Peace 07/20/09

Today (or yesterday soon to be), the peace group headed out to Chicago Embassy, which is an old Catholic church that has been recently renovated into an amazing sight. The stained glass windows were something! Once we got there we were immediately greeted with the shining smiles of the leaders just waiting for us to arrive. After we all introduced ourselves we sat down and started on the schedule for the day. Briefly going over the games, putting faces with names, and deciding who would run what game. Once we had finished dividing up who's doing what it was just a matter of time before the kids started to show up, and when they got there it was time!!!
The games begun and we were on our way to having an amazing day. After about an hour we all settled down and ate a lunch of peanut butter and jelly, turkey, and ham sandwiches. We had juice boxes and everything! Next up! We had a short lesson and a memory verse to memorize for the next day, "Christ Jesus came down to earth to save the sinners, oh whom I am the worst." 1 Timothy 1:15. And once they'd all started to loose concentration..... we brought back in the games! The next game we had planned was probably my absolute favorite game that we played! Its called, 250 ft. Scream! The title is pretty much the entire game. You take a big breath, plug your ears (optional) start running, and scream at the top of your lungs and you don't stop until you get to the other end and back where you started! As you can probably assume we gain their attention with that one :) so on to the next task at hand. For those of you who have helped with VBS at the church at anytime will know very well the difficulty of the dreaded task entitled........ CRAFT TIME!!!!!!! :O We started the journey of weaving baskets. Surprisingly the kids did really well. Only a few didn't understand right of the bat but they were quick to learn. Being the 7-12, A.D.D kids they are, they soon lost interest so we cracked out a brand new game that none of them had ever played before! The cool thing is that it was right up Robby's alley! Yep! Ultimate (Frisbee) was the next game on the agenda. They absolutely loved it. Some said better than football and up here that's hard to come by. We pretty much played that till 4 o'clock when they all headed back home. It was awesome to see how much they enjoyed us teaching them some of our favorite games and their readiness to learn.
After we had finished up their we headed out. Since we had been playing, running, jumping, and much much more we all decided it was a must to go and get something to drink! Once we all got back into the van with out sodas and water it was off the one of the biggest homeless shelters in the country (or world but I'm not quite sure). We had a tour of that and about halfway through we ran into one of the other groups just finishing up their tour. The size of the building was awesome! The fact that they had the ability and the money to build and support such a huge building so that the homeless can have a place to take a shower and a place to sleep is just amazing. The size of the whole complex was about 4 walmarts in a square, then three stories (or more) of that! Its just great that they have that shelter and word of God worked into every bit of it.
Once we had finished that we headed out to the Hamernick's house for some long awaited dinner!!! And we ate it up! We had pretty much a taco salad but you would put it in a mini fritos bad and then add cheese, salsa, lettuce, tomato, etc. and it was so good! We had ice cream cones afterwards and then just sat down and shared the stories of the each groups happenings. After maybe an hour we all headed down to the Sunshine Ministries building and learned a lot about all the different neighborhoods, and the way the people related to things in certain ways, and we discussed how that really happens everywhere even if you don't notice it. We spent maybe an hour and a half to two hours there and then it was off to the church (that we sleep in). Most came in and hopped in the shower and some went straight to sleep! It was a long day! But me? Well, a few of us weren't tired enough to cool down and get in bed so we played some basketball in the gym. That was fun!

If that's what we end up doing all week, this is going to be an great great week! Full of fun and games, friends, and the word of God!
Now! Its time for bed :)
Wes