Serving in the Mud

Yesterday we talked about getting soaked for Jesus. Today we talked about getting muddy for Jesus. We worshiped this morning with the Good Seeds Ministry congregation. It is an inner-city church in White Sox territory. Glen and Carla Bone are the pastors at the church. They are some of the neatest people you will ever meet. They have such a huge heart for that neighborhood. Carla taught on value and worth. It was a fantastic message.

Good Seeds has a baseball team of 9-12 year old boys who have never played a home game because they don't have a field. They travel 30-45 minutes every day to practice on a field that is playable. After service we changed clothes, ate lunch and headed to the baseball field a few blocks away.

The field was in rough shape. There was a good amount of trash and plenty of water covering the field. Most of the first base line was under water. And there was a small lake between third base and home plate. Both dugouts and behind home plate were overgrown with tons of weeds. The city refuses to fix the field up but said if the church did then they would maintain it.

Some of the boys, as well as the youth group and others from the church, came out to work with us. We spent about 3 1/2 hours working and finished almost half of the weeding, picked up most of the trash and drained the field as best as we could. Hopefully the heat will help dry out the rest of the field before we head back tomorrow. There will be truck loads of dirt brought in tomorrow so we can level the field and build a pitchers mound. Well finish up the weeding and have the field ready for the city to mow.

We were surprised by Rob and Michelle Wegner and the girls. Our students were so excited to be have them serving with us. The energy level shot through the roof when Rob started digging and Michelle and the girls started weeding. Check out their blogs, he has posted some pictures.

After service Jeff, Johnny and DC grilled some fabulous hot dogs for the group. Then there was a massive football game with both groups. It was a blast. I loved watching our students interact and work along side the students from the church. They worked so well together and the football game was the icing on the cake. Our students can't wait to go back again tomorrow.

Prayer Walk

There is no way to explain how amazing our team is! Today's project was not an easy one. It's hot. It's raining. People are looking at me funny. My legs are tired. I'm hungry. It was so easy to get distracted during five hours of walking and praying but our students poured themselves into the prayer walk. Each group walked approximately 4 miles praying for the city, businesses, the homeless, the churches and anybody and everybody they saw. They found ways to stay focused and our leaders were a huge encouragement to them. We were all excited to have DC, Jeff and Johnny with us for a little bit of the day.

We spent some more time talking about how powerful prayer is. We have seen God do so much in our students ministry this summer due to the prayers of many people, you! What if we prayed that the business leaders, who have incredible amounts of influence, would come to know Christ and become passionate about serving him. What would happen to Chicago? So today we prayed that God would move in this city and we know he will.

We got stuck in some nasty traffic on the way back to the hotel. Our 45 minute bus ride took two hours. Most middle school students would whine and complain about how long it was. Not our students. We told riddles and jokes and laughed so hard we almost cried. The two hours went very quickly.

Since it was such a long day we gave everyone some extra pool time to relax. During that time I became the victim of a serious water gun attack. A huge thanks to our leaders Jeremy and Isaac for acting as my official bodyguards. It was the perfect way to end the long day. We are pumped to go back out and feed the homeless tomorrow in a different section of town.

I almost forgot...the students send a huge thank you to all of you who have left comments for us. I read them to the team on our way to our work projects.

• Tammy, you got some major applause and "I love yous" thrown your way. The team says hello!
• Dr. Phil, you are lucky you posted a comment. I finished reading the comments this afternoon and they all wanted to know where yours was. You are loved! There will be great shouts of joy when I say your name tomorrow.
• Megan, pack your bags now! You ARE joining us next year.
• Parents, thanks so much for all the support you give our students. They love the comments from home.
  

Yummy Pizza with Pastor Bone

Hey team!

It's Sarah here. Johnny and I just got word this week that Pastor Bone from Good Seeds Ministry is in the Michiana area this weekend. We will be partnering with him while we are in Chicago. We thought it would be great to take some time and hang out with him and some of his students before our trip.

Saturday night at 6:30 we are going to grab some pizza at Yummy Pizza. It is on th corner of Fir and SR 23. If you are free come join us. Bring $5 to help cover the cost of the pizza. If you read this, call your buddies on the team and fill them in on the plans.

Hope to see you there!

Work Day Pics

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our work day. Enjoy!