Imperishable Inheritance

I made it to my first mis­sions trip dur­ing spring break. It was an incred­i­ble time that I thought I would recap (if noth­ing else for myself, because I’ll for­get). Be sure also to check out the pic­tures.

We started the trek down to South Chicago (Rose­land) on Sun­day. We made it there that night and got ori­ented and had the oppor­tu­nity to meet other Cru­saders from a plethora of schools around the coun­try at the Agape Cen­ter. That was where we spent our first night.

The next day was focused around an eth­nic com­mu­nity out­reach. There were sev­eral options, but I chose (along with my brother) to go to Uptown. There we got to see a whole dif­fer­ent com­mu­nity and dare I say world up close! I started the adven­ture by open-air preach­ing on the El (Chicago sub­way). Did it twice, and both times it was inter­est­ing to put myself out like that to a group of peo­ple I’ve never seen.

We walked around rather need­lessly until we came upon this hid­den Cor­ner­stone Com­mu­nity Cen­ter. We just straight walked in, walked up to the recep­tion­ist, and told her we wanted to help. She was shocked! She said we should be in Florida or some­where warm for our break! They had my group (5 of us) wash­ing floors, clean­ing clos­ets, sweep­ing, and mop­ping. We found out near the end that there was an impend­ing health inspec­tion the next day to see if they would stay open! This was by far the most reward­ing day, but I had much more to go!

That night we moved to The Har­vey House (a part of Restora­tion Min­istries). The men stayed at The Har­vey House and the women stayed at The Tabitha House (the female branch of Restora­tion Min­istries). We got a chance to meet incred­i­ble peo­ple with incred­i­ble tes­ti­monies. These two houses are geared at help­ing sub­stance abuse addicts and those recently out of jail get back on their feet. That next day we spent the day serv­ing The Har­vey House. The group painted out­side, inside, cleaned, and any other job they needed help with. We also spent the after­noon with their youth min­istry called “Kid’s Cafe.” I got the chance to help with math assign­ments with the younger group and then go and do exer­cises with the older half.

After a night of fel­low­ship we picked up the next day by going back to the Agape Cen­ter and our group got split into two halves. I went to the Rose­land home­less shel­ter, and the rest set up a car­ni­val for kids. I went to the shel­ter and got to meet some home­less gen­tle­men, and I helped the staff by clean­ing util­ity fans, heaters, and hang­ing out with the kids for a while. They have such an awe­some ministry!

Then I took a sub-section back to the Agape Cen­ter to help with the kid’s car­ni­val. I pretty much watched and hung out with the kids, but the rest of our group was assigned to spe­cific sta­tions from soc­cer to bas­ket­ball to bowl­ing and other activ­i­ties. They then rounded up the kids and put on a skit and shared the Gospel with them. We then took some kids and shared Res­ur­rec­tion Eggs with them.

We had a talk about racial unity that night that didn’t go so well. The speaker (the lead­ers of the Agape Cen­ter) pre­sented a very “agenda-felt” speech. It felt very con­trived, and many wild claims were made (“Only white peo­ple can be racist”). We had an inter­est­ing dis­cus­sion after wards.

The last day I our group worked for the Har­vey House in two groups. One group stayed to do con­tin­ued grounds main­te­nance, and the other half (includ­ing myself) went to their local thrift store they’ve been rebuild­ing. We helped shelf items and clean up. I found 6 books there I bought! I must admit I got a book: “Redemp­tion Applied and Accom­plished” by John Mur­ray that had more of my atten­tion that after­noon. (Note to self: put down the the­ol­ogy to serve.) We then spent more time with the kid’s cafe.

The last day I preached a lit­tle bit on a pas­sage that has been tear­ing at my heart recently.

Those who desire to make a good show­ing in the flesh try to com­pel you to be cir­cum­cised, sim­ply so that they will not be per­se­cuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are cir­cum­cised do not even keep the Law them­selves, but they desire to have you cir­cum­cised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been cru­ci­fied to me, and I to the world. For nei­ther is cir­cum­ci­sion any­thing, nor uncir­cum­ci­sion, but a new cre­ation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Gala­tians 6:12–16

Reminds me that I, like the Judaiz­ers, like to boast in what I’ve got­ten oth­ers to do. What hyp­ocrites they were and at times I am. May I boast only in the Cross.

That last day we also walked around Chicago, but we really didn’t see that much. Just got to hang out, and then we came straight back. It felt weird not serv­ing or ministering.

What a great week! Makes me look all-the-more-forward to my sum­mer trip! I had great con­ver­sa­tions with Perry, Matt, and Andy Cor­nell. Met some encour­ag­ing believ­ers from The Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin at Eau Claire and Madi­son. Good times were had by all!

My brother wrote an encour­ag­ing post on his experience.