LifeChange(rs) Youth

06/09/2014

Today we worshiped back to back with two different churches: Real Love Ministries (a partnership church of the church we are partnered with this week) and our own church partnership Resurrection House Baptist Church. Then we went to the northside of Chicago to have dinner and hang out with the family of Keith Draper and Barbara Draper, our main missionary contacts in Chicago. ALWAYS a blessing to be with the Draper's. Appreciate very much their hospitality, having us over and the conversations we have ;)

06/08/2014

Final day of work today. They did a GREAT job of being focused and knocking out the tasks on the list. B/c of the work they got done today, we will be able to take a full day in downtown Chicago instead of 1/2 a day.

06/07/2014

Basketball mini-camps today as well as more/painting and cleaning :) Once again, they worked hard!!!

06/06/2014

1st day of work at Resurrection House Baptist Church. Got a ton organized and planned out today. Lots of painting done today as well cleaning done. Really good, productive first day :) These guys worked HARD!

05/05/2014

Pics from our guys/girls retreat May 2-4, 2014

06/06/2013

Today was a little bit of a 'down' day (which ended up being good-these guys are TIRED!). Only work mission-wise today: we attended a public forum/press conference where many of the inner city pastors are pushing for some education reform in the inner city schools ('social justice' is the term they kept using). While we didn't 'do' anything, I think it was a great experience for the youth. They got to see a different aspect of how churches work to be a voice in the community for those who often don't seem to have a voice. (Be sure and read the captions-the forum was held a pretty historic church, which we got a tour of after the forum). Tomorrow is still up in the air (our original plans got changed and we are still working to find some type of mission work we can do tomorrow), then we are to head to the White Sox game in the evening with about 200 people from the Englewood community (praying the rain passes through before the afternoon). Probably no pics tomorrow night b/c we will be getting back LATE and heading out VERY early Friday morning to return home. I'll post pics from tomorrow/the game after we return home. :)

06/05/2013

Wow! I am SO PROUD of these guys! We spent 3 HOURS today standing on a sidewalk outside the church jumping up and down, holding signs, and stopping everyone that walked by to ask them if they'd like a free hot dog, bag of chips and punch. If they said 'Yes', we'd ask them their name and how we could could pray for them and then pray for them as we gave them the food. The youth took turns holding signs/yelling to attract attention and praying/giving out hot dogs. All the youth had multiple opportunities to pray with people (I didn't get a chance to get a pic of everyone praying but they all did). I truly was amazed how they just went for it! Words can't describe what those 3 hours were like, but if you are a youth parent, I'll bet you'll hear all about it! Be sure and read the captions as some explain what was going on...

One great 'after-story' from the day: after we were done and inside the church de-briefing the experience, an 83-yr old lady from another neighborhood in Chicago stopped in to talk with us. Said she lived in an area of Chicago dubbed 'Terror Town' which is another very violent and drug/gang infested area of Chicago (it's probably the second or third worst area of Chicago after the one we are in). She said she was driving by and so blessed/encouraged by what was going on that she wanted to let us know she was inspired to take the idea back to her neighborhood. So she shared briefly with the kids how they inspired her and then got Pastor Kenyatta's/the church's info so they could connect and do some of these where she lives to try to reach their neighborhood. Kenyatta was excited by that! Pretty cool, unintended and immediate fruit from what went on today.

06/04/2013

Finally got some photos posted! Three albums have been posted: one from Sat and two from today-take time to look through the pictures. Hope they give you a good visual idea of what we've been doing. Today was packed full and another great day! We worked at a rescue mission today-and it was unlike anything I have EVER seen in my life. Truly amazing (I"ll let your kids tell you all about it if they haven't already). We did a wide variety of tasks around their today (see the descriptions in the pics in the 'Rescue Mission' album). The place is nothing short of truly incredible. Everyone (once again) worked their tale off, doing whatever needed to be done w/no complaining or grumbling. Then we spent the evening at the Draper's home-wonderful food (home cooked Mexican Meal from the neighbors-YUM!!!) and some great fellowship. We left the college at 7:20 this morning and didn't get back until right at 10 tonight. Tomorrow we do Prayer and Hot Dogs (which I am as excited about as the youth are)-I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. Can't wait to see how that goes!!! It'll stretch some but should be a great outreach to the community. :)

06/04/2013

06/04/2013

06/04/2013