All Souls Anglican Church

Today was our first full day in Chicago...and we’ve been busy! Before diving too much into what we did today, we’ll explain a little about the week.

This week we are staying north of downtown Chicago in the Edgewater neighborhood at Edgewater Presbyterian Church. Throughout the week we’ll be partnering with a few of organizations in the area doing service projects. Something unique about our trip is that we’re serving with another church group this week! They’re from a suburb of Charleston, West Virginia and all week long we’ll be doing everything together as a group!

After arriving to Edgewater Presbyterian Church yesterday evening we got settled and went out for Chipotle dinner while waiting for the West Virginia team to arrive. It was a beautiful evening outside, so we took a stroll to the lake and spent some time at the beach jumping over waves and playing frisbee. Our West Virginia friends arrived last night, we gathered as a large group for the first time and went to bed to catch some zzz’s.

This morning we woke up and ate breakfast before attending church service here at Edgewater Presbyterian Church. Amongst the congregation here at the church there are over 14 different languages spoken! The service was still in English, but it was so cool to worship the Lord as one body though we were from so many different backgrounds. Pastor Sherry preached this morning, and we all got to walk on water! You probably know what passage she taught from, but you’ll have to ask us more about it when we get home.

Following the church service was a fellowship coffee time with the congregation, so we got to know some folks from the church which was cool! Afterwards we ate chicken cesar salad wraps for lunch and they were deeeelish. This afternoon we spent some time getting to know one another and talking about the week ahead. Most importantly, however, we now know everyone’s favorite ice cream flavor, and that mint chocolate chip is quite popular among the group. (Do I hear a call for ice cream later in the week??)

We spent the afternoon at Cornerstone Community Outreach serving people from the community and the organization. Part of us went and helped Steve, the cook, prepare dinner for members of the community and the rest of us sorted through bags of donated clothing and other materials.

FUN FACT: The kitchen crew prepared dinner, cleaned dishes, and two of us cracked 148 eggs to be used for breakfast in the morning. Check out photos of each of the crews on the previous page!

Tonight we dined on true Chicago-style pizza...Pizza Hut! Okay, well, maybe not Chicago-style pizza...at all...but that’ll come later in the week ;) Afterwards we showered and spent some time exploring the church building here- it has over 80 rooms, a sanctuary, a theatre and a gym!

Today was certainly a busy day...and we’ve only just begun! Tomorrow we hit the ground running with service projects at a few places, but we’ll tell you about it later!

Thanks for supporting us in prayer this week!

L to R: Josiah, Jacob, Mary, Dylan, Tori, Rusty, Maci, Steve (the cook), and Charlie! 

L to R: Jacob, Josiah, Miles, Haley, Sam, Mariana, Abby, Aidan, Peggy and Andrew!

Hey there! We’ve been so busy the last two days that we’re just getting to update you now! Wow- it’s been an awesome few days...so let’s fill ya in!

On Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and spent some time doing devotions individually to prepare for a day of ministry. Shortly thereafter we walked not too far from Edgewater church to a nonprofit called “Care for Real”. Care for real provides a variety of services to folks who live in this area of Chicago. For example, they have a free store where clients can acquire second-hand goods at no charge. Additionally, they have a food shelf that is open to the community for members frequently throughout the week.

The food shelf was open on Monday morning, and so we spent the morning helping with food distribution and stocking the warehouse. A fun fact about Care for Real is that they receive food donations from area grocers and the Greater Chicago Food Depository quite often throughout the week. That being the case, we had a few donations to sort through on Monday morning. Some of the foods we came across were eggs, many different breads, cereal, frozen meat and desserts!

The other half of us manned the food lines for folks; helping them collect the right amount of food from each line. Care for Real permits any residents within this area of Chicago to come to the pantry for things like bread, fruits and vegetables each day. On the other hand, the same clients can come once a month for foods such as cereal, frozen meats and pasta noodles. The morning that we served at Care for Real we served food to almost 300 individuals!

After we wrapped up working with food, we went and got ourselves some lunch back at Edgewater Presbyterian Church (EPC). Knowing that we would have a late night yesterday afternoon, we had a few hours of free time here at the church. A few of us decided to catch up on some sleep while others played games and hung out together. I think a Starbucks run was made sometime in there too :)

Monday evening we walked to Epworth United Methodist Church and dined on some delicious spaghetti, salad and garlic bread prepared by one of the members of the church named Bruce. You’ll have to ask us about the church building, because Bruce knew a TON about the history of both the neighborhood, and the church. (FUN FACT: There is a crescent window in the rear of the church’s sanctuary that is worth over $1.5 million dollars! It is beautiful!)

After dinnertime we met the man, the myth, the legend, Vince. Vince runs a men’s shelter which operates out of some of the space at Epworth UMC. We were told to have questions prepared for this time...and we quickly realized why! Vince had us ask him questions about the men’s shelter, Chicago, and the neighborhood. (We learned SO much last night- so be sure to ask us about it.)

Following our conversation with Vince we spent some time in the men’s shelter getting to know some of the folks there. We enjoyed conversing with many of the men there and quickly learned that they in fact weren’t that different than us; they have families, hopes, desires and dreams just like we do. Some of them really liked to talk, and so sometimes they did more talking than we did!

We later returned to EPC after talking with Vince once more. We had a quick debrief meeting from the day and quickly made our way to bed to rest for Tuesday’s activities.

Today we enjoyed breakfast together, had individual devotional time, packed our bag lunches and headed out for Cornerstone Community Outreach. Sarah, our trip leader, works at CCO, and so she was able to adjust our start time so we could get a little extra time to sleep last night after having gone to bed a little late- woo!

Anyhow, we arrived at CCO and a we split the team in half; part of us went and served as kitchen crew/food prep team while the rest of us helped unpack and sort through food that had been delivered that morning by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Once again we had the opportunity to work alongside some super cool people at CCO.

Lunchtime rolled around and we were excited to start seeing some of the men from the shelter that we had visited with last night coming in for lunch at CCO. As they began to come in, we took turns eating and reconnecting with them, and other folks who came in for lunch. It was really special for us to be able to visit with those men again. After lunch was over we helped clean up the cafeteria and kitchen at CCO and returned to EPC.

This afternoon hopped back into our vans and drove out to a non-profit called “Books for a Cause”. Books for a Cause collects books from different places, compiles and organizes them in a warehouse here in Chicago. Once the books are organized, they are stored until they are pulled to be shipped to places all over the world in an effort to establish small libraries in places where these resources may be difficult to access.

Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed serving here this afternoon! Plus, they had so many books that we got to bring a few back with us! A memorable phrase from the day became “Books for Real” (a combination of two names of nonprofits that we’ve spent some time at now this week). We got, and still get, laughs out of it! Books for Real!

Tonight we picked up Lou Malnati’s pizza on our way back from Books for a Cause and ate dinner at EPC. We spent some quality time together playing games and hanging out with our West Virginia friends. Tomorrow’s already our last full day serving here in Chicago! It’s hard to believe, but we’re excited for what tomorrow holds.

Until then!

Here's the team outside of Cornerstone! What a great group!

On Thursday we woke up, ate breakfast and did individual devotions. Shortly after we hopped on the red line and travelled to Rogers Park. There, we spent the morning playing with children who were attending a day-long summer camp hosted by a local methodist church. We enjoyed playing with the kiddos at the park, as Thursday was lake day! After eating lunch with all the children, we returned to the host church and prepared for the children to return to the church before getting picked up by their parents.

By mid-afternoon we returned to EPC and had an hour of down time before we headed down to CCO for our last service time. We arrived and were put right to work with Ed, the night’s chef and meal coordinator. Being that this wasn’t our first time serving a meal at CCO, we felt like we were in our groove working together and with Ed preparing and serving dinner. We worked so fast that Ed was surprised at our speed! More notably, we enjoyed connecting one last time with some of the folks who passed through for dinner that evening. This trip we’ve really valued and have enjoyed the relationships that we’ve been able to make with the people from CCO.

After we finished serving with Ed we had Greek chicken and french fries catered to CCO. Our friends from West Virginia joined us after their day of serving, and we later returned to EPC to wind down from the day.

Woah! It’s hard to believe our service times are over. Each opportunity we’ve had to serve has been meaningful in a different way. We’re looking forward to tomorrow!