Last weekend in the city...

Hey everyone,

First let me say that a lot of people have called me (including my parents!) and left me messages and I do not have enough hours in the day to return them. I am so sorry. I have four days left in Chicago and am trying to soak it all in. It's not that I do no want to talk to you, I have just been sooooo busy.

Friday was A LOT of fun. I went to Kids Club at Cabrini Green, like I mentioned earlier. I spent the morning doing some office stuff, and the afternoon tutoring a little boy in math and reading. Just being with kids again was awesome. Kids Club is an amazing program that I reccomend all of you looking into. The ministries and programs they offer are doing incredible things in the neighborhood and they can always use hands and dollars. :)

Friday night my socials committee had a social. We all went to the Agape Center and played crazy Olympics. I have posted a couple pictures. We played everything from dodgeball to three legged race to the baseball bat spinaround to the balloon pop, etc, etc. 2 hours worth of relays and ridiculous laughter...Some of us stayed even longer to play an intense game of kickball. My team was victorious!

Today we had our Taste of Chicago Outreach. Over 650! water bottles were passed out by our 4 teams today on 4 different corners outside the Taste of Chicago. (A festival that basically allows people to eat a whole lot of awesome food...check it out.) In order to get a water bottle, people had to answer 4 questions about water satisfying thirst:

1. does a bottle of water satisfy your thirst?

2. after drinking a bottle, do you get thirsty again?

3. in the Bible, Jesus tells a woman that if we drink from the water He offers, we will never be thirsty. What do you think he meant by that?

4. Jesus was talking about meeting a spiritual need. Can we share with you how we think you can never be thirsty again?

Then we shared with them that we believe that God created us and loves us, but because of sin, we are separated from him. He sent Jesus to the earth to die on a cross for our sins as a sacrifice, so we can have a relationship with Him. The only way to have a relationship with Jesus, and to go to heaven, is by believing this, asking your sins to be forigiven, and inviting Jesus into your life.

Today, several people accepted Jesus as their savior and many people heard the Truth about God's love for them. It was really fun and the weather was gorgeous. Many people who were shy about sharing their faith had many opportunities today and had a lot of great stories about conversations they had.

For example, one girl spoke to a woman who answered the 4 questions and was offered to take a look at a Gospel booklet that explains it all really well. She pulled out the booklet she was given LAST SUMMER by someone on SITC and told her that she takes it everywhere she goes!

Anyway, I have many more stories that if you would like to hear I would love to tell!

After the outreach, me and three guys from the team went to the White Sox game. They won, which is always a good thing, and it was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow morning, the staff leave for a State park not too far from here for a 1 night, 2 day retreat. It will be nice to debrief, relax, and just hang out as a staff team for the last time. I can't believe that I'm leaving soon! :( I'll write more Monday!

Love you all!