All week long, the people of Dunamis Life Church (new name of New Life Pilsen Church), our host in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, showed us EXTRAVAGANT HOSPITALITY.
- We saw God’s love in the care they showed us as they opened their church to us.
- We saw God’s love as the staff worked with us each day and then took us out for treats in the evenings.
- We saw God’s love in Heidi, the church member who cooked for us each day. Heidi is a volunteer who cooks for teams as her personal ministry- sharing her gifts of hospitality and food in quiet service.
- We saw God’s love as youth and adults from the church came every day to help Heidi cook for us.
- We saw God’s love each day in Gladys, the Summer Program Coor, as she interacted with our Youth and Leaders and with the children and parents who came to Safe Haven. Gladys’ joyful personality changes the room when she enters. She loves with her whole heart.
- We saw God’s love in Jesse- who lives above the church and worked with us every day and spent time with us in the evenings. Jesse told us his story of redemption and his commitment to Jesus. It was a wonderful thing to see how that commitment plays out as he shows adults and children alike what it looks like to live a grateful life of service.
- Pastor Rob- who leads the whole operation was delightfully happy when taking us for treats in the evening, arranging our pizza outing, and in all his interactions with us. We know he’s a man of vision and it was a blessing to see the joy that comes with that.
- All these wonderful people have wonderful kids who moved among us and became friends.
We had 2 dilemmas as the week went on. 1)The team was leaving at 7am on Saturday morning to drive 12 hours back to Maryland and we needed to clean the church before leaving. AND 2) How do we Bless this church that has so richly blessed us?
Then it came to us: Dunamis Life Church receives teams all summer and the building is used for the Kingdom 24/7. What if, instead of a quick clean while we’re tired and trying to get on the road- what if we spend a ministry day cleaning the church– Cleaning deep into the corners, washing walls and cleaning spaces that just get brushed over or ignored when teams are rushing to clean and go. And so we did!
As our Safe Haven and Demo teams went about their work, the rest of us split up between Kitchen, Basement/Showers, and Bathrooms/Windows/Walls. Our kitchen team spent hours cleaning the large commercial grill surface, the stove, ovens and every surface in the kitchen. Heidi had shown us so much love, we felt excitement as we worked in her space. When I found the kitchen group rolling the giant commercial refrigerators back in place, I knew we had chosen the right team for that space. Several people applied extra love to the back hall and stairs that lead down to the showers. That space was dark from so much use but once it was bright and clean again, we could appreciate the scripture that teams in years past had painted all over the back hall. Another crew took up and scrubbed all the mats in the showers and cleaned drains. It was a huge job but youth and adults alike did it with intention. At the end of the day- one group even washed the front of the church.
And God, as He always does, even showed up in our cleaning. One youth realized his attitude was changing as he cleaned shower drains. He reported that it came to him to simply say “God is Good” when he was disgusted and that actually restored his positive attitude- Gross drains: God is Good! Slimy mats: God is Good! Yucky shower curtains: God is Good! Another youth decided to think about God as she scraped and scrubbed grease from the heavily used grill. She knew there was a lesson there about redeeming something dirty and making it clean again. She also made note that the water she was using was getting more and more murky but when she stirred it up, the suds on top were white again. Small metaphor- big and beautiful object lesson.
By the end of the day- the church sparkled- all the way into the corners. It was so great how this team grabbed on to the task inspired by blessings we received from the good people of Dunamis Life Church. As soon as we heard the words- “Bless this Church”- everyone chose: IN.
Jesus said: “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.” …May it be so.
Submitted by Pat and Gordon Burrows, Project Leaders
