came home and said how they had never, ever seen the window sill that clean. We wrapped up the bathroom and entry way with a fresh coat of paint. The girls later tackled cleaning the kitchen with Carol and then we ended the afternoon with a coat of paint for the kitchen too.
Jeff, Cody, Scott, Austin, Sarah, Nikki, Valerie, Peyton, Kelsey and Becky started the day off doing some extensive cleaning to help out a gentleman who was in danger of losing his apartment if he couldn't get things turned around. They worked extremely hard and got it done before lunch. In the afternoon they tackled another cleaning project in which they also did some painting.
Dave, Hayden, Josh, Tyler, Carole, Kirsten, Kira, Olivia and Gabby tackled some of the lighter cleaning projects and were able to get two completly cleaned before lunch. The residents had intended for help only cleaning one or two rooms, but Carole wouldn't have any of that and they took on a bunch more. In the afternoon they continued on and helped clean up a couple more apartments.
We're off to dinner in a little bit so that's all for now! Jeff will be posting some pictures from today a little bit later on!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Photo's from Day One
Team photo at GCC before departure.
Enjoying Chai and Chess at the South Asain Friendship Center/Bookstore.
A little down time before heading out.
Learning about muslim and hindu culture in the United States.
Lunch at Sher-A-Punjab...spicey!HELLOOOO CHICAGO!
So, we are officially here in Chicago and we're off to a great start! We got into town and got right to it! We worked pretty hard this morning, not in the typical manual labor sense of work, but in the expanding your mind-look at the world kind of work!
We came to the South Asian Friendship Center, which is a ministry to the Muslim/Hindu culture of Chicago. They offer English training to immigrants as well as a bookstore that offers reading materials explaining the Christian faith as well as Bibles and other books translated into Arabic. Mark spent some time with us helping us understand the Muslim, Hindu and Seik religions and explaining the influence that these religions have over other countries on the other side of the world. Everyone was asking questions and getting involved and learning a lot!!
After a little education we headed out to Little India for lunch at an Indian Buffet! Everybody tried different things and for the most part everybody enjoyed the meal and helped themselves to several returns to the buffet especially when we hit the Indian desserts. After that we explored Devon street in Little India and learned more as we shopped in some unique stores and interacted with people that are in many ways very different than us, but at the core they matter to Jesus as much as we do!
More to come later...
We came to the South Asian Friendship Center, which is a ministry to the Muslim/Hindu culture of Chicago. They offer English training to immigrants as well as a bookstore that offers reading materials explaining the Christian faith as well as Bibles and other books translated into Arabic. Mark spent some time with us helping us understand the Muslim, Hindu and Seik religions and explaining the influence that these religions have over other countries on the other side of the world. Everyone was asking questions and getting involved and learning a lot!!
After a little education we headed out to Little India for lunch at an Indian Buffet! Everybody tried different things and for the most part everybody enjoyed the meal and helped themselves to several returns to the buffet especially when we hit the Indian desserts. After that we explored Devon street in Little India and learned more as we shopped in some unique stores and interacted with people that are in many ways very different than us, but at the core they matter to Jesus as much as we do!
More to come later...
Sunday, July 22, 2007
AND WE'RE OFF! ALMOST...
Tonight the CHICAG07 team met and got things packed up and ready to rock for the mission trip! We went over the details while enjoying some dinner from our friends at Moe's!
And then it was off to the first task as a team...loading the truck/trailer with all the furniture donations!!! Thanks to everyone that helped get things together for the furniture donations and a special thanks to Mr. Patton and Mr. Stoub for lending us their packing expertise!
Tomorrow morning we're off to Chicago and we'll be trying to make regular posts every evening to recap the day's events! Please leave comments of encouragement and support for the team as we're on mission!
In a few short hours we're off to sweet home CHICAGO!!!
You can also follow along with the high school team that is in Mexico right now serving and loving and showing other people south of the border that they matter. Click HERE and you can follow along with their blog!
And then it was off to the first task as a team...loading the truck/trailer with all the furniture donations!!! Thanks to everyone that helped get things together for the furniture donations and a special thanks to Mr. Patton and Mr. Stoub for lending us their packing expertise!
Tomorrow morning we're off to Chicago and we'll be trying to make regular posts every evening to recap the day's events! Please leave comments of encouragement and support for the team as we're on mission!
In a few short hours we're off to sweet home CHICAGO!!!
You can also follow along with the high school team that is in Mexico right now serving and loving and showing other people south of the border that they matter. Click HERE and you can follow along with their blog!
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