He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 ESV)
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:7 ESV)
Better late than never, right? We returned from our Spring Break mission trip to Chicago about 4 weeks ago, but I haven't exactly been real quick-on-the-draw with the blog this semester.
This was the second time I've been to Chicago with Sunshine Gospel Ministries. Last year, I went with Samford RUF over spring break. I recorded that experience, along with many of the lessons we learned, in this blog post from last March: Renewal for the City.
This year, it was exciting to be able to bring a group of 20 Tennessee RUF students up to Chicago for Sunshine's Bridge Builders week. We had 12 freshmen, 6 sophomores, and 3 juniors...it was a great group, and they were all eager to both serve and learn. We met a couple times leading up to the trip to read some articles and discuss some of the topics we'd be learning about in Chicago. This is what we read and discussed: "The Gospel and our Prejudice" by Tim Keller and "A Vision for our Cities" by Allan Barth.
I was really encouraged to see how excited our students were to jump right in, serve the south side Woodlawn community where we were living for the week, listen and engage with people we met, and learn from the Sunshine staff on issues like justice, racial reconciliation, and urban ministry...all from a solid gospel-centered perspective. I went into much more details on a lot of these things in last year's blog post (link 2 paragraphs up)
During the mornings we were split into various work-projects around the community, and in the afternoons we had different experiences or "field trips" around the city. Some of these included Meal-Share, where we split into pairs and shared lunch and conversation with people without homes around the downtown area. Also the "El" Experience, where we split up and rode the El train from one end of the city to the other striking up conversations with anyone who sat near us.
In the evenings, we had teaching from various Sunshine staff members about various issues, as well as debrief discussions about that day's experiences. We also had plenty of opportunities to see and experience the beautiful city of Chicago, getting a taste of what life in a big city is like. For our group of mostly rural/suburban backgrounds, it got a lot of us thinking!
Here are some of the many pictures from the trip, which will give opportunities to comment on some more of the specific happenings.
What trip to Chicago would be complete without some deep-dish. This is from Giordano's...a must-eat if you're in the Windy City!
We kind of took over the El...but we all left with a newfound love of public transportation!
We attended church in the south side Sunday morning (http://christbiblechurchofchicago.org/) and then headed downtown for some sightseeing. Here we are waiting for lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe.
Me and the freshmen guys in front of "the Bean."
Tennessee RUF advertising for Forever 21...
Peter and I share a special moment by the Bean.
We weren't the only RUF group at Sunshine that week. We were joined by RUF groups from UAB, Clemson, Nebraska, and Tulsa...as well as another student group from Bethel University in Minnesota. On Monday, all of us met up at New Beginnings Church (this is the church that sponsors the Christian school that I helped out at last year). Their pastor, Corey Brooks, recently spent 94 days on the roof of an abandoned motel across the street from their church to raise money to buy it and tear it down. It had served as a long-time hot bed of crime, drugs, and prostitution. It's a really cool story, and I recommend googling "Pastor Corey Brooks" or "Chicago pastor on the roof." There are a lot of news stories about him! Anyhow...he was able to raise the money, buy the motel, and just in time for us to arrive and help begin the demolition process. Because this was such a big story around town, we made the local Chicago news on a number of different stations. Below is one story from the local ABC station...the girl named Elyse that got interviewed is one of our students, and other students of ours are seen throughout. While we were all there only one day, there was a smaller group of our students that remained there as their work project throughout the week, and the week after we left, they were able to bring in the bulldozers!
Freshmen guys Taylor and Ryan go to town with crowbars
Ripping everything out
Freshman Katie hauls insulation like a champ!
That wall didn't stand a chance against Jacob
The rubbish pile in the parking lot continued to grow!
Who knew demolition could be so much fun?
One of our students decided to keep the "thanks for your business" sign, against our better judgment...
Tennessee RUF at the end of the day, atop the rubbish heap
Our home for the week: Chicago City Church, right on the line between the two south side neighborhoods of Woodlawn and Englewood. We felt right at home by the end of the week!
Sophomore Davis befriends one of the kids from Sunshine Gospel Ministries at the Awana Olympics
Watching the Awana Olympics with the Sunshine Gospel Ministry kids
Sophomore Rachel and a new friend practicing for the Three-legged Race!
Still got it. Go Vols.
Freshman Taylor dominating the baton relay
Tennessee Team 2 (upperclassmen and interns + sunshine kids)...we tried.
Tennessee Team 1 (freshmen + sunshine kids)...did a little better. 2nd place to Bethel. Go vols.
Sunshine took us out for more deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati's on the west side.
With some of our new friends that helped us start Jacob's broken-down car after pizza
Some of our students decided to get up and take "family pictures" at sunrise on Lake Michigan...awesome!
Freshman Claire helped out at Master's Academy all week, the Christian school in Woodlawn sponsored by Pastor Corey's church. She made a lot of new friends!
Our work group got to help our new friend Sylvia with her yard. Her property flooded 2 years ago and she hasn't been able to get everything back to normal yet. We did a lot of landscaping and clean-up.
Our group consisted of me, and (from top to bottom) Alex from Bethel, Josepha and Ben from Tennessee, and Katey and Josh from Clemson. This is us escaping the rain inside Sylvia's house during lunch, and hearing some her stories!
Group picture with Sylvia at the end of the week. We were able to clear a lot of yard waste, finish the path, and start the flower beds. Wish we had a before picture! It was so wonderful getting to know Sylvia over the week.
At the end of the week, Sunshine put on a Gospel hip-hop concert at the church where we were staying. Needless to say, our students loved it.
Had to include this: on the way back we ran into some serious rain near the Kentucky/Tennessee border... and we found the end of the rainbow. No photoshop, folks. This is legit.
