Week 2, Day 6

Talk about a fun day!!!

We had such a great time today for our final day of the trip.  Our morning started with a special treat -- Firecakes donuts.  Thanks to the generosity of Bill Kortepeter, we had the chance to chow down on some of the most delicious donuts in Chicago.  Next time you guys are in the city, get to Hubbard Street downtown and stop by Firecakes, because they're unbelievable.  

Post-breakfast, we had time for personal reflection and devotion before departing to Navy Pier for our fun day activities.  We walked down to the pier as a group, and spent a few hours running around the shops and the sites.  At the end of the afternoon, we all attended Cirque Shanghai.  I'm pretty sure that Anna Savery might be permanently scarred emotionally from the stress that the performers put her through.  Just try not to mention circus stuff to her for a while.

In the evening we went to Water Tower Place and spent some time exploring the Magnificent Mile together.  Everyone got the opportunity to eat some delicious dinner and check out their favorite shops in town.

After dinner, the seniors led the group in worship together, with the theme of graditude as the center of their discussion.  They each shared their personal stories and reflections about what they were most thankful for about our unique group.  Many tears and laughs were shared as we ended the week by celebrating what we so appreciate about the people around us.

Near the end of worship together, the seniors presented a special gift to Karen since she started as a leader for Trek at the same time they entered Trek as a class.  They've been together for years and it was bittersweet for them to be leaving their final trip as students.  They bought her a build-a-bear at Navy Pier, that they named Kare Bare, and inside they put a heart for each of them.  

Once worship finished, we moved on to the pinnacle of our week every year -- the bestowing of the cheese burrito.  Michael Luse had the burrito from the year before, and he chose a student this year that he felt embodied the true nature of our trip.  We all completely agreed with his choice: Evan White.

Evan came into the trip clearly a bit nervous and unsure of what awaited him this week. But in the first few days he made a ton of new friends and completely opened up, becoming one of the most valued leaders within the students.  It didn't go unnoticed!  Now, he has the responsibility of sheltering (fighting off?!) the cheese burrito for a year until next year's trip, where he must return to bestow it on another future student.

The burrito safely stowed back into the freezer, we went to the padded room and had a dance party to commemorate our last night together.  I won't include any pictures, as most of them would be at best severly embarassing and at worst incredibly incriminating.  We had a blast!

Tomorrow morning we pack our things, clean up and depart on the bus back to Indy.  It's bittersweet to be ending our trip and leaving, but we're all excited to get home and continue our service in Indianapolis as part of our daily and weekly lives.

Please pray for good rest and safe travels tomorrow as we come home (and clear traffic!).  Thank you for your support this week and for coming on this journey with us, we look forward to telling you all our stories upon our return home.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

P.s. Maria wrote a song last week at the end of the week to commemorate the cheese danish and cheese burrito awards.  Thanks to the filming of Chris Wright and the production of Henry Johnston, the video was uploaded to YouTube this week and we were proud to debut the legend of the cheese danish (in song): "One Cheese Danish Rides Away"

Week 2, Day 5

Good morning!

We've finally made it to our final day of the trip, and it's insane how quickly the week has flown by.  Anyone with tips to slow down time (or travel back?!) let us know in the comments.  Good lookin' out.

(That's an awesome picture from when we learned to crochet at Bethesda a few days ago. I forgot to post it!)

Yesterday we had a great day of learning about interfaith service.  We had the opportunity to go downtown towards the loop on State street and hang out at the office of CAIR Chicago, which is the Chicago branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations.  At CAIR, we got to meet a bunch of people who spend their lives trying to advocate for those who don't have a voice -- in this case the Muslim American community.  One of their main goals is to educate people and eradicate bigotry in America towards anyone, particularly Muslims.  We spent a few hours in their office talking about a little bit of everything, with the students having a chance to essentially do a Q&A session with the CAIR staff people and interns.  

After we left care we returned to Fourth for a quick lunch and went back out to walk down the street to the Sinai Congregation synagogue.  Fourth Church partners with Sinai on a lot of local projects, so we wanted to spend sometime getting to know them and how they view their role in the community as a faith based group similar to ours.  Heidi and Carol met with our group and had a great time fielding questions and talking about how their congregation lives out service in the community around them.

We spent the evening having dinner and meeting in our small groups to reflect about our day of interfaith learning together.  Group 4 led us in worship together, with the theme centered around service as love.  We had a great discussion about what we've experienced together in the past week, and we're looking forward to a great fun final day together today in the city.

We'll be posting another update late tonight before we return home tomorrow morning, so we'll see you all then.  To tide you over, I leave you with these gems:

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

"This isn't it, we're on 2.  This is too noisy." 

Week 2, Day 4

SURPRISE!!!

  

We had an awesome day yesterday, which clearly you can tell by the above selfie!  (Full disclosure: I did not ask permission to post the above photo, but since it was taken while the students were using my iPad and they didn't warn me they left it, I feel justified in its reuse.  Feel free to tell Michael, Brooke and Megan how great they looked on the blog, as I won't be telling them I left it here either!)

After breakfast in the morning we split into three separate groups to do our work for the day.  One group went to First Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park.  While there, they helped the members of the congregation with a ton of outdoor work around the church.  They helped to weed an mulch their gardens, and then they even stayed longer to clear out the overgrowth near a fence on the property. 

The second group went to work with a group called Casa Central.  Casa Central is an organization for service focusing on Hispanic people groups in Chicago.  Our students went to work specifically with their Casa Infantil location, which is an early learning and Head Start center with 2-5 year old children.  Our students got to spend the morning reading and talking and playing with their students, and it was a really great experience for everyone together.

Our third and last group went to the west side of the city on the pink line to serve at Working Bikes, an organization that receives donated bikes and either rehabs them to sell them or ships them to places or countries where they can be used as a main mode of transportation.  We were lucky enough to be there on the one day of the month where they had a shipping box there and we got to help them prep bikes to fill it.  We took off the pedals and loosened the handlebars so that they could maximize the number of bikes that could fit in a shipment (about 500 bikes per month!).

In the evening, our third small group led us in worship together, talking about facing our fears when it comes to living our lives.  Michael and Claudia shared with us their powerful personal stories about fear, and then the group led us in an exercise to show how many of our fears are shared and not something that we're dealing with alone -- even if we sometimes feel like it.  We ended the night with a song and prayer circle together.

We're feeling very blessed about the week we've had so far, and we can't wait to see what's in store for us in our last few days together.  Please continue praying that our experiences this week would push us to grow together in faith, and that we would continue that pursuit for growth upon returning home this weekend.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

Week 2, Day 3

SURPRISE!!!

  

We had an awesome day yesterday, which clearly you can tell by the above selfie!  (Full disclosure: I did not ask permission to post the above photo, but since it was taken while the students were using my iPad and they didn't warn me they left it, I feel justified in its reuse.  Feel free to tell Michael, Brooke and Megan how great they looked on the blog, as I won't be telling them I left it here either!)

After breakfast in the morning we split into three separate groups to do our work for the day.  One group went to First Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park.  While there, they helped the members of the congregation with a ton of outdoor work around the church.  They helped to weed an mulch their gardens, and then they even stayed longer to clear out the overgrowth near a fence on the property. 

The second group went to work with a group called Casa Central.  Casa Central is an organization for service focusing on Hispanic people groups in Chicago.  Our students went to work specifically with their Casa Infantil location, which is an early learning and Head Start center with 2-5 year old children.  Our students got to spend the morning reading and talking and playing with their students, and it was a really great experience for everyone together.

Our third and last group went to the west side of the city on the pink line to serve at Working Bikes, an organization that receives donated bikes and either rehabs them to sell them or ships them to places or countries where they can be used as a main mode of transportation.  We were lucky enough to be there on the one day of the month where they had a shipping box there and we got to help them prep bikes to fill it.  We took off the pedals and loosened the handlebars so that they could maximize the number of bikes that could fit in a shipment (about 500 bikes per month!).

In the evening, our third small group led us in worship together, talking about facing our fears when it comes to living our lives.  Michael and Claudia shared with us their powerful personal stories about fear, and then the group led us in an exercise to show how many of our fears are shared and not something that we're dealing with alone -- even if we sometimes feel like it.  We ended the night with a song and prayer circle together.

We're feeling very blessed about the week we've had so far, and we can't wait to see what's in store for us in our last few days together.  Please continue praying that our experiences this week would push us to grow together in faith, and that we would continue that pursuit for growth upon returning home this weekend.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

Week 2, Day 3

What a beautiful day here in Chicago!  Partly sunny skies and 75 degrees made for an amazing work day here in the Windy City.  

Today our group spent the morning in Washington Square Park, just a few blocks west of Fourth Church where we're staying for the week.  We had time for silent devotion and meditation, followed by some time for frisbees and soccer balls and just enjoying each other's company around a picnic (early!) lunch.  Soon thereafter we dropped our stuff off at the church and grabbed public transit out to the far westside for our work of the day.

When we arrived at Bethesda Retirement Center, we met with Ruth and she told us how they had started a project years ago called "New Life for Old Bags" -- and yes, they do see the irony in that name and she said the residents get a laugh out of it still to this day. The project takes donated plastic shopping bags and cuts them into long loops that can be tied together to make plastic yarn, or plarn.  Then the plarn can be crocheted into sleeping mats that can be handed out to the homeless in the community.  Unlike cardboard that many people use to soften their sleeping areas if they're without shelter, plastic doesn't absorb water, which can make for a much more enjoyable and restful sleep.

It takes about 40 hours to make enough plarn for a single sleeping mat, and another 40 hours to crochet it together.  That's 80 hrs total that's necessary to put together a single mat for the project.  So having over 50 of us once we combined with another group from Kansas City made for an amazing day of productive work.  As you can see, we made a LOT of plarn in just a few hours in a single afternoon.

Later in the evening after we returned to Fourth,  Small Group 3 cooked us a delicious baked potato bar for dinner!  They even set our tables with cute flowers made out of tin foil.  It's the little things, people...home away from home.

Post-dinner, Small Group 2 led us in worship together talking about the time, talent and treasure we can give to the community and people around us.  We had an awesome discussion about how our day went and what we've experienced and learned so far, and we heard such impactful stories from students and adults who had met new people from the community today that changed their lives for the better.

Tomorrow we split into three separate groups to go to multiple worksites around the city.  We're already amazed at how fast this week is moving past us, and we're trying our  hardest to maximize our impact and the impact this journey has on us while we're here.  

Please continue to pray that we would be fruitful in our work and fruitful in our own learning and personal spiritual development as we break old habits and points-of-view and create new expanded lenses through which to view the world.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

Week 2, Day 2

We completed our first day of work!

Today we took the L up to Rogers Park to work with a group called A Just Harvest.  This is a group that has been serving the community in Rogers Park for 30 years, offering free dinner service 365 nights a year, regardless of weather or power outages or any other interruption.  They serve on average 170 people per night at their dinner service.  For those counting, that's over 60,000 people served per year!

After a brief intro about the organization from their volunteer coordinator, Mary, we got settled into our tables to make 200 sandwich bags to be handed out to the community and another 60+ snack bags.  

After completing our bags and eating our own lunches, we got back on the L to get back to Fourth.  The students had some free time to hang out together and relax before we got dinner ready and had small groups and worship for the evening.

Nathan was really into Jenga.  And no, the pile did not fall after he made this move!  Thanks to Andy for making it tumble right before it was my turn.  Totally clutch move.

Group 1 prepared worship for us this evening and led us in an awesome discussion about our service work here in the city and about the hunger issues that we worked directly with today in Rogers Park.

If today and tonight are any indication, we're going to have (and are already having) an amazing and life changing week together.  We're encouraging each other to break apart the typical definitions of what it means to serve others, and to really engage the people and places we might find ourselves in throughout the week.  

Please continue to pray for us as we get some rest and journey through another day together tomorrow!

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

  

Week 2, Day 1

Good morning!

Our second group of mission trip students arrived (finally!) in Chicago last night and got settled in at Fourth Presbyterian Church.  We had a bit of traffic on 65, but otherwise we were smooth sailing to the Windy City.  Once we arrived, we unpacked our stuff and set up our cots in our rooms -- packed in like sardines!  We spent some time doing introductions with our group together and talking about what to expect for the week, and then we had dinner.  Giordano's pizza tends to cure all ills, and last night was no exception.  Between the stuffed pies and salads, we all ate our fill and then some.  

After dinner we got into our small groups for the first time, taking a few minutes to meet some new people and talk about what's on our minds for the coming week: what we're nervous about, what we're excited about, why we're here and what we expect to get out of the week.  We spent a good amount of time talking about service.  Not just the service that we will do for others here in Chicago when we're at work sites, but the service that we are always doing around each other -- at meal times, in small group or large group worship, when travelling, on public transit, etc.  One of our biggest goals for the week is that we expand our ideas of what a mission trip is really about, and open our eyes to the service we can be doing with the people around us at all times.

Today we're heading out to our first day of work, and so far everyone seems to have lot of energy for the upcoming week!  Please pray for us that our energy would be sustained  throughout all five days and that our eyes will be opened to the city around us that we may have never seen before, as well as the people around us whom we may have not really seen before either.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 2

P.s.  Each day this week we'll be giving the students numbers that are tied to statistics about Chicago.  They'll be able to speculate during the day, and at night in small groups they'll find out what the numbers refer to.  Our numbers for this morning have to do with food and hunger.  They are: 34.4 million, 1 in 6, and 37%.  What do you think they mean?

Week 1, Day 6

Our final day!!!

What an amazing week we had together.  After a great week of working and worshipping alongside one another, we are finally gearing up to head home.  BUT, we had a fun day today at Navy Pier before we left!

Everyone got a meal voucher and a ticket for the Ferris wheel, which had some really awesome views!

After a few hours at Navy Pier, we got to go see Cirque Shanghai together, which was a really awe-inspiring experience for most of us.  So many outstanding flips and turns we all felt a little better when it was over because we were so nervous most of the time and in such disbelief.

Even the leaders got a few laughs (Stacey is frightened out of her mind during this picture)

We went to dinner around the Magnificent Mile in smaller groups and then had small groups and worship together back at Fourth Church.  Our incoming seniors led worship for us, and it was an uplifting night of singing and laughing together -- talking about how much we love the friendships and relationships we've grown and started this week together.

Last thing tonight we got to have movie night and spend some time eating delicious Garrett's popcorn (big thanks to the Timberlake's!) together before we depart Chicago tomorrow morning after a life-changing week together.

Please pray for us as we prepare to pack up and head home from our week.  Pray that we would have good rest and health, safe travels and great attitudes as we return home.

Thanks for following along with us this week, we appreciate all of your support!

Until next week.

Peace,

High School Mission Week 1

Week 1, Day 5

Good morning!

Heading into our final 24 hours of this week's mission trip, we can't help but be grateful and amazed at the things we've experienced together this week.

Yesterday we had our last work day of the week.  But this wasn't a typical work day like the rest.  This was a different kind of work.  Interfaith work.

In the morning we had breakfast and afterwards spent some time in quiet reflection and devotion before we got out for the day.  We had a 10 a.m. appointment downtown with CAIR Chicago.  CAIR -- Council on American-Islamic Relations -- is a national organization that focuses on seeking justice in our communities for Muslim poeple who are misrepresented or mistreated in society.  By whatever means necessary, whether that be lobbying or interfaith work, they do what needs to be done to ensure that everyone has a voice to be heard.

(The entrance to the CAIR Chicago office)

We spent the morning talking with staff and interns at CAIR and having an open dialogue about how they, as a faith group similar to what we're doing this week, view their place in the community and responsiblity to the people around them.  There were some great stories shared and all of our eyes were opened a little bit wider to how similar some of the different people around us can be.  

(Five of the CAIR interns share their stories and personal reflections)

Then, in the afternoon after lunch, we walked down the street from Fourth to Sinai Congregation -- a Jewish synagogue that often partners with Fourth Church in Chicago.  We met with Heidi Kon, one of their staff members, and she led us in a discussion about the Jewish faith and some of the things that they're led to do in the community of Chicago.

(The students got to touch the Torah!)

Later in the evening after our pasta dinner we had small groups and worship together to reflect on the day and the week we've had with one another.  Group 3 led us in worship in an awesome discussion of how we're not only responsible for ourselves but also for the well-being of the people around us.  We talked about the challenges and difficulties that can be encountered while doing interfaith work, but we also pointed out the great reward that can be felt in accomplishment.  

(Group 3 leads us in worship together)

All in all, we had an amazing and enlightening day filled with new learning and discoveries made.  Today, we're heading out to Navy Pier for our fun day -- including a Cirque Shanghai show!  

Please pray for us that we would have a wonderful culmination of our trip together, and that we would have safe travels home tomorrow morning.  See you all aroung 1 p.m.!

Peace,

High School Mission Week 1

Week 1, Day 4

We made it to Thursday!  (And so did you!)

Our students had a great day yesterday working in a variety of projects around Chicago. In the morning, we sent a group out to work with Casa Infantil, a division of Casa Central that works with young children in a Head Start program on the west side. Half of our group got to hang out with fun and lively 2-5 year olds all morning!  While we did that, members from both groups worked with the in-house social services group at Fourth Church -- Elam Davies Social Services Center.  We helped with a variety of projects, from organizing hangers, to packing lunches, to alphabetizing filing cabinets, to sorting toiletries and clothes.  We helped with whatever we could find that they needed!

(Caleb gets his carrot bagging on.  More importantly, he gets his hair net action on!  Quote from him, "I seriously look like a lunch lady.")

Our third group in the afternoon went to work with an organization called Working Bikes.  This group takes bicycle donations year round and fixes them up to resell.  With the profits they make from reselling, they then ship 500 bikes per month (6,000 bikes per year!) to foreign countries where people can use them for transportation.  

(Our students helped to prep the bikes by removing the pedals and turning the handlebars parallel to the frame before stacking them in two rows to be ready for shipping.)

In the evening after we returned and had dinner at Fourth, the students from Group 4 small group led us in worship together.  We've been using statistics about Chicago as part of our theme throughout the week, so this group took a survey of our own students to get some statistics about them.  Turns out, we're more alike with eachother than we even  realized, and also more like the people we are serving than we realize.

That's it for yesterday, onto today!

Peace,

High School Mission Week 1

Week 1, Day 3

Good afternoon!

We had a really great day yesterday, but we were so busy that the blog didn't even get posted last night -- oops!

We started our day with a picnic in the park together!  After breakfast we walked down to Washington Square Park and spent an hour playing frisbee and soccer and climbing trees together, then we eventually ate lunch picnic style in the shade of a tree.

Then we took the bus out to the west side to Bethesda retirement center to hang out with the residents there and work on an amazing project called "New Life for Old Bags".  This organization takes donated plastic shopping bags and uses them to make "plarn" -- plastic yarn -- which can then be crocheted into sleeping mats to be donated to the homeless.  Some of these bags were truly works of art!

On average, it takes about 80 hours from start to finish to make one of these mats, and we spent 3 with all of our students helping at each part: folding bags, cutting strips, knotting strips together to make plarn and learning to crochet.  

In the evening we had authentic (NO KETCHUP!) Chicago dogs for dinner and then we met in small groups.  Group 2 small group led us in worship for the evening and we had a great discussion on the challenges that the homeless face every day that many of us have never even thought about or considered.

We can't wait for another great day today.  Please continue to pray for us as we move through our week and learn and grow together!

Peace,

High School Mission Week 1