Chicago's Grid System

Training week #2 almost over. First group hosted - done. Life flying and flying and flying.
Jesus, i love you. This place, these people are so broken. 50,000 members in the two most populus gangs alone. The police force stands at about 13,600 members. 98,000 people pass through the County Jail in one year. Racism is laced into it's history and although we're living in 2010 racisim continues to exist in many ways here. Back in the day Chicago had something called a housing contract. IF you were to buy a house they would make you sign a contract stating that at resale you would not sale to a black person, thus keeping the community segregated and forcing those of a different skin color into housing projects where gangs, drug problems, and poverty rose at an incredible rate.

Last weekend i had the honor of hosting my first group. They were crazy, sarcastic, and so in love with Jesus, so in love with His people. Watching how they came away from their conversations with the people of Chicago. Hearing them connect faces with the numbers they heard on the prayer tour. Men and women who live on the street, being ignored, neglected in every way except for maybe the one hot meal they get a day. Gosh i loved these kids, how they served even though they were exhausted, was def. honored to have them as my first group.
It's crazy to be here and working through things. Having said good- bye to a few people who meant so much to me i wasn't sure how i was going to feel. To process through not only that but now a new surrounding, new people, and new culture. Letting go of my pre- conceived ideas and desires to see in the midst of it the beautiful things that my Jesus is doing and orchestrating. I would not have had it any other way. Life here is in full swing and in the times when i do breathe i think about what it could be like to come home to seattle/olympia. to the people i adore, the culture that i cherish, music, great beautiful times. My Jesus quietly, gently quiets me, reminds me to live in the midst of the moments, the people He's brought around me... I don't want to just do average, to slip by staying stuck in the things that i know but i want to be learn, be stretched, grown, challenged in my heart's pullings, be challenged in my heart's compassion towards people. I feel like there's something that i'll be walking away with, so sort of crazy transformation... or not :)
Today is a new day, we're working all day and then serving at a soup kitchen and then more work. Letting go of what i thought or what i expect from my day and sitting back to watch Jesus work in and through, to see the people we encounter through His eyes. I feel like sometimes it's hard to do when you've got some many broken people. But that's the beauty of our Jesus, He sees EVERY ONE of us. every one.