Sr High Youth and their leaders from St John’s Lutheran Church in Phoenix MD came to Chicago to serve in ministries planned by our host, Project Leaders, and AIM staff who worked out details before the group arrived. The Youth Pastor for this group has a gift for developing leaders, finding gifts, and team building, so he was very intentional about who was on what team each day. We had amazing worship led by a young woman who stepped into that space with joyful passion. Everyone- Youth and Adults- arrived with a Yes in their hearts. The result was this team- who were very solid to begin with- reached an unexpected level of connectedness with each other, with the people here, and with God- who both sent them from MD and received them in Chicago.
The theme of Going Out and Coming In– Being Sent and Being Called- was woven through our morning devotions and our evening worship. We started our week lifting up the ideas of “Being Intentional” and recognizing “Ministry is everywhere, with everyone, all the time.” Those ideas played right through to our final amazing night together. God showed up as He always does and His presence did not go unnoticed. It was a beautiful thing.
Our base for the week was Dunamis Life Church (the new name of New Life Pilsen Church) in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The neighborhood demographic changes every generation or so and Pilsen has fought to maintain it’s character with each change. Today, Pilsen is a strongly Hispanic neighborhood and the vibrant culture is evident everywhere from the great restaurants, the foods in the grocery store and the Abuela with her tamale cart at the corner to the faces of the beautiful children we met everywhere we went. New Life Pilsen was planted in this neighborhood by Pastor Rob. He and his staff pour into the community in every decision they make. AIM teams have been coming here for years and Dunamis Life Church receives us with open doors and open arms. It’s really been quite a partnership as AIM teams come along side the staff for a week at a time each summer to serve. Activities this week were:
-Homeless Ministry
On Monday and Tuesday half of our team each day was at Pacific Garden Mission helping with serving meals, clean up, laundry, making beds, and interacting with the residents. There is lots of good info on their website: https://www.pgm.org/ (For future teams: check the website for details about the required dress for volunteer days!) At PGM, part of our team met 19 year old JT who touched our hearts with his tragic but triumphant story that began with abandonment at birth (“My mom put us in a box and gave us away like puppies”), abuse in foster care, and addiction by the time he was 14 years old and living on the street. By the grace of God, today- he is a clean cut, well spoken young man in the Discipleship program at PGM where he’s learning to dream God’s dreams for himself. We continue to pray for JT and for his twin brother who is still out there somewhere. JT is a powerful spokesperson for the redemptive and life-saving love of Jesus. He made a huge impact on us that we will not soon forget.
-Safe Haven summer program
Everyday an energetic group of school age kids showed up for breakfast, lunch, fun and games and companionship. It was not lost on us that the older kids, who were a little more hesitant to join in, had actually made a choice to be there. Their friends had chosen street corners. While we could not discuss Jesus during SH- because of public funding, Gladys, the dynamo who runs the summer programs, chose Joy as the theme of the week. For 4 hours a day, we showed, created, and experienced Joy rather than talking about the source of Joy. There were many tears as we said Goodbye on the last day. We did not know we would love them and they did not know they would love us. And then God put us all in the same space just long enough for that to happen.
-VBS
At 2 pm, Safe Haven transitioned to VBS where it was all about Jesus- the source of all Joy! We planned out the week with a theme verse and “What to know” each day plus crafts, skits, games, songs, and a Bible story to illustrate the themes. Several of our Youth discovered in themselves a deep joy in working with kids- and some discovered their giftings might be in other areas. One young man- a rising Freshman- was so overwhelmed by his experience, he declared the last night, he now knows that working with kids is what God wants for him.
-“Demo-days!”
We expected to do projects around the church- basic carpentry, painting, cleaning and such. On day one, we cleaned out the basement of the church and finished the projects that we could do. Then our crew was quite happy to discover there was an apartment owned by the church that had been flooded and needed to be gutted. Each day- a group left with sledgehammers, shovels, protective gear, and food for the day. They tore out drywall and ceilings, cabinets, and a bathroom, filled a truck with debris and made 2 dump runs. It was so gratifying to work hard and see so much progress each day. (And “breaking stuff” is just plain fun.)
-Community Outreach
Teams before ours handed out flyers and snow cones on the street to plant seeds for the church, invite families to SH/VBS, and spread the news about the laser tag event planned for Weds of our week. When Laser Tag day finally arrived, we wrangled and engaged kids and had great fun in the excitement. On another day, some in our group saw a need and cleaned up a playground. Another team spent some time weeding community gardens.
-Team Care
Part of ministry on every trip is how we choose to serve each other! This group was great about noticing Team members and Leaders who needed encouragement or prayer. They were respectful of quiet time and each chose to be a full participant in all activities, worship, and debriefs. We had a Serve Team chart and took turns helping with meals and daily cleaning.
-Chicago Fun
No visit to Chicago is complete without deep dish pizza and a visit to “the Bean”. No visit to Dunamis Life Church is complete without trips for Churros or Italian Ice or to the Sugar Shack, visits to the lakefront or to find beautiful views of this beautiful city for group photos and selfies and just taking it in. Pastor Rob, Jesse, Gladys, Heidi, their families and members of Dunamis Life Church fully blessed us with great fellowship, meals prepared with love, and warm hospitality. On our last night, our Youth Pastor reminded us that we came ready to serve Chicago but Chicago was also ready to serve us. It was a beautiful thing.
Submitted by Pat and Gordon Burrows- Project Leaders
