CSP Week 9 Part 2

Here is my last while-on-project post.

Thursday morning I got up after a very long and late Wednesday night to go back to UIC for one more campus day. We had been unable to meet with Simon and Alice on Wednesday so we pushed it to Thursday morning. We had a 2 1/2 hour conversation with them, mainly about Spirituality. They asked amazing questions and answering them stretched all of us who were there a ton. It was a great way to end my campus time on project.

Thursday afternoon my mom and my sister came into town. They came a few days early so they could explore Chicago and have a mini-vacation themselves. Thursday night we had a time of encouragement and breaking bread with the group. It was an incredible night! We sang worship songs, prayed with one another, and talked about all the amazing things the Lord did while we were on project.

Friday… Friday was our farewell dinner. We had all been working on “encourograms” for each other over the past two weeks. We got to give them out during the dinner. It was a really nice time and a few people spoke. Afterwards we headed over to Navy Pier and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. We ran around taking TONS of pictures and our last full group picture. Right after that was when we had to say goodbye to the first person to leave.

At Navy Pier during our banquet

The guys of project have been doing a lot of the women. As a thank you, we wrote a song for the men, about the men, to the tune of Free Fallin’. We sang it to them when we got back to the apartment. It was pretty fantastic and they absolutely loved it!! It was followed by an all night movie marathon before the next person left at 6:30am.

People have been leaving one-by-one since them. Most of us are leaving before 2pm tomorrow. I am so sad to be leaving this place and these people but I know that I will see them again – hopefully at Christmas Conference and on the Big Break spring break trip. It has been an amazing summer. The Lord has taught me so much and done so much in my life. Once again, thank you to everyone for your financial support, prayers, and encouragement, I would not have been here if it wasn’t for you. Thank you!

**I will post one more time within the next couple of weeks.**

CSP Week 9 Part 1

I think there is a need to write about this week in multiple parts. There is already a lot to say so I will talk about the last past five days now.

Saturday’s outreach was awesome again! We got to go back and work with the Bread of Life group giving out food, clothing, and Bibles to the homeless of Chicago. I am so encouraged by the adults who regularly serve with this ministry. After we had finished passing out everything a few of us talked to one of the men in charge. He encouraged us students to keep pursuing God, to never give up, to keep caring about other people. I think it’s amazing to hear adults outside of the Crusade world who have this genuine love for the Lord that radiates in their actions. This man we talked to has such a heart for the homeless that he drives a van downtown every Sunday to pick up these men and drive them to the church. It was awesome to be able to talk to him.

When we got back the girls had Princess Night. I know that women tend to rag on traditional women’s times because we are constantly hearing the same message and don’t feel like we get a whole lot out of it sometimes. This was so different. When we came down into the lobby, the guys were all dressed up and waiting for us. They escorted us to a table where there was cheesecake and apple pie. Then we went upstairs to one of the apartments where one of the girls, Katie, read to us letters that a few of the guys had anonymously written to us. It was the men telling us how much they value us as sisters, how much they love us, etc. They were so sweet and genuine. It was a really, really great night!

Molly, Emily F, Jess, Francesca, Katie, and Amber

On Sunday, I went with a few friends to the church at Moody Bible Institute. It was an absolutely beautiful church with great music and an awesome message. Afterwards I got to spend some great time with my friend Scarlett. It was a great Sunday.

For project fun we had a talent show. There was some guitar playing, singing, dancing, and a light saber demonstration. It was a great way to end Sunday Project Fun nights.

Monday and Wednesday were the last meetings I had to plan for project. I loved my job and the people that I got to work with. I was happy to have been able to plan a pre-meeting pizza party on Monday night for everyone. One of my favorite parts of every meeting is getting to hear peoples’ life stories. Tonight one of the girls made an excellent point. She talked about how we are all from different places, have had different struggles, and have been through different things. What binds all of our stories together is that they are all about our God. One God who has in one way or another redeemed us all and brought us all to this place, Chicago, at this very point to be here together and to do ministry together.

On Tuesday night, the men of project made the ladies dinner. We all dressed up and they served us. It was awesome. The food was great! It was something that they wanted to do for us. It always makes me feel loved when people remember that I cannot eat cheese. Does that sound funny? Like on this night when I was given the garlic bread that didn’t have any on it. Needless to say, it was a great night!

David, Molly, Quinn, Kathryn, and Jeremy

One Wednesday I went on campus with Mike and Jeremy. We first headed over to the Art Institute where we got to share and talk with two students. It was a pretty good conversation. Something I love about AI is that we have made friends with these three students: Wes, Christina, and George. They have been coming to our reLate meetings and the last few weeks we have been running into them on campus and being able to just ask them how they are doing and what’s going on in their lives. I have really enjoyed building relationships with them.

So that is the recap of the last few days. There is another aspect of project that I really want to touch on in this post. This project is such a special place, and the people here are very special people. There have been many moments on this project where I have been blown away by how much people care or how people have such a servant’s heart. In nine weeks, not everything has been perfect. There have been low points, bad days, frusterations, etc. I have not been able to be sad, mad, or upset for much more than an hour here. There has always been someone to talk to, someone to cry to, someone to speak Truth to me. By no means am I saying this is not my life back at school, in fact I would say that this is exactly what I do have at school as well.

The point that I am trying to make is that I am not running away from it. I am allowing people to be there for me, to help me. I am allowing myself to be vulnerable and not fight it. This is one of the areas I have seen a lot of growth in my life this summer. I am letting others into my life voluntarily. I am not waiting until my breaking point to let someone know that something is wrong.  God has used these people to really show me more and more of what His love looks like. This is something that I really want to be able to take back to Oxford and continue living this way. I don’t think that I can just use words to express this idea. It’s been a really sweet lesson though.

These last four days here are going to be filled with a ton of laughs, great times, and I am sure a lot of tears. Our farewell banquet is just two days away. I am looking forward to spending as much time with everyone as possible and just enjoying what the Lord has done here.

Jumping into the Love Sacks - just a fun picture

Project Photos!!

CSP Week 8

Happy Friday from the Windy City!!

It’s hard to believe that I have been living here for almost two months now. Time has really flown. Our farewell banquet is one week tonight – most definitely bittersweet.

One thing every week that I always enjoy is our Tuesday night Bible studies. I am in a group with five other awesome women. I don’t know that we have ever gotten through all of the content we are supposed to but we spend a lot of time building into one another and encouraging each other. It is such a great group.

On Wednesday I went to campus with Becca and Lindsey. We started our day at The Illinois Institute of Art. We ran into this girl, Christina, who has been coming to our Wednesday night meetings. She introduced us to a few of her friends who were hanging out in their student lounge.  They were an interesting group to get to know. We got to hear about their lives and just talk to them a little bit about our project.

Afterwards we headed over to the University of Illinois at Chicago for English Club. As a campus team, we are continuing to meet with Simon and Alice. They are such a joy. This week, we did part of Soularium with them and ate s’mores.

UIC English Club

On Wednesday night we had our regular reLate meeting. We had an incredible speaker who talked about Biblical gender roles. Afterwards we had a $5 Prom social event. Everyone wasgiven $5. Then, we put together the craziest outfit we could by using what we already had and by going to the local Goodwill.

Jules, Joy, Kathryn, Molly, Scarlett, and Emily F

Tomorrow night is our last outreach of the summer. We are going back to the Thompson Center to help them feed the homeless and pass out clothes.

Project is beginning to wind down but we still have a few things going:

1. I Agree with Andrew campaign
2. English Clubs at UIC and IIT
3. reLate on Wednesday night
4. Campus Time Tuesday-Thursday

I plan to post another update soon with a bunch of pictures from the summer.
Happy August!!

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.