After School Program

Yesterday was a long and great day.  After our morning routine of walking to the YMCA for showers and then back to St. Paul's for breakfast we were ready for our day long excursion.

Taking the train in a big city is always a great learning opportunity.  Here we all are on the L.

Subway surfers Marcus and Eli!

After spending a couple hours at Navy Pier we headed back on the L toward the Roger's Park neighborhood in Chicago.  Our activity for the afternoon was to be helping hands at United Church of Roger's Park's afternoon program.  It was a slow start as we waited for the kids to arrive after school, but once they started coming the organized chaos began!  

Rena and her new friend must have played at least 10 games together.

Jan quickly became the arts and crafts lady.

Carl and his new friend made a spring flower.

Rich was the requested math homework helper for this young man.

Crazy chaos with kids?  This afternoon was made for Janette!

After Janette got the kids all crazy, son Grant led them in yoga in an attempt to calm everybody down.

Fun at the park.

Deacon Wes (the man in the orange shirt) started the after school program after learning about the neighborhood and doing some intense listening about what the community needs were.

Tough security guard Pastor Lisa ensured that all kids stayed inside the park area.

It has been a wonderful week exploring Chicago, learning from some great social service agencies and churches, and making some great new friendships.  Intergenerational mission trips are some of my favorites!

One last pajama party!  Last night we projected the Disney movie Frozen on to the wall in the sleeping room.

Friends forever: Abby, Jan, and Megan.

A beautiful ending to a great week.  St. Paul's has a Taize worship service on Tuesday evenings.  They kept the candles lit for us so our final devotions could be held in this sacred space.

Feed My Starving Children

Feed My Starving Children is an organization that brings together volunteers to pack food packages to be sent to starving children around the world.  Our group volunteered this evening for an hour and a half at their permanent packing facility in Schaumburg, IL.

New friends + photo bombs = good times.

Rich was on label duty for the evening.

Bag sealer extraordinaire Deb and packing expert Will made up one fine team.

Angela and Lucas danced and sang while they packed lots of meals together.

Eli and Lucas did their very best to keep Jan in line.

Vitamins, Veggies, Soy, Rice

Grant, Abby, Sam, Megan

The FMSC organization runs like a well oiled machine.

Carl's job was to ensure that each bag weighted between 380-400 grams.

Damon filled up soy for teams that were running low.

The stories of how Manna Pack Rice has changed lives of children around the world are incredibly powerful.

Volunteers from all sorts of churches and organizations gathered around the filled boxes of food at the very end for a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing before the food was shipped to Peru.

Our team, along with many other volunteers, packaged enough meals tonight to feed 32 kids for an entire year.  Who knew wearing hairnets could be so much fun?

Hilda's Place Shelter

This afternoon we hauled our trailer full of clothes to Hilda's Place Shelter in Evanston.  Hilda's Place, operated by an organization called Connections for the Homeless, is a shelter with a mission of helping people who are experiencing homelessness get back on their feet and into permanent housing.  While most shelters allow people to stay for a few short weeks, Hilda's Place is available for people to stay at for three months.  During that time individuals are partnered with social workers who work one on one with them to help create opportunities for success.

The men's dorm room has room for 8 people at one time.

The women's dorm room also has room for 8 people, but the space is certainly small and cramped.

THANK YOU, ZUMBRO, for the amazing response to our clothing drive back home.  Inside Hilda's Place there is a "store" available for both overnight guests of the shelter and individuals who utilize their drop in shelter during the daytime hours.  We asked for clothing ... and you certainly delivered!

The amount of clothes you brought in could have filled this barrel 10 times!

It took some teamwork to haul the clothes from the trailer to the shelter.

Way to go, Grant!

Hmm...  Was Deb shopping for the day or delivering to Hilda's Place?

Rena started out the afternoon with the sorting team in the store room.  All of the clothing we brought in had to first be split into men's/women's, tops/pants, sizes, etc. 

I love intergenerational ministry.  It wasn't always easy to figure out where items should go, but Jan provided help for lots of our team workers.

Janette must have sorted all afternoon!  I don't think we ever saw her walk out of that store room until it was time to leave.

Carl, on the other hand, walked back and forth hundreds of times to pick up the sorted items and put them where they belonged in the store.

Rich kept busy hanging up clothes for a few hours.

Our youngest boys dug through those piles and found all sorts of ties to display in the store.  Thanks, Lucas and Will.

Check out that well organized store behind Damon.

There wasn't room for all of us to be working in the store, but there was certainly plenty of work to be done.  Angela and the boys spent the afternoon picking up the trash that was littering the alley and entrance surrounding the shelter.  (Notice there isn't any snow on the ground here?!?)

Abby, Sam and Megan prepared lunch bags to be given out to shelter guests the next day.

Check out this great looking crew!  It's been a wonderful couple of days watching new friends get to know one another.  From age 7-70 we have people in all decades of life but one in this group.  Pretty amazing (and lots of fun).

Hunger Simulation

This morning the group took part in a hunger simulation created by ELCA World Hunger called "Food for a Week."  Individuals were divided into groups and given the identity of a family who was at very high risk for food insecurity.  Each group read about their situation and then had the task of acquiring food for a week.  Some had larger budgets than others.  Some had larger families than others.  Each group had an opportunity to get food from the grocery store or the local food pantry.  To increase their food budget they were also given an opportunity to visit a human resource agency to apply for food stamps.

Food items were available at the local food pantry ... that is if people were able to locate where the food pantry was.  Rochester folks -- do you know where Channel One is located or how you would get there if you didn't have access to a car and gas money?  

Janette and Marcus were on a tight budget and took time to carefully select the items that would fit into their budget and provide them with the number of calories they needed for the week.

Deb, Carl, and Lucas purchased all of their meals for the week, but the process for figuring out a meal plan with what they were able to afford and get from the food pantry was daunting.

Rich, Jack, and Damon struggled to come up with much variety in their meal plans.

Being hauled along to the grocery store, human resources agency, and food pantry is exhausting work for kids (and adults!).

Crabby Abby was given the task of running the human services office. Turns out she wasn't very helpful -- she didn't know how to help people fill out their food stamp applications, people had to sit and wait for a long time while their applications were processed, and some families were told they had to come back in 2-4 weeks.  

Not knowing where your next meal might come from and struggling to have enough food for your family is hard work.  It isn't easy to ask for help and most people don't ever picture themselves in this position.  The reality is that one job loss, unforeseen disability, broken relationship, or run of bad luck can change everything in a heartbeat.  This morning our team experienced just a little bit about how frustrating it can be to be poor or experiencing homelessness while looking for a little help.

Feed My Sheep

Tonight we read a story from John 21 about a time that God surprised the disciples.  They couldn't find any fish.  God surprised them by telling them where to fish.  They were hungry.  God surprised them by showing up on the lakeshore with a hot breakfast.  It wasn't too long after Jesus fed the disciples that he left them with an instruction: feed my sheep.

This morning we joined together with the faithful people of St. Paul's.  We heard God's word and then spent the afternoon feeding Jesus' sheep.  And the best part?  God surprised us in all sorts of ways.  We had the perfect amount of food, the right number of helpers, grateful dinner guests, and an all around super day.  By the end of the afternoon our team of 18 busy Zumbro worker bees fed 99 individuals in St. Paul's fellowship hall.

Rena wrote words of encouragement on the snack packs we sent with each dinner guest.

 Eli and the hamburger team prepared 35 pounds of taco meat.

Lucas and Will prove that kids of all ages can be really helpful servants. 

All the lettuce choppers were thrilled when Pastor Lisa discovered yet one more cooler filled with lettuce to be chopped. 

And ... action! 

Yep.  Damon proves it.  We really did go through all that lettuce! 

Megan, Rena, Sam and Abby mixed up some delicious brownies. 

Jack washed and washed and washed and washed that lettuce... 

Grant and Janette filled the 2 largest bowls of fresh pineapple we've ever seen. 

Yes, Jan, more lettuce. 

I'm not too sure who was more excited about that lettuce - Angela or Jan? 

Good thing Rich, Carl and Marcus cut the tomatoes in record time.  We were saving them lots of dirty dishes to wash.