Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a spooky yet safe holiday!
This morning I went to Park Community Church - Near North campus.  They are a "newer" church plant in Chicago that targets mainly the 20 and 30 somethings in the city.  They do it well.  In the past 15-20 years, they've grown from a small congregation in a school to a three campus several thousand member church whose hearts are still for bringing people to Christ and sending out missionaries.  I went to the 9am service since we had Halloween stuff going on that we needed to prep for.  My fantastic Sunday School class from Louisville called me while I was on my way.  A big shout out to CCBC in Louisville - you guys are still closest to my heart!  They were shocked that it was 8:47am and I was on the interstate going to church.  Don't worry, I'll probably aim to go to the 11am service most of the time.  And they have a 5pm service as well - I went to that one the last time and enjoyed it but I feel like I'm not giving God my best if I don't worship in the beginning of the day.  If life gets crazy, I can head to that service, but I'll plan for the 11am.
You can check out Park Community Church here.
Onto Halloween...
I wish I had grown up in Chicago because these kids had MASS amounts of candy!  In Chicago, a lot of the stores give out candy so you don't just go to the neighborhoods, you pick a really busy street (like Milwaukee Ave next to our apt) and you walk up and down it getting candy.

Kevin is a Forest Ranger who will show you all the
wonders of Milwaukee and Jennifer is a cat - Meow!

The Kellys, myself and our friend Hilary passed out hot chocolate and also had a free photo booth for the trick-or-treaters out on Milwaukee.  We were going to make cotton candy, but the machine wouldn't work off of a car battery inverter.  The wattage just wasn't enough, so we tried to make them at the house and walk them down. That didn't really work either as we had hundreds of people coming by and not nearly enough cotton candy.  So we stuck with the hot chocolate.  In the end we made 12 gallons of hot chocolate and passed out between 400-500 cups.  Oh My Gosh! you might say.  Yes!  By the time we got done and came home and unloaded the car and made dinner, we were kinda punch drunk.  We did get about 35 family pictures that we get to take out.  Hopefully we can meet some new people in the neighborhood through this.  (Random - I just heard a cat freaking out or fighting outside the house, it was semi-Monty Python-ish...made me giggle.)
Once cleaned up, we finished off the cotton candy floss in the machine and then Kevin and Jennifer turned their cones into Kazoos.  We ended up singing the Get Smart theme in 3 part harmony.  It was fantastic!!
Long story short - good day.  Some unexpected twists and turns but overall God was very faithful.  Please be in prayer for church planters in Chicago as they follow God's leading and struggle with how to plant churches and how to evaluate what they're doing in the light of how God has told them to lead.  This is a difficult task in this city.
Tomorrow is my first Metra train ride (the train system that goes from the city to the suburbs).  I'll be going up to Arlington Heights to babysit for my cousin again and I'm also going to be registering my car downtown afterwards.  Please be praying that I don't have to have residency to register my car or else I'll be in trouble.  My tags expired today so I can't drive it until I get new tags.  Cross your fingers and say a prayer!

"Support the Undead"

The past two days have been a whirlwind of activity!
Yesterday was consumed by a drive out to the suburbs in order to babysit the 3 cutest kids in the world!  My cousin's children: Cameron, Molly and Griffin were wonderful, well behaved and just simply smart and creative!  Please be in prayer for my cousin Lindsey as she's continuing to deal with kidney stone problems after the birth of Griffin.  Her doctor's office seems to think that she has unlimited time to go to the office - with 3 children.   I get to babysit for them again on Monday.  It will be my first Metra train experience.
So today - Saturday - oh what a day!
It started out with some fantastic ranchero eggs made by our own Jennifer Kelly.  Then she took me with her on an errand run.  We went all over creation!  Included stops were: Wal-Mart (the only one in the city), Jewel Osco, Aldi and Walgreens - where they wanted to charge me $30 for my Mucinex and luckily Jennifer caught it because I didn't hear the total.  She showed me where to shop for what and I've forgotten where most everything is that she showed me, but it was educational.
Next we made caramel apples for dinner...see below.
THEN, I got to take my first solo "L" ride downtown in order to meet a Russian friend, Olya.  She is the step-mother of Melissa Thompson (whose house I helped restore in Mt. Washington).  We did quite a bit.  We met at State and Randolph - where the huge Macy's is with the old clock.  Then we walked around Daley Plaza where they had dyed the fountain orange for Halloween.  They had Halloween crafts and acts going on in the plaza for the kids.  We took some pictures - as shown - and moved on.

On our walk towards Michigan Ave we encountered the House of Blues.  We took some pictures - as shown - and moved on.  Next we headed to the Howard Bldg, which I think is the 3rd tallest building in Chicago.  Taking the elevator up 96 floors to the Signature Lounge, we found ourselves looking for miles in every direction.  There was a great view of  the Navy Pier and Lake Michigan went on forever!
We decided that we needed to have a sit down and since the Cheesecake Factory had a 30 min wait, we headed to Ghirardelli.  Across the street from the massive Hershey store, we ordered some ice cream (I had water since I was very parched) and had a seat outside since the day was beautiful!

It was there that we were approached by some zombies.  Yeah, gross I know.  They were passing out flyers for a zombie show this weekend.  We smiled and nodded and hoped they wouldn't eat us.  We got lucky, they were just there to raise awareness. "Support the undead" was their catch phrase.  Apparently Borders doesn't support the undead.  Go fig huh?
Olya and her son, Micheal, were running late for their train back to the suburbs at Union Station so we hopped a cab (my 1st Chicago cab ride) and I got off at Randolph and State again and they continued onward.
Now, the Kellys had guests coming over for dinner at 6p, so I wanted to get home in time to see them and meet them.  I was home at 5:45p.  Oh yeah.  The walk from the apartment to the train station isn't that bad - its about 10 mins max.  And as a perk for those early morning walks, there's a fantastic Hispanic Bakery on the way.  Oh YUM!  That'll make any bad day turn right around.
So, right on time (Polish time, that is) the guest arrived and we chatted till about 10p.  Man, I'm tired but I know you all rely on the punctuality of my blogs so I figured I would get all this down tonight for you.  Hate to keep anyone waiting.
Oh and by the way - GO HUSKERS!  They beat Mizzou.  Ha ha!
That's all for now.  Tomorrow is my first solo church experience. I think I'm going to go to Park Community - the singles church - and see how that strikes me.  The services get younger and younger with every service, so I think I'm going to try the 9:30 or 11am.  Probably the 9:30 since my hosts are going to be leaving about that time as well.
Until tomorrow, or Monday depending on how the day goes.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Much Love

Note to self: Learn Polish

I had my first cross-cultural experience in Chicago today!  I walked down the block and across the street to the Polish Sausage Shop.  Let me just tell you that I walked into an Eastern European grocery store complete with...wait for it...PEACH JUICE!
Oh yeah!  They don't have that anywhere!
Earlier in the day, I decided that I needed to get some more bread, lunch meats and cheese so that Kevin and I could have dinner while Jennifer was at work.  Nothing better than sandwiches!
I put on my new heavy coat...praise the Lord I bought that!..and walked out of the building - complete with a set of keys, woot! - and down the block, across Milwaukee Ave to Kurowski's Sausage Shop!  I was so excited!  I was going to go in and get my exotic food!  I got into the shop, glanced around at the candy, did a jig in my head when I discovered the Peach juice, picked up my 2lb load of bread for $1.79 then proceeded to the produce.  They have tons of goats milk yogurt, hint hint Jes.  Next, I made my way back around to the meat and cheese section.  I stopped in my tracks when I realized that everything was written in Polish.  Everything!  I speak Russian - not Polish.  Very different!  So I decide to skip the cheese since we had some Munster at home and just go for the meats, which we had none of.  I recognized 2 words - Salami and Ham.  That was it!  I had found my meats!  I found someone who spoke English and got some Hard Salami and Spiced Ham. I paid for my purchases and walked out triumphant that I had not made a fool out of myself!
As I was walking home I hoped that Kevin & Jennifer would like what I bought.  So we sat down to the table and lemme tell ya.  That stuff was good!  Mild, but good!  We added a little Dijon mustard and some cheese in between that yummy soft crusted cheap bread that I got.  We each had multiple sandwiches!  The meal ended with a Polish Version of Fig Newtons and a odd twix-like candy.  All delicious!
I am very glad to say that my first cross-cultural shopping experience in Chicago was also my first food shopping experience ever in Chicago (outside of my June visit).  Praise the Lord!  He still provides, even when I don't speak the language.
Much Love!

Welcome to the Windy City!

I was wildly welcomed the great city of Chicago by wind - lots and lots of wind!  The "windy city" is living up to its name already!  We drove in wind and storms all the way from Louisville to Chicago but by God's grace we got here!
I was welcomed with open arms by family and friends, showered with love and good food and even got some extra sleep!
It is now day 2 of my Chicago adventure and I'm getting ready to head off into the big wide city and do exciting things like...register my car, update my cell phone and buy some newspapers.
Please be praying that I'll find the job and the apartment that the Lord has for me.  God has been truly faithful and gracious during this move and I cannot give Him enough praise or glory for it.
I hope to have exciting news, pictures and more adventures tomorrow!
Much love!

P.S.  I thought it might be a good idea to introduce everyone to the fantastic people I'm staying with, Kevin & Jennifer Kelly