Outreaches

On Saturday we did a cardboard testimonies outreach. Each person on project was given a piece of cardboard and wrote on it. Mine said:

I love order and consistency.
But there is only one constant in my life.
Do you know what that is?

We all spread out in pairs along Michigan Avenue. It was really awesome because this time instead of us initiating conversations by using Soularium or surveys, people came up to us. We had to be bold right off the bat when they asked, for example, “What is your constant?”. The first things I said was my relationship with Jesus Christ. That was not as easy as most of us thought it would be. But it was a neat experience.

Cardboard Testimonies

The other thing that is going on thie week is the I Agree with Andrew campaign. Two of the three campus teams are participating. We did this at Miami my sophomore year and it was really cool to see God at work. The teams have been designing posters, tshirts, and placing post-it notes all over the campuses. The campaign ends this Thursday. Andrew is going to be speaking on the Gospel and how is has effected him personally.
Check out the website: http://iagreewithandrew.blogspot.com

CSP Week 7

It is so hard to believe that there are only two weeks left of project, three weeks until I am back in Oxford, and four weeks until the start of my last year of college. Whoa.

This week I kept going back to a conversation I had with a few friends on our way down to Big Break in March of this year. We were talking about risk taking and steps of faith. The conversation ended with me realizing that I don’t take many steps of faith and that often times when the Lord calls me to do things that are out of my comfort zone I shy away from them. I really don’t like the unknown. I love having all of the information in front of me.

One of the things that I told the Lord (yes you read that right) was that I would never share my faith story at a Crusade meeting of any kind. I hate public speaking. On Monday night at our large group meeting I shared my faith story with the entire project. It was awesome! I really did not want to do it but it was something I had to do. It was a big step of faith for me to grab the microphone and stand in front of everyone for 10 minutes about how God has changed my life for the better. The Lord used it. It’s been great.

Wednesday’s are more often than not the day that I go to campus. This week I had to go alone which was most definitely not my ideal situation. I have never gone out sharing all by myself before. This was another step of faith that I had to take. I spent some time with the Lord on Wednesday before talking with people on campus. I was really hoping to get lost in the Bible and look down at my phone and realize that my day was over, but that didn’t happen.

I was going to leave the on campus cafe I was sitting in and head over to the student center but I saw a girl sitting by herself just eating lunch. I decided to go and talk with her. She was an international student who was studying to get her MBA. She knew English but not very well. She told me that the only time she had ever heard of Christianity was back when she was in high school for a semester and that she wanted to know more. I was able to share the Gospel with her. The most challenging part was that I had to explain everything in very simple English. It was not easy but after spending a good amount of time with her we talking through the whole thing and she was actually understanding it. She also asked a lot of good questions. One that really stood out to me was when she asked me how I knew that God knew who I was. She explained to me that she was Buddhist and she did not think that Buddah actually knew her. It was really neat talking to her, hearing about her life and beliefs, and getting to talk through Christianity with her.

After that I went over to the student center for English Club with three other project guys. Two people regularly show up to this. They are a married couple from China, Simon and Alice. During English Club, someone picks a topic and we talk about it for an hour or so. This week we talked about hobbies. It was awesome. After we finished talking with them, my friend Niko who is running English Club told me that this week had been the first time he had even talked about why we (the Summer Project) were in Chicago. This was the closest they had ever come to talking about Christianity with them. It is so neat the by seeing them on a weekly basis and building a relationship with them that the conversations get more personal. We also got to celebrate Alice’s first American birthday with her that afternoon.

Here’s something completely random: I found out that I met a girl here on project back in December at Christmas Conference. Apparently her hotel was right down the hall from mine and she was talking with three guys from MiamiU when my roommate and I joined in for a little bit. Crazy. Small world.

I love it here. I love the people here. I love the friendships and the community. It’s nothing like I have ever experienced before. I mean I live with Christian women back at school and I have a bunch of Crusade friends, but project is totally different. It’s not that one is better than the other, it’s just not the same. I love that on any given night I can walk down to the lobby, hope to find an empty love sack (gigantic bean bags!!), and see anywhere from seven to all 32 people hanging out. Most of the time there is something going on here.

I am also getting to a point where part of me is very excited to get back to school. This week I got to catch up with some awesome people from Oxford and I really do miss them.

That’s me for this week. The weekends are always great because we do a lot of group things. I am looking forward to it.

Matthew 7:13-14

Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy for that leads to destruction,
and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life,
and those who find it are few.

CSP Week 6

The last eight days have been so awesome! The students have been running 100% with their own ideas and they have been great!

Our campus team has been trying some new ideas. One of our ideas was to use colored pencils to have the Art Students create their own Soularium cards instead of just being bound to the fifty that we have. We have also been playing pick up ultimate frisbee with studens at our other campus on Thursday nights. They have both been different ways to initiate conversations with people at both schools. I am excited to see how these ideas  continue to progress in the coming weeks.

I am loving my project job of planning and running the weekly meetings. This week we had all student speakers. I love hearing other peoples’ insights on the Bible and the tough questions.  There has been so much teamwork among the students in every aspect of project. We are really coming together as a group and making things happen.

Working in Chicago is pretty cool. I love having a little more stability/consistency to my schedule. I only work with one or two other people on any given day. We go over to UIC and sit at a table or go into their cafeteria. We talk to people about the apartments and what their leasing options are. It’s pretty easy and chill so I definitely don’t mind it.

On Saturday, we had our weekly outreach. Our project joined a group called Bread of Life. They go out into the city every other Saturday to hand out food and clothing to the homeless. We had so many extra volunteers so we could hold conversations with people. It was really awesome to hear peoples’ stories about life and about God. After outreach our group went to have a worship night on the beach. It was a great way to end the night.

Today, my church held baptisms at Lake Michigan. During the services, a couple of the people who participated got up in front of the congregation and talked about their faith stories. It was so neat to hear about God’s redemptive ways in their lives.

Tonight was our typical project fun time (as if we don’t have project fun times all week long). We spend about four hours at Lake Michigan picnicing, playing ultimate frisbee, taking pictures, and just hanging out. It was so much fun! It is the best way to go into a new week.

Project Fun at Lake Michigan

That’s all for tonight! I hope that you have a great next week. As always, if you have anything I could be praying for, please let me know.

**CSP Update!!**

I got a job!!

I am a student marketing coordinator for the apartment building we live in.

Basically my job is to go promote the building and get contact information of students interested in living at The Lofts for this coming fall.

It’s not many hours but it’s most definitely better than nothing. Pay should be pretty good. I only work 2 or3 days a week so I still get to go on campus with project at least twice a week.

I start tomorrow

CSP Week 5

The students are officially running this project!!

Chicago Summer Project 2009

The staff moved out on Friday, and we had our last big group outting on Thursday night. It was sad to see them go, but I am really excited to totally take ownership of this project and trust God with the results.

On Thursday we started out at Grant Park. We were all asked to bring rocks and write things that we had learned over the first five weeks. We got in groups to pray in thanksgiving for all that He had done during the first half of project. After that we went to Sears Tower. As a group, we went all the way to the top to look out over the city. It was an incredible view!! We got there before sundown and left after the sun had set. It was so cool to see all the city lights come on after a while. After that we sat outside and the staff left. It was just 32 students sitting in a group together talking about what the next four weeks of project are going to look like. It was weird. It was cool. It’s going to be great. I can feel it!

A view from the top of Sears Tower

Like I said last week, my project job is to plan and run both of our weekly meetings. On Wednesday I got to run my first one. It was awesome!! I really enjoyed it and it is making me excited for the fall too. I have been working with a couple other project people to get this week’s meetings going and so far it’s looking great. We are keeping some things and changing others. I am praying that Monday’s changes are just what we need and that things go smoothly.

On Thursday I got to spend most of the afternoon with my discipler, Michelle. She has been a huge blessing this summer! I was definitely sad to see her go. We went over to the University of Illinois at Chicago to go sharing for the first hour or so. One thing that our campus team has been hoping to do is meet freshmen to get involved with the Crusade movement on this particular campus. Michelle and I started talking to two girls who were freshmen. They were great to talk to and I am hoping to meet back up with them sometime this week.

Michelle & I

Last night (Friday), we had men’s and women’s time. Even though it was optional, every single woman showed up. It was a great night. We did a lot of girl things including baking cookies, painting nails, drinking tea, and talking. We spent the night connecting with each other about how we were really doing during the first half of project.

Tonight is our project outreach. I have no clue what we are going to be doing for that but I have heard it’s going to be awesome.

CSP Week 4

This past week has been on the more eventful side.

Last Sunday for project fun we went on a “staff hunt” throughout the city. It was a lot of fun! Basically the staff dressed up, went to various places in the designated area and the student had to find them.

My Team: Ryan, Jess, Will, Becca, Me, and Jeremy with Sean

Wednesday has been my campus day. I went out with Becca after we had each met with our disciplers. We were sharing at the University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) with these two girls who wound up being Christians involved with a different organization. It was really encouraging to talk to them about college life, their ministry, and our project. That was the first time either one of us had run into Christians while sharing during the first four weeks so we were both really happy about it.

This Wednesday, my campus team will be starting up an English club for international students. I am pretty excited about it. There seems to be some interest for it. Please be praying for our first meeting this week. Also, something else we have been doing at UIC is pick-up ultimate frisbee with incoming freshmen during orientation. As a team we have been working on finding creative ways to reach this campus and we hope to continue for the next five weeks.

Our project team celebrated the fourth together a day early. On the third there was a fireworks show off of Lake Michigan that a lot of us went to. It was a good time just hanging out before and while watching the display.

Scarlett, Kristin, Me, and Alicia at the fireworks

This is the last week staff is here so the students are getting ready to take total ownership of the project which I am getting really pumped about. We all have specific jobs to do that keep the project running. We have two weekly meeting, re:Charge and re:Late. My job is to plan them.  It’s going to be awesome working as a group of 32 students to continue the project for the four weeks after this one.

Tonight was another Sunday night like any other. We had dinner and fun with our impact groups (one guys and one girls Bible study combined). We have been doing a lot of get-to-know-you games and sharing our faith stories. I got to share my story tonight. I am always amazed by how encouraging people are when I tell my story. I also love hearing where everyone else has come from. It adds so much when you know a person’s back story. We also had project fun where we played a bunch of games. My knees will probably hate me for the rest of the week but it was so much fun!

So tomorrow is Monday but I am not job searching There is an opportunity that I am pursuing and I really hope that it works out. It sounds like there’s a really good chance. I have also been spending a good amount of time in the last week and a half babysitting staff kids. Tomorrow there are four of us students with about twelve kids.

That’s all for tonight. As always, please let me know if there is any way that I can be praying for you. Thank you for all of your prayers and support so far. It really means a lot!

dance party for Becca's birthday