Washington DC #4

Thursday, July 26


Well, Doug and I switched back to our original groups.  We started the day out a few minutes early with me running down to get the van so that I could take the teens to the 7-11 right across the street so that they could buy some drinks for the day.  The weather report was warning us that it was going to be a very, very hot day.  So I wanted to get a head start and make sure the teens had drinks.  Unfortunately, our fearless leader caught our attempt to get drinks and said we didn't have time.  I grumbled inside my head but did not want to challenge him in front of the kids.  So we pressed on!  Ironically, we got to our mission site early and had to sit around until the kids started coming.  Grumble, grumble.


We headed across town to a ministry call Brighter Day Ministries.  It is a kind of day camp / summer school for lower income kids.  Now if there was one thing I was beginning to feel as a result of these mission trips, it was that kids are much more challenging to me than working with teens.  I am in my element when I am working with teens.  I ended up in a room with our leader Brad.  He and I tried to entertain a group of kids who were probably 5th-6th graders.  They were a very lively bunch.  Especially since any of the regular adults running the ministry seemed to disappear for a while as we played games with them.  After some time, Brad needed to leave and some other adults at the church came to be with the kids.  I took this as an opportunity to go to the other rooms to see how my teenagers were doing with the other age groups.  I found one group watching a movie so I settled in and enjoyed about 2 minutes of the movie before I was asleep on the floor.  When I finally woke up, I visited some other classrooms.  Jennifer was talking with one little boy and invited me over.  Once there, she told the kid to speak to me.  He looked me square in the eyes and said, "You an oooooold man!".  I casually smiled at him and said, "And you're a little punk!"  I got a great facial expression out of him because he clearly did not expect that.  But I told him I am just teasing him back and moved on!  


Many of the kids had an awards banquet the night before.  So technically their schooling was done.  So there really was not much structure to their time.  As a result things started getting a little bonkers.  A small fight broke out between some of the older kids and I got to witness first hand how the teachers took care of it.  It was real tough love, guilt trip kind of stuff.  The kids at fault ended up apologizing to each other and the class so it seemed to end well just as we were getting ready to leave.  


For lunch, we stopped at a little Jamaican restaurant.  We had a lot of fun eating some spicy chicken. 


Now after lunch, we had some time to kill until our next ministry site.  So we headed over to the museums and as quick as we could, we took in some of the sights.  First, we ran into the National Archives to see all the important documents.  But since there was a line and I was with impatient teens, we saw then from across the room over the crowd in line and took off for a gander at some other things.  Second, we stopped for about 45 minutes at the National Museum of Natural History.  There was so much to see that it just did not do justice to rush through it all.  But the few things I was able to stop and look at were amazing.  Next we hiked it over to the Air and Space Museum.  I got to see the actual Apollo 11.  I could not believe how tiny it was.  Talk about claustrophobia!


After that, we headed off to our ministry site for the evening.  We went to the DC Central Kitchen.  This was an amazing ministry.  Many restaurants in the area donate leftover food to this mission site.  They then take all their donations and make tons of meals out of it.  They are a main source of food for many soup kitchens throughout the city.  The organization of this place was amazing.  For the majority of the time that we were there, we cleaned, pealing and cut collared greens.  We had a lot of fun.  One of the guys who worked there was wonderful with us.  He told us his story of being a well paid cook but not feeling very content with his job.  He wanted to do something else that he knew would help people.  So he ended up taking on the job here at the DC Central Kitchen.  He said as a result, he feels more fulfilled knowing that he is helping to feed the hungry and teach and train them in how to be cooks.  


We ended up eating dinner at this site.  As we were waiting to eat, our teens broke out into a wonder rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.  I wish I could have tapped it and put it on YouTube.  It was priceless.  Then we sang the Benediction as our prayer for our meal.  The workers there were loving the attitude and spirit of our teens.  We then headed back to our home base.
  
Friday, July 27


Of course being our last day of ministry, we had to wake up extremely early for our morning site!  I had to be up at 5AM!  I remember the alarm going off, feeling quite groggy. And then noticing the shape of something on the floor that did not seem right.  As I cleared the sleep out of my eyes, I began to notice a very large cockroach staring back at me as if to greet me as the first one up!  I tried to move fast with a deathblow, but I did not move quick enough.  The roach darted quickly right to my luggage!  Ooooooh great!  What a way to start the day!


We headed off to an Episcopal Church that has a ministry called Charlie's Place.  This was an early morning ministry in which they provide a warm meal and clothes to anyone that needs it.  We were right by DuPont Circle which is a popular destination for the homeless. Our teens did a great, great, great job with this ministry also.  They dove right in to help serve the meal, give out clothes, and also sitting down and talking with just about all the guests.  At this point, I am not even needing to nudge the teens at all.  They are attacking the opportunity to minister however they can.  It was inspiring to watch.  


From there, we had a few minutes between sites so we headed over to the Fredrick Douglass National Memorial Site.  We saw a brief film on the life of Frederick Douglass.  And we got to hang out at his house.  He had a great view from his front porch overlooking all of DC.  Austin demonstrated just how steep his front yard was by rolling down the lawn.  This was a very funny thing to see as he was going much faster than he expected, with arms and legs flailing.  


Our final site was at the Children of Mine Youth Center.  We helped with some cleaning in the kitchen, a bunch of weeding in the gardens, and clearing out the tall grass and vines along the perimeter of the fence around the property.  The teens did well despite the fact that we were all tired.  The lady who runs this mission was very inspirational and passionate about all that happens at Children of Mine.  She was enjoyable to just listen to her tell stories and to hear her vision for the future of this mission site.


For dinner we met up with our other team and all ate together at the Old City Cafe of Jerusalem.  We ate some of the best Middle Eastern food shoved into a pita.  Some of the teens did not like it but I ate it up!  We also celebrated Kerri's birthday right after dinner.  


For our debrief time, we all headed over to the Washington National Cathedral.  It was closed so we did not get to see the inside of it.  But the architecture of the outside of the building was breathtaking.  As I gawked at the intricacies of the building, our teens started a lively game of Ninja in the yard.  After a while of fun, we had a long time to debrief as we spent some time talking about what we were taking home as a result of this mission trip.  All of the teens responded very positively.  When we got back to our home base, some of us ran down to Rita's for our last shot at the most delicious frozen ice ever!  


Saturday, July 28


Well we got up bright and early with every intention of getting back to Loveland at a reasonable time in the late afternoon.  But before we hit the road, we had to make a few more stops in DC.  All of the teens insisted rather emphatically that the very first stop had to be Starbucks.  I tried to convince them that McDonald's coffee is just as good and so much less expensive.  But they would not listen to my sage advice.  To Starbucks we went.


Then we began the Monument March of Death!  I took them on a quick tour of some of the big monuments that happened to be relatively close to each other.  We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  At the WW2 Memorial we were able to take a picture with a veteran and thank him for his service.  All of these monuments were amazing and very touching.  I was especially moved at the WW2 Memorial.  There was a lot of emotion that you could feel in the air at just about all of these sites.  And now that the teens are really good and tired, it was time to zoom home!  


But part way into the trip, we realized it was going to take longer than we had hoped.  We realized that one of the tires on the van was vibrating heavily.  So we pulled off into a small town in the middle of nowhere.  We found an auto parts store.  The guy at the counter recommended a local mechanic that would see us even though all the garages were closed for the weekend.  We showed up at his house and over the next couple of hours, he spent time fixing the tire while we ate lunch at the local Sheetz.  It ended up being a good place to chill for a while.


Once the tire was fixed we headed off.  It took a while, but we finally arrived back in Loveland close to midnight!  Although the ride home did not end like I had hoped, overall this entire trip was amazing.  Once again, our teens rocked and were not only an inspiration to anyone they came in contact with, but they continue to be an inspiration to me as well.  Doug, Ally and Hannah all did a tremendous job helping out as leaders.  It was a very memorable trip with teens who were just excited to do mission work together.  


Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you and your families.  It is an honor to create and share experiences that, for them, hopefully will shape their spiritual lives forever and help them develop into the men and women that God is calling them to be.  

Washington DC #3

Tuesday, July 24th


Well today Doug and I switched teams so that we could each get some time with the other teens.  So today I was with Zach, Henry, Brian, Kerri, Shayna, Carley, Katie and Aerin.  Our first stop was at a ministry that I have already been to with the other group, S.O.M.E. (So Others May Eat.).  I had a much different experience this time though.  The guy that got on Ryan's case the day before seemed to focus all his attention on me.  I got hauled back to the kitchen and had to do dishes.  Not the plates and cups stuff, but the big serving containers and all the cooking stuff.  Once I would get caught up I would go out into the serving area to cool off and check in with the kids.  But the kitchen boss man did not like that.  He seemed to find me immediately and order me back to the kitchen.  The teens, on the other hand, rocked as they helped to serve breakfast to hundreds of people.  Apparently there was a teen from another volunteer group that was serving right along with our teens and she clearly despised our teens.  It was humorous to hear our group talk about it afterwards.  With the personalities that we have it was good that they did not get confrontational!


For lunch we went to the National Arboretum.  This was a beautiful outdoor area.  There was also a pond full of what seemed like thousands of fish.  Just by throwing in a tiny bit of fish food, the water would disappear under a flood of fish all flopping over themselves trying to get to the food.  


Then in the afternoon we had our "Urban Plunge".  We broke up the teens into 4 groups of 5 each.  Then each team was given an assignment to go into the city and go to a location in which they would try to find out what it is like to be homeless.  They needed to find out what a homeless person would do for clothes, food, health care, shelter and such.  We also were given 2 dollars each ($10 total for the group) and with that money we had to find diner for ourselves and also share it with someone.  If we could get them to talk with us that was a bonus.  So my team headed off to Dupont Circle.  We began by asking the first person standing outside of the church how to get to the bus we were supposed to take.  As is typical with me, that is when the adventure began.  He felt that with were we needed to go that was the wrong bus so he took us on a very brisk walk for over a mile to a much better bus stop.  He talked our ears off about DC.  Once we got to the spot he recommended, as he walked off, a lady overhearing our conversation redirected us to a bus on the other side of the street that she thought would be much faster.  So we did that.  Once we were on the but though, something did not feel right.  Another really nice lady on the bus explained to us we were going the wrong direction so we should take the bus to the end of the route since we were almost there anyhow, and take the train into Dupont Circle.  So that is what we did.  We navigated the subway system to get to where we needed to go.  


Once we were at our park we scoped it out and began talking to people.  There was an area that had a bunch of people playing checkers and chess.  This provided the opportunity that helped the teens to enter into conversations with others.  One older guy in particular, took a liking to our teens and spent some time with them teaching them different levels of checkers.  Through those conversations we learned about homelessness and how the city takes care of those who are down and out.  This gentleman was not homeless.  He was retired.  He used to work for the government back in the Kennedy presidency.  After that he worked for the US Postal Office until he retired.  He also is an elder in a Pentecostal church.  He was a really nice guy who enjoyed spending time down at the park as many of the others seemed to know him really well.  


For dinner, we finally decided to go to Panera's.  We bought a half dozen bagels and a bottled water.  We were able to give away the water and one of the bagels but the guy we gave it to did not seem interested in conversation.  


We met up with all of the other groups in a grassy area just to the west of the US Capitol.  There we heard everyone's stories of what they experienced and learned as a result of their urban plunge.  


Wednesday, July 25


Today Doug and I staid with the groups that we had on Tuesday.  My group's theme for the day clearly was in caring for the elderly.  We started out our morning by going to Model Cities Senior Wellness Center.  This was not a residential place.  Instead it was kind of like a YMCA for the area Seniors.  It was very nice.  All our teens jumped right in and mingled with all of the people there.  We participated in an aerobics class, some played pool with others, some went to the social hall and had some great conversations with the Seniors hanging out in there.  At one point I noticed that there were some from my team that I have not seen in a while.  As I wandered the building to see where they landed I found them in the choir room.  They were singing songs with some of the people in there.  I sat in and just listened.  Once they were done, I kindly recommended that they get Zachary in there to sing a solo.  Of course, the people were thrilled at the suggestion and so was Austin!  Austin went to go get him.  At first Zach acted like a deer in the headlights, but then with Austin helping him, they ended up singing a duet and the people loved it!  We had a great time here. 


For lunch we stopped at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.  It had so much art all throughout the building from architecture to paintings to sculptures to stained glass to murals, etc. etc. etc.  The very building commanded a respect and sense of awe as you walked through it and looked at its beauty.  


Our afternoon ministry site was at St. Thomas More Medical Center.  In the building that we were in many of the residents were undergoing dialysis. There were 5 floors of people.  It was our job to go from floor to floor and seek out anyone who would like a visitor.  If they said yes, then we would spend some time talking and praying with them.  I could tell that this was uncomfortable for our teens.  But with a little coaching and prompting, they did really well in approaching people and entering into conversation with them, then concluding their time with prayer.  I was able to see at least a few who were deeply touched by our teens.  It was a much different experience from our morning site.  Here many were suffering and dealing with major health issues.  Some felt very isolated or alone.  We were able to interact with many of them on a positive level.  We concluded our time with our debrief time in Lincoln Park.


We had the evening to ourselves so we took all the teens down to Union Station for dinner.  Doug ended up meeting some relatives and I connected with my sister and her family for dinner.  Most of us ended up at the Uno Pizzeria.  It was nice to catch up with family and allow the teens to have some downtime to hang out and eat some familiar food!  Once everyone was done, we met back up and walked down to the U.S. Capitol.  The band from the U.S. Marines was playing a concert and we got to hear the tail end of it.  It was a great night to hear the music and enjoy our surroundings.  After that, we tried to make a quick dash to the Lincoln Memorial but we just couldn't make it happen.  Maybe on the day we leave we will try again!  


Overall, things have been going really, really well with all of the teens!  We are having a great time!

Washington DC Trip #2

Sunday, July 22


The long drive to DC was peasant and peaceful.  If you ever have to do a road trip I highly, highly, highly recommend trail mix with a Starbucks Double Shot Vanilla Energy Drink.  That combination will keep you very awake and alert for HOURS!  


Once we got here we met our fearless leaders.  We immediately took off to go pick up Ryan who flew in the day before and was staying at Erin Randall's place.  Then we all went out to dinner at a Salvadorian restaurant.  It was great!  The teens chowed down.


We then hopped in our vans and went on a prayer tour of the DC area.  We stopped at several sites that represented the powerful all the way down to the powerless.  We prayed over the city in many different spots as well as learning a lot about the history of the DC area and the struggles that this area has had to deal with over the years.  


Then it was time to go back and go to bed.  We are in very, very tight quarters as far as the bedding situation goes.  What is interesting is that I am right up against a tarp that separates the guys area from the girls.  This may not seem like a big deal but I have discovered that I have direct access to the "girl talk".  This actually scares me.  I am not sure I want to accidentally over hear their conversations.  I am intentionally loud so that they remember I am right there!  


Monday, July 23

Our group got split up into 2 teams.  So Doug and I are going to switch off every day so that we can get some time with each one of the teams.  Today I had the team that was heading out very, very early.  The team consists of Jennifer, Kaitlin, Maria, Hannah, Kristen, Olivia, Ryan and Austin.  We had to be up at breakfast at 5:45AM!  Then we headed off to a mission site that serves meals to people.  We obviously were helping out with breakfast.  The mission site was called SOME (So Others May Eat).  It was a very well organized mission that does a lot for the community with helping them with any needs they may have in order to restore them to be able to care for themselves.  It was quite impressive.  Our teens did a great job working hard as we served pancakes and bacon for breakfast.


Now the big story of the day goes to Ryan.  Apparently, Ryan tried to lob just one small cherry in the general direction of Austin and one of the more intense kitchen workers just happened to see it and really leaned into him.  Unfortunately, I did not happen to be present at just that moment to see Ryan get the hammer.  I was bummed.  Ryan is such a good boy I just can't imagine him ever getting into any kind of trouble so this was quite unprecedented.  


We then came back to our home base.  From here we did a prayer walk around the neighborhood.  We made some observations of this neighborhood in comparison and contrast to the ones we live in.  We also saw a lot of services that help those who are down and out.  We ended the walk by being able to pray at the World Vision headquarters.  And then we met up with our leader at Ebeneezer's Coffee House.  This is a coffee house that was the site of Mark Batterson's first church here in DC.  Goggle him if you have not heard of him before.  He is a big pastor in the DC area doing a lot of great ministries and missions for this whole area.  He has come out with some books that I hear are pretty good as well.


We had a little bit of down time after that so we rested up a little bit and ate our lunches at the church we are living in for the week. 


For the afternoon we went to a site called Children of Mine Youth Center.  The story goes that the lady who is running it had a tragic situation happen to one of her kids in this neighborhood so instead of it destroying her, she built a youth center that gives them all kinds of stuff to grow: meals, books, clothes, garden, playground, etc.  It was amazing to see how she could turn a bad situation into something so good for the community.  At first we did not know how to help because she had another whole team of volunteers from another mission that was already helping.  So we hung out for a little bit and slowly found areas that we could all pitch in and help with.  I noticed that her ceiling fans were not blowing the right way so it was stuffy and muggy in the dining hall.  So after switching them all over you could feel the circulation of the cool air in the room so much better.  Some of the girls got to help in the kitchen as they prepared dinner for the kids who were coming that evening.  Some did yard work.  There was plenty of grass to be mowed and weeds to be dealt with.  


For dinner we ended up at a Thai restaurant.  Needless to say we walked out of there stuffed with all kinds of excellent food in our bellies.  We went down to the Jefferson Memorial for a time to gander and then do our debrief for the day.  The teens got A LOT out of today.  They had a lot of fun but also have already shown a sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is teaching them as a result of all our experiences from the day.  


Tomorrow I will be with the other team and we get to sleep in a little bit longer than today so I am going to go take a shower to peal off about 20 layers of sweat that has covered me and sleep well tonight!  

Washington DC Trip #1

Well, it is almost time for our next and final great adventure for the Summer.  The Senior Highers are taking off to Washington DC to do a mission trip with the Center for Student Missions.  We have worked with this organization on other trips (New York, Chicago and Nashville).  They always have done a great job organizing mission trips and giving all of the teens a great experience.  I am excited because I have never been to Washington DC before.  And on top of that, we have a really, really great team of teens and adults going.  I have high expectations that they will all have a phenomenal time together.

So, some things to pray about:

1.  Safe travels.  Long distances are never fun.  I wish teleportation was invented by now but it is not.  At least, not yet!

2.  Spiritual experiences.  Pray that the teens deepen their faith and enrich their relationship with Christ through everything we do.

3.  Bonding.  Pray that all of the team deepens in their relationships with each other.  

4.  Processing.  As always, I want them to apply all that they learn to their regular life: home, school, youth group.  Pray that this trip will impact those areas so that this next school year will be even better as the youth group and their families continues to help shape them spiritually!

5.  Sharpness!  Pray that I and my leaders stay mentally and spiritually sharp all throughout this trip.  Already Doug Ransom has been great with helping to make sure we are remembering everything we need before we go! 

6.  Weather.  Pray that we have good weather.  I know it is inevitable that it will be hot.  It is the end of July.  I just hope it is not horribly hot and muggy!  But even if it is, that God gives us strength and patience to accomplish all we need to do!

Thanks!

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Blogger or Instagram (All of which are all connected to Facebook so really that alone should do it) for real-time comments, quotes, pictures and blog posts.  I try to put out a blog post every other day.  

Concluding Thoughts on the Summer Mission Trips of 2011

Alright.  A long time ago I promised that I would finish up blogging about the stories of our last mission trip with the Junior Highers to Chicago.  I apologize that I am just now doing this but I am making a more concerted effort starting today to get back to blogging and reading!  So here we go!

JULY 26

The two teams headed out to their YMCA sites for the morning.  The kids at our site had a lot of fun this morning because they had one of those big blow up water slides to play outside with.  Of course any time I seemed to get near it an Epiphany teen mysteriously got wet.  Attempts were made to avenge but they soon discovered that I am indestructible.  

For the afternoon we took the "ethnic plunge" into Albany Park.  This is similar to a scavenger hunt.  We were given a list of things we needed to accomplish that would force us to immerse ourselves into the neighborhood cultures.  We had to do things like finding products in a store from other countries.  Find how many different ethnic restaurants we can find.  Talk with people about their cultural backgrounds.  See how many different languages we could find.  Buy a paper in a different language.  Along the way we met this one guy that I initially thought he was working on something that seemed like a part to a skateboard.  He noticed me looking at him out of the corner of my eye and called us over.  He showed us what he was doing.  He had what started out as a silver dollar that he was hitting with a spoon.  What was strange was that he did this over a long period of time and eventually transformed the silver dollar into a ring!  It was kind of crazy yet wild at the same time.  But he was very proud of his rings that he showed off for us.  

After that experience we headed out to the Ravenswood Community Services to help serve dinner.  This was a church that provided groceries and dinner for the poor in their community.  We started out by bagging groceries down in the pantry.  We worked fast and hard to get the job done quickly.  Then the teens helped to give out the groceries and serve the dinner.  It was a great experience.

Team #2 did several activities during the afternoon.  They did a "meet-a-need" activity where they were given $5 and they had to go out into the neighborhood to find someone and meet a need of theirs with the money.  They are also told to try and spend some time talking with the person and get to know their story.  Team #2 also served dinner at Cornerstone Community Outreach and then ate dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant.  This is the team that Doug went with and of course, some of our most colorful stories have come from.  Apparently when they were driving through the city somewhere a very loud "pop-pop-pop" went off.  As the teens began to look around to see what the sound was, our awesome driver, Arlene Wise, very discretely with out making a scene, just put her foot on the gas to get away from whatever that noise could be.  Unfortunately, Doug did not take my class on how to be discrete in a potentially dangerous situation.  At the sound of the noise, according to many witnesses, he began looking around wildly declaring, "WAS THAT A GUN? DID I JUST HEAR A GUN?"  This of course, made the teens even more excited looking around like scared Barney Fifes.  Now, keep in mind, no one can confirm if they for sure heard a gun.  It could have been a car backfiring, a jackhammer, or any number of things.  There were police chasing someone, but no one in the van could confirm if they actually saw a real gun.  So myth busted.    

Team #2 had dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant and it did not get great reviews. My team on the other hand went to a Mediterranean restaurant and it was delicious!  We still have some teens freaking out about the food.  I won't mention any names but the initials of one of them is Rachel Mellett.  She did try some of the food so I had to give her credit for that I guess.  

After dinner we had our team debrief, took our showers.  I told the teens that we would be going through the letter to the Philippians for our morning devotions.  So they needed to make sure that they read one chapter a day and be ready to discuss it the next morning.  What was really cool was that Doug and I were talking church talk in my room while all the boys had some free time before lights out.  As we were talking, all of a sudden Doug hushed me and said to listen up to what is going on in our dorm.  As we eavesdropped, we listened to our one Senior guy, Max, reading out loud Philippians chapter 1 to all the boys.  This was an awesome thing to experience for me.  This was confirmation for me that this youth ministry is working!  Typically it is common to lose many of your Juniors and Seniors due to many factors.  One of them being the "been there, done that" attitude, which quite frankly, I can understand.  So I tell my upperclassmen that if they want to stay connected and not be one of those "drifters" then they need to learn to give back by actively finding a ministry and pouring themselves into it.  Max did a great job of modeling this.  It was one of those moments where I felt very proud to be a youth pastor to this bunch of teens.  They didn't even invite me or ask for my spiritual insights and THAT WAS JUST FINE WITH ME!  After that we all hit the sack.

JULY 27

We woke up, ate breakfast, made our lunches and had our devotions.  Each morning we had a different adult lead the devotions.  I did the morning before,  Doug did this morning and then the interns took the other two devotion times.  We all sat outside in an alleyway for our morning devotions.  It was a really good way to start the day off.  

Once we finished we headed off to our 2 YMCA sites.  Today I decided that Doug and I would switch groups so that he could spend a day with each one of the teams.  I headed off to the other YMCA.  I had the chance to bounce around from room to room and watch our teens assist and help with many of the early childhood groups.  There was also another mission group there under a different organization so I took some time to talk with them and find out who they were. Some of our teens did really well interacting with the little kids and some felt out of their element.  With one of the rooms that felt a little awkward, I went ahead and taught everyone the glorious game of "Honey, if you love me, won't you please, please smile?"  This broke the ice for everyone as you attempt to try and get someone to crack a smile by saying the above line to them.  

For lunch we decided to meet at one of the Chicago pizza places.  We decided on Lou Minalti's.  I have never had this pizza before but I can say that it was definitely one of the best!  It was soooooo delicious.  I highly recommend this if you ever head into the Chicago area. 

In the afternoon we all meet back at the main site.  Doug headed back to Loveland at this point.   The rest of us were split up into groups of 5 or 6 for a challenge called "Immersion".  Each group was given different instructions.  My team had to walk down to the corner and take the subway train into downtown Chicago.  We had the assignment to initiate conversations with people to find out their thoughts on homelessness in Chicago.  We headed off to an area with several small parks.  I sent the teens in groups of two so they did not overwhelm any one person with this mob of teens coming at them.  Our teens did a great job engaging people and learning about the city.  After some time we headed down to the park with the giant fountain.  We came across a man who was selling "The Onion" newspaper.  I bought one and the teens took it from there and talked with this guy for at least half an hour.  He voice sounded a lot like Denzel Washington.  We then proceeded to the "Giant Bean" park.  We sat down and tried to come up with a plan for dinner.  This was one of the challenges.  We had $2 for each person on our team and somehow we were supposed to come up with dinner for all of us.  We eventually ended up at a 7/11 and bought some nasty hot dogs and slushies.  That was dinner.

We then headed back for debrief.  At the debrief we processed all the different experiences each team had in learning about homelessness and trying to find food with so little money.  They were also challenged to not eat any snacks that night so that they really do feel hungry.  The teens got a lot out of this experience.  

JULY 28

We started out the day like usual: get up, eat breakfast, no bag lunches though because we had special plans for lunch, and then do group devotions.  Then we headed off to our YMCA sites, hung out with the little kids all morning and had fun with them.  

We then had a little time to waste so we headed to the Navy Pier for a few hours.  The teens all had a lot of fun exploring all the cool stuff there.  I, on the other hand, found the food court, got some food and sat down for a little quiet time just to enjoy the opportunity to sit down and relax for a few moments.  

Later in the afternoon we headed back to the North Park University campus for a dinner and program involving all of the teams with the Center of Student Missions for this week.  We were all taken out to their main entrance where there was a nice open area where they had the group play some goofy games.  After that we had a Mexican dinner catered in for the entire team.  After a delicious dinner we went to their theater hall.  There we spent some time in worship and sharing as we got to hear how other church groups were experiencing the city and their faith throughout the week.  We then got to hear a speaker that was simply amazing.  I can't remember the name of the speaker but her story blew everyone away.  Here is a single lady who felt that God was calling her to minister to one of the worst gang areas of Chicago so she bought a house in the neighborhood and just started reaching out to the gangs.  Her house has evolved into a place where all the kids in the neighborhood know they can go to for safety, help, support and encouragement.  She went through a list of teens and kids who have died from gang related violence and the extreme hopelessness that so many of them feel as a result of believing that they may die at any moment.  None of them think of a future.  As she explained the impact that her ministry is having, you could see how what she is doing is beginning to help open the eyes of these teens to believe that they can have a future.  Through her ministry she has been able to see God restore many of these teens into people with hope, faith, and love.  It was very, very powerful.  

We debriefed later that night, hit the showers and lights out!

JULY 29

Again, the morning went like clock work: wake up, eat breakfast, make sack lunches and do group devotions, then we head off to the YMCA sites for the final time.  It was another beautiful day so many of the kids enjoyed playing outside on the play ground.  It was during this time where two of the young boys were pushing each other around until one of them fell and hit his head on the steel frame of the fence going around the playground.  He opened up a gash on his head bad enough to have to call the paramedics and the police.  The boy would need a few stitches.  The other boy was hiding in the playground equipment thinking he was going to get arrested.  The YMCA staff were all apologetic and frustrated by the whole thing.  But it seemed to all work out.  Leaving was a little sad for many of our teens knowing that we will never see these kids again.  So there were a lot of goodbyes.  

In the afternoon the other team did their "ethnic plunge" while we while we did a prayer walk, meet-a-need, and served dinner at the Cornerstone Community Outreach.  The first event involved us going to a particular area of uptown Chicago where homelessness is the most visible.  We walked to a variety of sites where we would stop as a group and lifted up a prayer for the neighborhood.  At one point we came across the rather large mural painted on the side of this building.  It was a beautiful painting of Jesus.  As the story goes, apparently the local gang gave permission for a painting of Jesus.  And some of the gang members came down and helped with the painting.  The message and symbolism used throughout the mural was awesome.  

Meet-A-Need was the next activity.  The group was broken down into 3 smaller groups and we were give some money with the challenge to find someone who as a need and find a way to help them.  I thought I was quite sly in noticing a woman sitting along the sidewalk that we passed by about a block ago.  I took my team and quickly retraced our steps to go find that lady and see if we could buy here lunch.  Of course, when we found her she said some other group was getting her food at McDonald's but if I really wanted to get her something she would love some beef tips from the nice restaurant across the street.  I politely backed out of that and we found another person who was homeless.  We bought him some lunch and spent a little time talking with him.  Before he took off we also prayed for him.  After that we walked around and took advantage of opportunities to talk with people and invite them to dinner at the soup kitchen we would be serving at that evening.  

We then walked down to Cornerstone Community Outreach where we would be helping to serve dinner.  As we walked there we went down this alley that we were told was made famous by Al Capone and his gang.  It used to be called Blood Alley because you could not walk through it without getting blood on yourself from people getting whacked.  At the outreach we helped to prepare the food and then the people came in.  A couple of interesting things happened.  First of all, I love how hard working and fun our teenagers are when they are given just about any challenge.  This especially becomes apparent when you are working with teens from other groups who don't seen to be there for the right reasons.  Also, we encountered a lot of different types of people.  Those who were thankful for the food and very friendly and personable.  Others who were ungrateful, mean and just nasty about what they wanted and thought they deserved.  But it was a good lesson for our team to be reminded that when we serve, we do it for Christ.  People may be grateful or ungrateful.  It doesn't matter.  We don't serve to have someone pat us on the back and think we are great.  We serve in obedience to our faith.


That night we went to dinner at Silver Seafood.  It was an amazing Chinese restaurant.  We ate a lot of family style portions of many, many things that tasted so delicious!  Right across the street and down from where we were at, the speak-easy that Capone always hung out at was visible.  


We headed back to our campus and had a time to debrief with our CSM leaders.  It was a good time to process all that we learned throughout the week and how it can apply to our lives and change our perspectives on how we see our world.  


After that it was time for showers and lights out.  But being the last night and all, I knew that the Junior Highers over the past few days were getting themselves all tense about practical jokes.  In fact, just a couple nights ago I laid down the law that they needed to relax on the practical jokes.  But being the last night and all I did not want to end this week with the reputation of the big party-pooper.  So I thought if I could manage to control a simple, harmless, non-destructive practical joke, then the boys won't label me!  So I recommended that we go up to the girls dorm, open up their door, and then yell as loud as we can, and run back.  They were very happy that I threw them a bone so we quietly scaled the stairs up to their main entrance.  Just as we were about to open the door one of my junior high boys decided to drop his shorts so that he only had on boxers.  With a very perplexed look on my face I asked him what the heck he was doing.  He responded back to me as if I had no sense of humor explaining that it would be funny if he ran in there with his boxer shorts.  My response came rather quickly: GET YOUR FREAKING PANTS BACK ON!  Then we opened the door, yelled loudly and ran.  The boys were happy, I was no longer the party-pooper, and now we could all just go to bed.  

JULY 30
Today was the day to pack up and head off.  We managed to get everything back into the vans rather well.  But I will admit that when we held onto these vans for back-to-back mission trips on two weeks where it was pretty hot, and saving the last week to be with Junior Highers, the vans we quite a mess to behold.  We said bye to our group leaders and then left.  Knowing that we had to travel through Chicago, we just had to stop for a few hours.  We parked our vans, walked around for a while, and then ate lunch at Ed Debevic's.  This is one of the most classic 50's diners were the waiters and waitresses are very obnoxious and fun.  The kids loved it.  After a nice, full, and entertaining lunch, we left for home.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
As I look back over the Summer now I do have to say that it was really interesting to go on an international, urban and rural mission trip all in the same Summer.  There were many, many different experiences that come with each type.  I loved it.  I really enjoy doing mission trips.  I love helping teens see that they can make a difference in their world.  I love teaching them how to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are hurting and hungry.  I love helping them to get a much bigger picture of life outside of our safe suburban neighborhoods.  But to do 3 trips crammed into one Summer was a lot.  I did not like the fact that if a teen was not signed up for a mission trip then there was very little else going on back here in Loveland.  So I hope to limit myself to 2 trips each Summer.  I want to continue to add variety to the locations and types of trips we do as I believe that this gives us a new perspective and challenge every Summer to help grow our faith.  And I also want to make time throughout the Summer to do fun things back here in Cincinnati just to keep everyone more connected.  Now if you made it this far in this post I will reward you with letting you know what we are doing for next Summer!  I am trying to work it out for the Junior High to go to Cleveland and serve with the Nehemiah Mission from July 8-14.  The Senior High hopefully with be going on a trip to Washington D. C. through the Center of Student Missions on July 22-28.  I hope these dates work well for everyone so that we can get maximum participation.  Both trips will be awesome!  

Blog Post #1: Junior High Mission Trip to Chicago 2011

Sunday, July 24

It was a bit hard to just run home wash my closes and head back up to the church on Sunday morning to get ready to head off for the final trip.  I actually used the Junior High class to help me out with getting the last-minute stuff ready after we had a time of prayer.  I also asked those who were not going on the trip to please keep us all in prayer throughout the week. 

We eventually piled into the vans and headed north this time!  We had a really good start as the Junior Highers seemed to display better bladder control than the Senior Highers.  I was mildly impressed.  I drove one of the 15 passenger vans this time.  I had Max riding shotgun.  Most of those in our van were boys.  Max took it upon himself to give this young bucks an education in country music just about the whole way up.  At one point, he found a polka station!  This was delightful!  The Junior High boys were squirming but they would not dare challenge Max.  They might whine a little but that was all.  Once the desire for perogies, polish sausage and a pint of beer became too unbearable for me, I had Max change it back to his country music.

After navigating through the traffic of Chicago, even on a Sunday afternoon, we made it to the campus of North Park University.  This college is affiliated with the Covenant Church.  Once we parked we met our host leaders for the week, Lauren and Rachel.  They told us that the group will need to be split into two separate groups for the week.  So I had all of the kids link up with one friend in a single file line.  Then I went down the line sending each pair to the left then the next one to the right.  So to be fair I let them have their one friend they really wanted to be with but the reality was that we all knew each other pretty well so they had friends on their team as well as the one they personally picked out. 

We also settled into our room situation.  It actually was a pretty sweet deal as these were apartments that would house 4-5 college students.  So the boys all slept in the living room area or the dining room area while this guy here got himself a room with a bed!  My room was right in the middle of the apartment so I was able to monitor the noise levels if needed but overall I was very happy!

Once we figured that all out we headed out for our first cultural experience eating dinner at a Columbian restaurant!  They would bring out large family style plates of food.  We were hungry enough that we would devour the first plate, and then another plate of something else would come out!  This happened several times until we were all stuffed.

After dinner, we did a driving prayer tour all throughout Chicago.  We spent 2 hours going to many different locations.  At each location we would stop the van, our host would explain many of the social, economic and spiritual issues that this particular area was struggling with and then one of the teens would take the time to pray for that area. It was great at first how our teens all had that blank stare when our host would ask someone to prayer.  They started to learn really quick that they need to get over this fear because we are all going to take turns praying all throughout the week!  On the prayer tour we learned a lot about the economic contrasts between the wealthy and the poor.  We were also pretty surprised to learn how real the issue of racism still is in Chicago.

Unfortunately we were unable to take showers this evening.  Very gross when you consider how much I sweat.  But I also had the extra issue that poison ivy was starting to get out of control on both of my legs.  So I waited until the boys were all asleep and then I snuck in a very hot bath to kill the itching.  There was only one bath in the apartment so the deal was that in the evening we would all go take showers in the locker rooms.  If we used the apartment shower we would have to wait for each person to shower one at a time it would take forever. 

Monday, July 25

We woke up and were ready to head off to our first day of ministry!  Both groups would spend each morning throughout the week going to a local YMCA and serving kids that were there for day care.  Then the afternoons consisted of a variety of ministry sites and opportunities.  My group went to our YMCA location and broke the ice with the kids.  It wasn’t very hard as some of the kids even ran to the teens and hugged them when they entered the room.  We had a good day playing in the gym kicking soccer balls around and playing “Duck, Duck, Goose”.  This particular YMCA was very, very nice.  The program and structure that the kids had throughout the day was really nice.  All the children seemed to enjoy their experience there.  

We left close to noon and ate our lunch out by our van.  This is always the time I take to shot 1,000 questions at our CSM leader.  I am always fascinated by these 20-somethings that give up their whole Summer for a very low-paying but very active and spiritually rewarding experience whether it is CSM or Mountain T.O.P. or serving in Africa.  Rachelle was the leader of this team.  She is from California.  She attended a CSM trip to Los Angeles as a teen.  Now she is serving in Chicago and loves it.  She has one more year of college to go and then the sky seems to be the limit to what she is open to doing.  She has traveled a ridiculous amount around the world going on mission trips and just traveling so we had a lot of questions about those experiences. 

Our afternoon was spent going to 2 different Senior Living Centers to spend time with them and lead bingo games.  We stopped at a CVS and got a bunch of random prizes.  Many of it was toiletries stuff.  I think we tossed in a slinky just for fun.  Little did we know that we were about to enter into the most dangerous and volatile area in all of Chicago.  Our first stop was actually pretty nice.  There were a lot of elderly Asian people who came out and played well.  The only issue was that our teens were not loud enough.  If you have been around me at all, you know I do not struggle in the area of volume.  In fact my very first girl friend in Junior High tried to teach me how to not talk so loud.  She failed.  So I went to the front of the room and used my big, booming voice to holler out the letter and the numbers.  Every once in a while I would yell out something that didn’t make sense like: “OH . . . Henry!” or “Bee – Have!”.  I would get some confused looks and some smiles.  Some caught on, others didn’t.  Many of our teens sat in with the people and played with them.  Of course we would never take a prize and they knew that. 

After a fairly positive experience we headed off to our next Senior Living Center.  What we were unaware of was that we have now just crossed into the territory of Mordor and the eye of Sauron was looking at those prizes we were carrying!  You could almost hear that deep, diabolical voice saying, “I see them!”   We entered into the meeting room and everything seemed to be very similar to that last place we were just at.  I helped to pass out bingo cards and I was also looking for any extra ones so I could also play.  Unfortunately, one of the elderly women picked up on my intentions and started pointing at me while saying, “YOU CAN’T PLAY!”.  She said this over and over again until I realized that she was being quite serious and I better just go sit down and shut up. 

I went to the back of the room and decided to observe things as I checked my emails on my phone.  The first sign that something was not all good here was when I looked up and noticed that one of the women who seemed upset about how the game was going, grabbed a bingo card from someone claiming to win and chucked it at my teens who were running the bingo game up front.  I was fully engaged in watching what was going on now in that my own daughter was one of the ones standing up their trying to lead the game.  The look on her and Morgan’s face was awesome!  Their eyes were about as wide as they could get them as they tried to continue on calling numbers. 

Within minutes, apparently one woman felt that she had won and another who was strategically sitting up front facing the aisle, believed strongly that this woman was a liar.  So as the winning woman was trying to get a prize, the woman who disagreed decided to reach out and grab this woman by the back of her belt.  She pulled with enough force that the woman started to lose her balance and fall backwards.  This was one of those “slow-motion” moments where you can’t believe that you are seeing what you are seeing and your eyes and mouth are about as wide open as they can get.  As she fell backwards, she landed right in the lap of the lady pulling her.  She jumped off her lap, turned around and the foreign languages began to fly as they turned red in the face. I thought for a moment we were going to have a full on fight.  What was I doing? I was staying right where I was at in the back of the room far, far away from this whole thing!  My luck, if I had tried to intervene, would have been not good.  If it was a kid fight, or a teen fight, or even an adult fight that would have been different, but 2 elderly people? No way.  Besides it was way to awesome to watch my daughter react in the middle of it all.  This is a story she will remember forever!

After our exciting times with Bingo madness, we met up with the other team on the beach of Lake Michigan to debrief how the day went.  It was an interesting debrief as our leaders had the teens act out 3 scenes of how their day went.  Of course, my team acted out the whole Bingo death match.  The memorable scene from the other group was that Nile, our straight-faced, monotone-voiced super jock, apparently was reading books to the kids they were with.  His team seemed to really enjoy seeing him do this.

For dinner that night we went to a Thai restaurant.  I ended up sitting next to Rachel Mellett.  If there were ever 2 people who had completely different views on food it would be me and Rachel.  I ate anything and everything brought out to the table and I couldn’t get enough.  Rachel on the other had would look at something on the table and make comments of great dis-like as to what the plate of food reminds her of, its putrid smell, and when she would try just a little bit you would have thought she tasted a cockroach.  I gave her a hard time.    

When we arrived back at our rooms, we were finally allowed to take our first showers.  We all showered in the athletic locker rooms.  This was a nice place to shower as everyone was able to be showered quickly and the facility was very nice.  It was also air-conditioned so you weren’t sweating again once you came out of the shower. 

When we got back from showers we were blessed with the arrival of our other intern Hannah and our Senior Pastor Doug!  Doug’s first initial observation of our sleeping quarters was not positive.  He was a big overwhelmed by the heat and humidity.  He wasn’t sure that he could get any sleep in these conditions.  But whenever any officer has his general come to visit him in battle, it is wise for that officer to make sure the general is well taken care of .  So I got him set up in a bed room that was just for him and we got some windows open and fans going to make it somewhat comfortable. 

Once Doug got settled in, I took the teens to the corner McDonald’s for a snack.  We hung out until about 10:30PM and then headed back for lights out.

Ruff Notes on Chicago Trip: Blogs are coming

Okay, it has been busy and I just have gotten behind on the blogs. I know! But I have been taking notes, of which, I will be sure to eventually flesh out into stories. So for those parents who are texting and emailing me about how all their kids are doing I will at least give you the notes for now. Check back later and I hope to get this updated more soon.

WARNING!!!: ALSO DO NOT CALL YOUR TEEN WHEN I PUT THEM TO BED AND PROCEED TO TELL THEM THEY ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A TORNADO WARNING!!! You do that again and you will have your house TP'ed by me. I promise. There were no warnings. Only a watch. Even in a real tornado we would have been just fine where we were at and we were keeping our eye on the weather. I have personally been through tornadoes and I know what to do. Panicked junior high girls make it all the worse to maintain control! A pile of girls freaked out and in my room was NOT what needed to happen which was caused by texts from parents at home!  I will ban cell phones next time if you stir this pot of prepubescent energy after lights out! And I will tell them it's their parents fault, not theirs!  Cut your kid off for the week and enjoy the peace and quiet! For real!

My rant is over now. Deep breath . . . . proceed . . . 

Ruff draft of the week so far:

July 24 

Up and off to church

Junior High Class: prayers for our trip and help with sorting out tools!

Getting ready to leave for Chicago

Much better bladder control than the Senior Highers!

Arrive at North Park University(Evangelical Covenant Church Affiliation)

Meet our Host leaders: Lauren and Rachel

Split up our team into two groups

Dinner at a Colombian restaurant: nonstop family style dishes

Prayer tour all throughout Chicago: learned about economic contrasts and impact of racism

Bed

July 25

YMCA’s

Bingo with the elderly: anger, tension, the will of a bingo ninja warrior, and the fight scene!

Nile apparently reading to a group of kids!

Prayer walk

Dinner at Thai restaurant

Debrief

First Showers

Arrival of Doug and Hannah

Slip out to McDonalds with kids for last night snack

Lights out

July 26

YMCA’s in the morning: kids having fun on a water slide

Team #1: Ethnic Plunge in Albany Park

Team #2: Uptown Prayer Walk

Meet-A-Need

Serve Dinner at Cornerstone Community Outreach

Dinner at Vietnam Restaurant

The gun shots

Team #1: Serve Dinner at Ravenswood Community Services

Dinner at Mediterranean Restaurant

Showers

Head injury

Debrief

Max reading the scripture to the boys for tomorrow

The joy of seeing ministry reproduction in our kids

Lights out

Nashville Mission Trip: Day 6

Time to pack up and go home!  It was a good trip coming home.  We got to say good bye to our CSM staff and take a great team picture.  We arrived home a little later than I wanted to but losing an hour on our way home didn’t help.  But I do remember that it was just an amazingly beautiful day to travel home.  And the teens in my van listened to the CD of the lady whose concert we went to go hear on Wednesday night.  I pretty much had the CD memorized by the time we got back to EUMC. 

Overall here are my impressions of this trip.

1.  Best Junior High mission trip yet.  We had a great group attend and a great site with excellent staff from the Center of Student Missions.

2.  CSM does a great job.  The church that we stayed at was probably one of the nicest sights we have had as our home base for a trip.  The CSM team was obviously friends with each other and enjoyed what they were doing. 

3.  The service projects were excellent.  I loved that each team had one sight that they returned to every day so they got the experience of building relationships and getting to know kids for more than just one day.  But I also loved that the other half of the day gave them a variety of different experiences. 

4.  The other activities were great also.  I loved the Urban Experience and the concert that we got to attend.  I really, really loved how dinner was a cultural experience as well.  Many times it was a hit and some times it was not, but overall I think that was more memorable than just doing cafeteria style food back at our site or hitting fast food. 

5.  I will never be the only guy on a trip again or we will just not take the boys.  And I mean it.  I have split roles now as a dad and as a youth pastor.  This group is just too big for one guy.  I had Max help me on this trip and Paul helped me last Summer.  And I will always be open to Senior Highers helping on the Junior High trip.  But I personally need at the bear minimum one more dad, someone I can fall back on and help me out so that I can better focus on the whole group and leave the “dad” part of me at home. 

6.  I will always take Senior Highers who demonstrate leadership to help on these kinds of trips.  Once again, to watch what Paul and Max were able to accomplish was amazing.  Their faith is impacted as well as our Junior Highers.  It is fun for me to coach our Senior Highers in this way but they are equally helpful for me in their advice and ideas pitched at me which is just about always dead on.

7.  I will always make sure I have a good mix of veteran and rookie adult leaders.  I like getting more adults involved but I equally love those who have been around the block a few times with me and get me.  Breaking in Newbie’s is a lot of fun too!

8.  We will always have a free night whether the mission organization gives us one or not!  Thankfully, CSM makes this apart of the week.  This is always important especially if the scheduling is pretty intense.  It helps to give the teens something to look forward to knowing that some downtime is coming where we will kick back and have some fun.

9.  I have become a big fan of CSM.  I would highly recommend them to anyone.  We ran into a group of teens with “Group Camps” who did not seem like they were having a good experience.  They said that they needed to check their bodies for ticks every morning at the place they were staying at.  Gross.  That is unacceptable in my opinion.  We also ran into the Youthworks group throughout the week.  I like Youthworks.  I just got annoyed the last two times we went with them that we had to use public showers and showers off site.  I have a hard time understanding what is so hard about finding a building we can use that meets all of our needs: food, sleep, showers (especially if you are in a major city).

10.  Inviting the new 7^th graders and holding onto the old 8^th graders I believe is a good thing.  The new 7^th graders get to know everyone so quickly and feel apart of the youth group instantly.  They don’t have to wait for Confirmation.  The old 8^th graders would do well with the Senior High but they would be more subdued being the young ones.  On the Junior High trip they can be the leaders.  They can step up to the plate.  It’s all good. 

If you have any other evaluations or observations that you would like to add to this list feel free to leave your comments.  All in all, it was one of the best trips we have done so far!