Biltmore Church

The team from Biltmore Church has arrived in Chicago and is eager to serve this week alongside Hope Fellowship from Texas! Tomorrow morning we’ll be going to church at Spirit of God Fellowship. 

Can’t wait to serve this week!

The team experienced an incredible worship service at Spirit of God Fellowship church this morning and then heard from Karen about the ministries we will be partnering with this week such as kids day camp, food pantry, thrift store, and some gardening with Restoration Ministries.

Today we went to a beautiful overlook of the Chicago skyline along Lake Michigan and did some musical worship followed by a delicious meal at a local delicacy, Portillo’s!

Today we served at Restoration Ministries for the first day of Kid’s Camp! The verse of the week is Psalm 56:3; “When I am afraid, I put my trust in the Lord.” 

Part of our team helped out at the food pantry. Restoration gives out boxes of food to around 130 families every Saturday! We helped pack those boxes, organize the pantry, and put away food from a delivery. We said a prayer for each box we packed and for the family that will receive it. It was a really cool way to remember why we are doing this, and that though we may not see it, these boxes can have an impact in someone’s lives!

After lunch a group went to the Restoration Thrift Store to help out. We hung and tagged clothes, sorted hangers, and organized the clothes out on racks for sale. There was so much work to be done; there is an abundance of donations, which was cool to see and know that the proceeds from the sales go to funding the ministry. We also got to talk to some of the women working there as well!

Today we got to serve at the thrift store doing more testing, sorting, and pricing of items. We also learned that restoration ministries started almost 40 years ago with one family with a big dream for what God was going to do here in Harvey. 

We are thankful to be a part of it this week and getting to know the many people that serve with the different ministries!

Today we were able to participate in youth group at Spirit of God Fellowship Church where Leah and Ashley from our Texas team got to share their testimonies of what God has done in their lives. In addition to this, we got to hear and learn about the work that God is doing in the lives of the high school students here as they just got back from their week at Bible camp.

It was incredibly encouraging to hear from so many people how God is revealing Himself to them.

Tuesday day camp was a blast! We got to hang out with the kids and love on them some more. We danced to some songs, played lots of games, and more!

Today we got paint the music room of the place we are lodging. It was so much fun to use our skills to make this wall look beautiful!

This week we got to share dinner time with the men’s group at Restoration Ministries. It was incredible to hear their individual stories of restoration and we were blessed to hear Ray’s testimony and get a photo with a few of them on Wednesday night.

After an incredible week of serving we got to enjoy a fun day in downtown Chicago where we saw The Bean, enjoyed Portillo's, Giordano’s deep dish, and went to the top of the Willis Tower!