Ten Dollars

As I mentioned, on Tuesday night we went downtown. Before each group departed for their destination, each student and adult leader was presented with a $10 bill by our church youth director. We were told to use it however we wished: save it, spend it, for someone else, for a stranger, for ourselves...

It was a neat assignment that I had never had before. During our drive to Michigan Ave, our Cheesecake Factory dinner, and Forever 21 trip, everyone was brainstorming ways to use this $10. (I heard this was a common conversation topic among all excursion groups) It seemed like a simple assignment at first and $10 didn't seem like much, but as time went by so many ideas were brought to the table. I had no idea what to do with mine. I considered it just leaving it on the table as a dinner tip or in something at Forever 21 or slipping into a passerby's shopping bag or just saving it to buy something later. I really wanted to do something related to our trip with the money so I eventually decided that I would use the $10 on Starbucks later in the week, but make a donation to Feed My Starving Children after I was reunited with my laptop. It wouldn't have been possible for our group to pack food at FMSC if donors had not previously donated funds to purchase the food that we packed. I wanted to help feed youth and give volunteers resources to work. My donation was not large, but (at 22 cents a meal) my $10 helped to purchase about 45 meals!

How would you use your free Ten Dollars?

Chicago Mission Trip Tues/Wed/Thur

Tuesday - Back at Ashburn for the day! When we arrived in the morning our high schoolers were surprised by an excited group of young people. The Ashburn kids ran up to us shouting greetings and giving hugs! I don't think our group expected the Ashburn kids to be as excited as they were - I think our group started to realize that they were becoming friends to the youth we were working with.
We got to walk to a library with the kids that day and because their normal library speaker had fallen through, we got to lead some songs and a game with the kids. Later that day the high schoolers lead more games at a park nearby!

Tuesday night was downtown night! We separated into groups and explored different areas of the city. I went to The Cheesecake Factory and shopping on Michigan Ave (with a group of youth and a few other leaders)! We also got an assignment relating to Ten Dollars.

Wednesday - Day 3 at Ashburn! Before camp, we visited Walmart to purchase some craft supplies for our high schoolers to lead in our programmable time in the afternoon. That morning we traveled to a nearby swimming pool and then led our craft projects in the afternoon!

Wednesday night was hang out time in University of Chicago's Quad! Followed by some alone time with God and a thank you circle.

Thursday - The only day I remembered to take pictures! Farmer's Market Day with Ashburn! Then in the afternoon, we led crafts and games. We also got to try some Asian food with our young friends! They were hilarious as they analyzed their food. They would make a wonderful food critic show! (Many of the kids had told us stories of the bland African dishes of the week before)

Discussing chocolate bagels

Thursday night was a trip to Lake Michigan to enjoy each others company on the beach. We also enjoyed a BBQ for dinner and foot washing and reflection to wrap up the night.

Chicago Mission Trip Sunday and Monday

'The Spirt of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.' - Luke 4:18-19

Sunday - The start of our Chicago Mission Trip. We all met in the church parking lot in the afternoon to load cars and start our journey. The high schoolers were all giving a playing card that corresponded to a vehicle so once that was revealed we got on our way to Chicago!
After a dinner break during our trip, we made it to Augustana Lutheran Church (the male housing site and where we would eat/cook most of our meals). We unloaded all of our gear and moved into our homes for the next few days. I stayed in a University of Chicago dorm (with two other adult leaders and the upper-classmen girls). (The other girls and female adult leaders stayed at a Youth Center.) Then, we met for our club (songs, announcements, message etc) and found out our color groups (the group that we would be serving with all week).

Yes, my mission trip housing was nicer than my college dorm room (well, it was a college dorm)

Monday - Our first work day! Right after breakfast, the Red Team (Yay Emergency Buttons!) headed to Ashburn Lutheran School and Church to help with their summer program. We were not totally sure what our role would be as we traveled but we brought our ideas and flexibility. When we arrived we learned that we would mostly be acting as a friend to the kids (We would have some time later in the week to lead activities too). We got to break apart and go with different age groups as they had their discovery time (this week's theme was Asia) then we played games outside. After lunch with the summer camp kids, we headed off to meet other color groups at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora, IL.
FMSC is a meal-packaging site and probably my favorite experience of the week. The meals are packaged my volunteers (and the money to buy supplies is collected from donors) and then they are sent to one of about 70 countries. In our 2 hour session, we heard an opening presentation with a little video, got instructions, packaged the meals, and then had a prayer and closing. In our 2 hours, we (I think there were about 90 volunteers) packaged meals for 72 kids for a whole year! 121 boxes of meals! I've done similar projects to this before and every time, I'm blown away by how much impact can be made in such a short amount of time! The neatest part of our time at FMSC was that there were some Spanish-only speaking volunteers in our session. While we were getting oriented and hearing directions everything was spoken in English and then Spanish (which got a bit frustrating for people who were already familiar with the process), but at the end of our packing time the roles were reversed. A Spanish speaking women prayed and we had to get in translated into English. I had never been in a situation where I had to wait to understand. I felt guilty for being impatient earlier in our time at FMSC. Not speaking the common language must get frustrating. I also enjoyed that despite not being able to communicate well with words, we worked together toward the same goal! About 90 people with different backgrounds came together to help others in an impactful and life saving way! Whoa

That night we had some fun time at Portillo's Hotdogs (Italian beef sandwich and cheese fries! yum!!) and Xtreme Trampoline (so fun and a great workout!!) before a much needed good night's sleep.

Chicago 2012 Mission Trip

On Sunday, I will be leaving for my (second annual) Chicago service trip! This year, I will be going as an adult leader with a church trip for high schoolers. Each summer, my church provides a mission trip opportunity for high schoolers and this year the trip is to Chicago. We will be broken into teams with each team going to different locations to complete service projects all over the city! (A very similar theme to my trip last year)

Trip Details:

• 6 Days
• 55 (!) High School Youth
• 14 Adult Leaders
• 3 Housing Locations
• 8(I think) Service Project Sites
• ??? Hours of Service

So, it is a lot bigger than my trip to Chicago last summer (which starting my blogging). I've already started to pack and can't wait till we all meet on Sunday to begin our trip!

Almost packed!