And...We're Here!

I know what you're thinking. Haven't you been there for a day and a half already? What's the deal? We are concerned parents and SIMYs and want to know what is going on with our kids. Well, a serious flu tends to set one back just a bit, and since I had one yesterday, I will use that as my excuse. So I'm sorry for the delay in updating, but please know that the cause is justified. Let's just say that I didn't leave my bed for the better part of 32 hours. No fun. But today, I am at least mobile enough to find some wifi to give you some updates. They may be sketchy since I haven't had much of an opportunity to interact with the teams, but I'll do what I can.

We made fantastic time getting to Chicago...at least until we hit Chicago traffic, that is. We started off the day leaving Shelly behind with the cargo van to bring Morgan late. Apparently there was a breakdown in communication and she didn't know what time we were leaving. She felt really bad about it, but it was no sweat. They caught up to us at lunch time. I do think we set an all-time La Croix record by going at least 3 1/2 hours without a potty break. That certainly was better than last year when we didn't even make it out of Cape without having to stop, or whenever we take a staff trip and can't even make it to St. Louis without stopping. Then when we got to just outside of Chicago, we called the CSM folk and told them that we were going to be there early, not taking the Chicago traffic into consideration. It turned out that we got there just on time. Overall, a really good trip up.

After getting our stuff put away in the appropriate apartments (we are staying in campus housing for North Park University - not the nicest pads in the world, but a lot better than some of the places we have stayed in for mission trips) and getting oriented, we went out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. That is one of the features of CSM - they let you experience the culture by eating some of the cultural foods (one or two groups ate at an Ethiopian restaurant last night). For dinner that first night, we ate huge bowls of soup with either chicken, beef, or tofu, some spices and vegetables, and the biggest ball of noodles I have ever seen (I will try to have pictures uploaded today). It was pretty yummy!

After dinner we went on a prayer tour of the city. This was really good not only in the aspect of being able to pray for various aspects of the city - racism, poverty, homelessness, gentrification - but also in the educational aspect. As we drove through the various neighborhoods in the city, our host would give us pertinent information and history about it, such as the great disparity in income between the African-Americans and the whites, or the difference in graduation rates, or how white flight has affected certain areas. I think it was really good for our students to hear this information before setting out to serve so that they were better oriented with some of the problems and issues. (One side note that came out of that and our debriefing for that night was the unconfortability our students show with praying out loud. That's just a youth pastor concern, I guess.) After that, we debriefed the experience with our hosts and settled down for the night. A good first day.

I went to bed on Sunday night feeling a little queasy in my stomach, and woke up feeling very achy and fevery. What a great way to start out the mission week! So I hung back while the teams left in the morning to serve. It is a great feeling to know that I have such capable people with me that I can be laid up and not have to worry about whose hands our kids are in. We have such great SIMYs with us who love to serve and love your kids. Know that they are well taken care of.

I didn't get much of a report from day one since I was in bed, but everyone I talked with seemed to have a good day. We had one group set up a thrift store for an organization. Chris said that he wished that they had taken a before picture so we could see the difference that we made. I guess that means we did a good job! A couple of our groups played Bingo with some senior citizens at nursing homes. Apparently, some of the women at these homes were pretty cutthroat about their Bingo. Team Sears served at Casa Central and played with kids. Some of these kids were pretty rough; Derek got cussed out a bit. But they still had a good time, and were looking forward to playing with the parachute today that Nate brought. And Team Gino was the first team to experience the Immersion. In this experience, each team member is given $2.00 for dinner, and they have to try to come up with more. The goal is to help them know what it feels like to be an immigrant or runaway teen in the city. So they tried everything: begging, selling hoodies, offering to work at a bagel shop, and offering to sweep hair at a salon. The ones I talked with said that it was a really great experience. One of them said, "Begging is not as easy as it looks." I think it will be something that they will never forget. The other two teams will have their Immersion on Friday night.

There's not a lot else to report today, but hopefully now that I am somewhat mobile (I'm still not going out to a site today - I'm not close to 100% and am using today to recuperate) there will be more to come. Again, I will try to post pictures today or tomorrow morning at our Flickr site. And to close, here are some random things seen and heard:

• On the van ride up, Sydney Ozbun found one of those little individual flossing tools in the van. We were all pretty grossed out, but not nearly as much as when she actually used it to floss when I offered her a nickel. You would think she would have been the one to get sick. I still owe her a nickel...
• Someone in the van said something about a loofah. Meredith said, "Loofah? Isn't that when a Jewish boy becomes a man?" Yes Meredith, and a bar mitzvah is a sponge that you use in the shower...
• I told the people in my van that we would not be having corporate worship every night like we did with YouthWorks. Someone asked, "What will we do?" Morgan said, "We'll have to tolerate each other, that's what we'll do!"
• It looks like Derek and Taylor have some cleaning to do as it appears they emptied the contents of their stuffed animals on Shelby's bed...
• Chris called me this morning to let me know that Drew said, "I could die with a snow cone in my hand and I'd be happy."

Parents, thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to take your child(ren) to this strange world to serve Jesus by serving people. Pray that they can make a difference, and that a difference will be made in them...