I was blessed to be able to co-lead a bible study of women and to specifically disciple three ladies. It was very exciting to be able to work with Michelle, Marissa, and Nicky. Each was at a very different stage in life; from just graduating college, to just having started, but I was amazed to see their hearts for God and for the lost. Our times together varied from working on their testimonies, praying for revival and for different aspects of their own lives, and evangelizing in a variety of settings. My greatest joy this summer was watching them grow from literally running away from sharing the gospel to at the end of the summer, passionately and boldly sharing what they believed and trusting God for the results. As a result, God brought many men, women, and children to Him this summer through them.

A Taste of Chicago
Our time in Chicago was spent ministering to and serving every imaginable people group. Partnering with different ministries throughout Chicago, much of our time was spent working with recovering addicts, ex-convicts, homeless, children, and senior citizens. God provided amazing opportunities most of all to learn and build relationships as well as to share the Truth. I spent much of my time with my students working with Cabrini-Green Kid’s Club and Inner City Impact. Both are organizations devoted to building into children’s and adolescent’s lives teaching and discipling them about Christ, as well as providing tutoring and life skills training. Inner City Impact was definitely an eye opening experience as our teams went out into the surrounding communities and held clubs on the streets. Armed with candy, bibles, music, and toys, students loved on the kids as they came running, and many came to know the Lord and are now involved in Inner City Impact’s after school groups.

For me however, the most amazing part of Summer in the City was a period of four days spent in a “poverty simulation”. To help us to understand a little more of the problems of the city, many of the students and staff participated in an activity which stripped us of possessions, rights, and pride. We lived and slept on a gym floor for this time, in our makeshift shelter. Given a small amount of fun money, we had to determine what was more important to us, eating, having a place to sleep, showers, etc. Like at a shelter, we were forced onto the streets at 7am and were not allowed to return until 5pm that night unless we had an early meeting. It was a very humbling experience and definitely put our perspectives on the hope we have in Christ, that everything else is fleeting.
At the end of this time, we actually became homeless for one day, sent out to complete tasks on a list, such as collecting 50 aluminum cans, dumpster diving, panhandling, and finding out information about local shelters, etc. This for me was the most humbling time as people would point, stare, make comments.

However, God provided us with an awesome ministry opportunity. We ran across a man named Terri who had been living on the streets for the last year. Terri had run with gangs as a teen and as a result spent time in jail. With no remaining family and no job training, Terri ended up on the streets. He was so excited that someone would actually be willing to talk to him and treat him as a human being. He even pretended for the few hours that we were together that we were his family. It was awesome to be able to share God’s love with him. Terri believes in God, but doesn’t have a personal relationship with Christ. We were able to put him in contact with Restoration Ministries, a ministry devoted to helping ex-convicts and addicts recover, get job training, and most of all, have the life-changing experience of knowing Christ. Pray that Terri would come to know Christ and would get involved with Restoration.

Outreach
On the weekends, students planned a variety of outreaches, including sharing with college students at the University of Illinois-Chicago, on the streets of Chicago during the Taste of Chicago, attended by over 3 million people, and a free car wash in Roseland, southside Chicago. While half the team washed cars, the other half were able to witness while the owners were waiting. As a result of the free nature of the car wash, many were curious as to why we were doing it and God provided multiple opportunities to share and pray with people throughout the summer. Pray that the seeds God planted this summer would continue to grow and spur revival in Chicago.