Friday morning

I can't believe it is already Friday.  Yesterday was a long work day, but the cooler weather and a little rain was a big blessing.  We had some very dirty, smelly people at the end of the day from demo of a ceiling (city church group), playing in mud(gardening group), to chasing children all day.  After some much needed showers, we had a lesson from Sean Murphy.  He is the Bridge Builder coordinator.  Bridge Builders is the name of the Sunshine ministry that runs the short term mission teams like us.  Sean talked about that part of our identity in Christ is to be others-focused (Philippians 2:4).  In this, we need to empower people we minister to.  Not do what we think they need, but do what is best for them.

Here are recaps from each service group.

Today was such a fun day! I work at Sunshine ministry with children and they are all so cute! We can always look forward to their smiling faces when we walk in. They are so excited to see us and we always have so much fun playing with them. Today we practiced verbs with them, made masks of animals, and played outside on the playground. We also did some dancing and the kids really loved it! It's going to be really hard tomorrow to leave all these precious kids, but all we can do is love them and pray for them. I also have enjoyed getting to know the kids individually and even the staff. They are all so caring and loving and especially with the staff, you can really see how passionate they are about God. After VBS today, it was really nice to catch up on sleep!
Chicago has been such an amazing experience so far, and I am so excited for tomorrow!

Ellen Warrick

All I can say is wow. This week has been so huge for me!  As I came in to city church and  received my work project, I was a bit worried.  I was on the drywalling team. I had never even lifted a sheet before. Through some act of God, Rick was also on my team.  He has been immensely helpful in teaching us how to hang the huge boards.  Days later, we finished one of our rooms!  Our team has been able to grow really close together, and we have a blast, no matter what we do.  It really has been awesome getting to know these hilarious, Spirit filled men in my group.

Tyler Martel

So far on this trip I have learned many things but, there is one specific thing that seems to keep showing up and that is that no matter where you are God is always there and ALWAYS has a plan and a reason for bringing you there. Coming to Chicago I was a little nervous because everyone said how different and dangerous it could be. We are doing things I never dreamed of doing such as tearing down walls, talking to complete strangers, and just living in a completely different culture. But, even with all the fears I felt before doing these things, I am glad to say that I feel completely safe and that God has his hand on us. I am so thankful for all of these people that God introduced me to on this trip and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us this last day here in Chicago!

Tammi Luecke

There are so many amazing things that have been happening here in Chicago! One of the people from Sunshine told us when we first arrived was that we didn't bring Jesus with us here on our bus, but that he was already here at work in the south side, and this is so true. There are so many amazing people who are living here who have changed my thinking and have blown my mind. I have been gardening all week and the lady who has been leading us, Trina, has taught me so much. It has been so cool to see her passion and just the community! Today was a long work day so we got to our site at about 9:30ish and worked until 4. We have been working on clearing this sidewalk so that we would be able to lay some mosaic tiles down. So we have been shoveling this dirt for three days and we finally finished today. And I was told to wash down the newly cleaned sidewalk, but the water was not draining, and decided to dig a new trench for the water to drain in. During this process i got covered in mud from head to toe, it went everywhere! Next I mixed the concrete for the mosaics And because here on the south side they don't always have the materials you need, we had to become creative so I used my hands to stir and scoop. The mosaics look wonderful, so bright and happy and will add so much to our garden.

Finally today we went to a different garden to help pull weeds and just make the garden look nice. I got the opportunity to climb a tree to cut down a few dead branches :) SO MUCH FUN! Anyways I had one of the best days today down here just getting completely dirty and serving with my heart. It has been so rewarding to see all our work just come together. Thanks so much for the prayers everything has been going smoothly, we are all clean and about to start worship. Love you all see you soon!

From the south side,
Amy Buchstaber

The past week has been incredibly interesting. My work crew was scheduled to work at a house belonging to a woman named Sylvia, but unfortunately, due to certain situations we weren't able to. We had to be flexible and instead we worked at Sunshine Gospel Ministries doing small time maintenance. It's been really great helping them out because they're always so busy helping others. I feel like I was really making an impact that is meaningful to the people there. I've also been getting to know Sean, who is the Bridge Builder Coordinator at Sunshine. He has been a really cool person to get to know and learn from.

Forever tired and ready for bed...
Justin Jochim

I will add some pics later today. I don't know about you but I am incredibly blessed hearing your students articulate all that God is doing. To him be the glory!
I will update the blog early Saturday morning with a more exact time of arrival for the team. Please continue to pray for safety, for final thoughts and lessons, for Bob the driver and Jordan and the other guys as they drive through the night and for lasting change in our students that has future kingdom impact.

Praying with you...Kelli