Thoughts for Thursday

Hi, it's Rachel!
It's day four here in Chicago and I'm just having a blast! This is my second time to be on this trip and be involved with Sunshine ministries and I've been enjoying all of it so far :)
Now on my first trip I was in the work group that worked with Sunshine's summer day camp (similar to a VBS, but a program that has a duration of several weeks). However, this day camp (called Summer Blast) has not started and so instead, I'm working in a "STAY" group. Our work involves helping a woman named Terina (and her little girl Shonti) with the open spaces STAY owns across the south side. They have restored these areas and planted gardens to in a sense spruce up the surrounding community! Our schedule works where we wake up, eat, make lunch, go to work until 1:00, participate in the afternoon activity that Sunshine has planned for us, debrief, eat dinner, and have devotions and small groups. Starting Monday morning, Mary Grace Jennifer, and I have been working with STAY. We've been pulling weeds until our arms ache and we are sweaty and nasty. But it has been very interesting to see how an overgrown lot with a small, flowerless garden has turned into a clean lot.
In the past four days, we have worked on two of the main lots STAY owns. Today, we painted the container walls of the second lot to make them more appealing. Mary Grace and I were responsible for planting the main garden in this lot. This lot is situated on a very busy intersection, with lots of vehicular traffic and people walking to a nearby CTA bus stop. It was especially cool to think that the seeds I was planting would grow flowers that hundreds of people will see! So that was a neat moment for me today...
It's been fun getting to know the kids in the other group throughout the week, they have some really sweet people. We've been working, fellow shipping, and worshiping with them every day and I have personally enjoyed their company. With that said, there are A LOT of them! They're a group of roughly 50 people and navigating in such a large group has definitely been interesting! For the most part, we've had no issues with their group and we've enjoyed their company and friendship!
Well for now that's about all I'll say! I've really seen God working through our team this week. I've just had so much fun with everyone of our team members and had quite a few good laughs, courtesy of Don! ;) It's such an amazing experience being up here, and I can't wait to share more stories everyone back home!
With love, Rachel! :)