Thursday Debrief Notes

What are things you saw today:

• Teamwork - "if you only had one person doing all the jobs it would have taken forever!"
• "We wouldn't give up and kept going!"
• Little kids were walking by as a group were picking up sticks and one little girl said, "What are they doing?" and another little girl said "I think they're helping nature!"
• Team bonding while digging holes.
• Flexibility
• "We basically mowed the lawn with our fingers" (They were weeding a huge area)
• Helping each other - people helping each other helping carry things that were too heavy for just one person.
• "We saw something messy being made pretty while varnishing wood that will soon be built into beds."
• Our team was told we got done "a full weeks worth of work done in an hour and a half"
• Beauty in the chaos

DC's Shot's from Day 2

Here's DC's shots from yesterday. Enjoy!!!

Photo's of Day 2

Hey All,
Here's all the photo's from Day 2. DC will probably be along tomorrow with even more...and if he doesn't, then I guess that makes me a liar. Umm, it's late. Anyway, here ya go!

WEDNESDAY WAS AWESOME!

As you can see from the debrief notes below, today was an awesome, packed day! Today we hit downtown Chicago again and this time we came with loads of sack lunches to pass out to the homeless. It was awesome to see each and every student step out of their comfort zone and walk up to a homeless person and offer them food, ask their name and offer to pray for them. Many of our groups entered into lengthy conversations and spent some time laughing with, listening to and caring for these people.

Students encountered very different reactions and it was awesome to hear all the stories of how no matter how they responded the students continued to encourage and show the love of Jesus to everybody they encountered. Lots of great stories and memories from the day!

Tomorrow we shift gears and jump into some physical work at Riverwoods Christian Center. Should be a great day!

Wednesday Night Debrief Notes

Notable names & quote from homeless people we had a chance to feed today at #GSMChicago...

Scooter - "You guys are right on time",

Isaiah - he'd been on the streets for 70 years.

Lady #1 - "God is something that the government made up."

Jerry - when asked if we could pray for him - "no, i'm a sinner"

Guy #1 - "anybody need any help come find me i'll help ya"

Guy #2 - when asked about his family - "no, my family gave up on me a long time ago"

Jimmy - when asked his name - "i'm a nobody"

David - can we pray for you - he lost his job, etc..... (this conversation started a 30 minute discussion and a sidewalk traffic jam as our students engaged the conversation

Reggie - was in a band at one time - didn't really want to make eye contact with the group and as soon as he started talking about his music he started smiling and his eyes lit up.

Joe - didn't ask for prayer for himself but only asked for prayer for others.

Lady #2 - shocked that people would come from other places to help and she is always on the streets and never thought about helping anyone.

Shorty - he didn't want to talk to anyone but he wanted prayer and he also prayed too.

Robert - he's been in and out of work telling stories

Napoleon - Played the harmonica - (When our kids applauded he lit up and you could see the sheer joy on his face!)

R

Ivan - homeless guy who'd been going to cambridge house and had been there 13 months, he's now out of the shelter, and he's now helping out the place that helped him get back on his feet.

Things that the group noticed:

-Had no family in chicago...they were alone.

Things that weren't expected:

-Awkward responses that they didn't expect from people.

-a lady that started praying with the whole group during "popcorn prayer" and we were there to pray for her.

Photo's of Day 1

Hey All,
Here are the photo's from tuesday, as promised. What an awesome day!

DAY 1 IS IN THE BOOKS!

Hard to believe that it was just this morning we were loading up at the church and heading into Chicago! We hit the ground running and haven't looked back yet! First thing right out of the gate we did was hit the city to do our Prayer Walk. What that basically means is our team split up into 5 smaller groups and physically walked, put their hands on and prayed for the people of every building throughout a HUGE section of downtown. For real, it was HUGE! Anyone familiar with Chicago it was from Michigan Avenue all the way West to Wacker Drive and from Congress Pkwy all the way North to the river! You'll be able to see pictures uploaded soon as the team prayed for the people that live there, work there, shop there, go to school there and on and on. It was a PHENOMENAL way to start the trip by praying over the city.

In our debrief time it was cool to hear all the stories of the experience the team had throughout the prayer walk but one of the coolest parts was hearing how students were feeling "nudges" from God and responding. Students stepped out and talked to some of the homeless and prayed for them, they talked with people who asked what they were doing and one group even decided to randomly but very sincerely compliment people they walked pass on the street!

We had some team time in the evening to hit the pool and a big group played a game called "Noun" which I've heard is something similar to charades! A great way to relax after an amazing first day!

Keep praying for the team, keep leaving comments on the blog as the team loves hearing from all of you and stay tuned for more updates and follow along on Facebook for real-time updates here or simply search for Granger Student Ministries when on Facebook.

And finally to clarify the hotel situation, we got a last minute phone call (aka this afternoon) that the hotel system had cancelled our reservation and they didn't have any rooms...But they've put us up in another hotel and are covering any extra costs and we're just a few minutes from where we were planning to be. So all is well, team did a great job being flexible and is by now fast asleep getting ready for an awesome day tomorrow!