(This is a post from livejournal.com...I figured I should start putting them here too - thanks kai).

The last one week and two days….

Well on the 8^th, the Olson’s went to Milwaukee and praise God we have a place to meet for CYIA for next year.  Now we just need to work out the logistics because the new place is more expensive.

On the 9^th, I went to a new church.  This is actually, what I wrote Celessa in an e-mail to her but I figured I would copy and paste it here, with some grammar modification, to save time.

Well I finally made it to that Presbyterian Church that I told you I had found on the internet, today.  I was late though.  I went the wrong way and then when I was turned around because there was an accident with emergency vehicles all over the road.  Then I couldn’t find parking.  The site mentioned that there was free parking in lot J (the church meets in a chapel of a university) but I couldn’t find lot J.  I eventually parked in a pile of snow in an area that I didn’t have a permit.  But nothing happened so that was good.  As I was walking up, I heard them singing a song so I wasn’t going to be walking in the sermon, so that was good.  And since they were standing when I came in, I wasn’t noticed as much so I didn’t feel so bad.  It was a little different than I am used to but it was good.  It definitely pulled from its liturgical roots for we read aloud certain writings and prayers but I have wanted to go to a church like that for a long time.  Well I have gone to another Pres. Church that was even more liturgical, actually, it was completely liturgical, but the female pastor was promoting homosexuality from the 10 commandments.  I was actually only there for a class project.

One thing I love about going to church in Chicago vs. my church in Warrenton (though I do love that church) is that I am usually a minority as a white guy.  I love seeing the mix of cultures.  Well maybe not so much a mix, this church was mostly Chinese and my other church in Chicago was all Hispanic, but I do get to see different people worshipping God nonetheless, which I am always blessed by that.  The sermon was very good too.  Which I had suspected it would be b/c I had listened to him on the internet when I was checking out the church.  The thing that disappointed me a bit was that no one said hi to me except for the guy who gave me the book for the order of worship (which was cool, I am only used to a bulletin) when I came in.  After the service, I stood up and kind of looked around a bit, one girl smiled at me nearby so I said hi but she didn’t say anything back.  Then I strolled out and everyone just kind of stayed there.  Then I looked at the table they had in the back with all kinds of pics and a list of their ministries.  Then I looked back in the chapel and everyone was still just standing in there talking to each other so I thought maybe I am leaving prematurely.  But since no one stopped me, I just put my coat on and left.  They have weekly Bible Studies throughout the week so I am going to try to go to one of those and maybe I will be able to become more connected.

Well I made it to one of the Bible studies on Wednesday.  It was good.  I was encouraged not to be at something where they just all sat around asking how this passage makes you feel.  We spent most of the time finding out what the text actually said and meant and by doing that application becomes so apparent that it just flows from the text.  Then at the end, we did work through some application on how to be challenged even this week.  All of the small groups apparently are working through the book of John.  We were at the beginning of John going through the healing of the paralytic next to the water.  It was also great to see the insight some of these people had.  It is always a challenge for me to work with young adult Christians.  Because I except kids to make funny comments but it kind of throws me for a loop when adults make the same comments.  However, all the people there were thinkers.  Another couple was at the Bible study for the first time too.  And they were just recently saved.  The man was saved through the reading of theology books.  That is so cool.  Then afterwards we sat around talking and eating.  I talked with one couple for that whole time.  They are very involved in different ministries and they were actually excited about looking at CEF and doing some volunteer work.  Though I haven’t been able to contact them yet hopefully, something will come to fruition there.  We also just talked about all kinds of things.  They even invited me to come to their house sometime to play games and talk about theology.  They just live down the street from me.  They also asked me about raising kids.  They want to have a kid or adopt one if they are unable or maybe even both.  So they were asking what I thought about public school and dating, etc.  That was cool.  I have only had one other adult come to me and ask me if their child should go into the public school.  I said yes and boy that was a mistake.  That girl was definitely not ready for the world, WOW!  I thought she needed some social interaction but what she needed was to get straight with God first and still does, hmmm….

Well I was planning on going to one of the groups on Thursday but I didn’t wake up until 2 pm so that kind of messed up my day.  I went to bed on Wed night at 12 just soon after, I got back from that bible study.  However, my roommate called me at 2 from a friend’s house.  He figured I would be awake, which I usually am.  He had a computer question, which I couldn’t help him since he didn’t even know where the start menu was.  Wow there is only one other person I have met that knows as little about computers as he does and that is my grandma.  The strange thing is that he uses his computer all the time to work on writing his book and download illegal music.  Until I put spyware software on his computer and it read kazaa as spyware, ooops hehe.  I think he took it off though.  Well I believe a friend has set up everything on his computer because he needed help plugging in his comp when he moved in.

Oh yeah back to his call.  So I ended staying up until 6 am.  Well that wasn’t helpful.  I think I had my alarm clock set for 8 but I turned it off in my sleep.

Well Friday the 14^th was busy.  I woke up for PCM Orientation to get all of our Moody GNC teachers back on track of what they are doing.  Chicago has this weird magnet for guys.  Everywhere I have been in the world of CEF is always filled with women, usually single woman.  If there is a guy, he is a married guy.  So it is usually me and the ladies.  However, I come to Chicago and ¾ of our paid staff is male.  Now most of our volunteer teachers in the city are woman.  However, at moody most of our PCMers are guys.  It is so strange.  At the beginning of the year one guy was like, “What I have to work with kids!?”  Then I said not just any kids your club will probably be mostly preschoolers.  He was ready to get out right then.  He tried but the PCM dept. wouldn’t let him go.  So he stuck around and now he loves it.  Though I don’t think, he will try it again (and he does graduate in May so he definitely won’t be with us after this semester).  Well that is the general attitude of most guys towards children’s ministry.  They think it is woman’s work.  However, the weird thing is that we lost 3 girls and 1 guy this last semester and they will be replaced with 2 guys.  So I think our male/female ratio is at least like 70/30.  It is amazing!  It really does bless my heart to know all these guys are out there showing these kids a godly male role.

After PCM we were supposed to go find Eloise, one our hosts from Cabrini-Green.  However, I am an idiot and studied for the wrong lesson for GNC that afternoon.  However, neither Jonathan nor I had the right lesson plan on us.  So we had to try to track that down.  Well he had a couple of leads so while he did that I went up to go get a transcript transfer.  Well we didn’t find anyone so we decided to stop by the Olson’s on the way and then get to club early and study there.  If any CEF person is reading this, please forgive me and don’t ever study that soon before you teach.  Well originally we weren’t going to have a lot time so we were going to drop off our cars at the club then go to the Olson’s and then Jonathan was going to study in the car on the way there because he can wing better than I can.  The crazy thing is that I had like 2 wks to get that lesson down.  I was supposed to teach it the week before.  However, I had locked into my brain the wrong time so I showed up after everyone was gone.

Well after we decided what we were going to do we left Moody and went to Eloise worked.  She worked at the Starbucks in the Northwest Hospital, which is a huge hospital.  So it took us awhile to find her but we finally did and she freaked out because she was so excited that we visited her.  This lady has such a messed up life.  But we keep praying for her and she keeps growing.  Praise the Lord she is now suppose to move out of Cabrini-Green, for real this time (she has been talking about it for a long time).  She just recently got this job at Starbucks after looking for about 2-3 yrs and they are going to transfer her to her new neighborhood so that is really good.

Then when that was over, we did the whole GNC study plan, crazy.

Well God is always faithful and promises that when His word goes out it will not return void without accomplishing what it was set out to do.  So 3 kids came back for counseling.  3 assurances and 1 salvation.  The kids brought up a great illustration too.  I said about even the best person you can think of has sinned and deserves punishment in hell.  There is nothing you can do to fix the sin problem.  Well there was a big mural of Dr. MLK jr. behind me so one kid said even him.  And I said even him.  The only way he could have his sins forgiven was if he obeyed this verse so I took them right back to Jn. 1:12 where we were at.  That really shook them up because they thought that a great civil rights leader like him should just automatically be a saint.  One kid said that maybe God should have like a deal where if you do 1 to 50 sins you aren't too bad.  But after that whole illustration, they didn’t have any doubts on what was needed to be saved.  The one girl’s name that was saved was Brandy if you could pray for her.  Thanks.

Well I got back home that night I was really tired and had work to do to finish getting ready for Saturday’s workshop.  So I didn’t end up going to one for the Friday bible studies either.

Well I was sort of working away some friends from school came over (it is always good to see them).  And they used one of my free blockbuster coupons and got the Village.  Pretty cool movie.  Though as I was watching it I worked on my notes.  Then after they left, I kept working on my notes until 2 am.  I was kind of freaking about that class because it was much different from anything else I have taught.  I also took a break at some point and bought plane tickets to Seattle.  That turned into an extended break as I tried to make sure I was doing everything right and I got the best deal and didn’t get charged for something that I didn’t want.

Saturday’s training shop was much better than I thought it would be.  Though now that I think about it I pretty much left out about half of the stuff I wrote down in my notes.

On Saturday my old roommate, Bubba, was in town so he took me out to eat.  He actually has to be in Chicago a lot for the next couple of months so it will be good to see him more often again.

Well then, there is today or actually Sunday.  I went to bed at 10 on Sat. so I would have plenty of time to sleep for church and be able to get up on time.  But for some reason I remember my alarm clock going off and asking myself, "Why is this going off?" and then turned it off.  I then proceeded to keep sleeping.  I then slept over 12 hrs total.  I am so ashamed of myself.  Well when I did finally get up I spent the day writing and I am still here writing away.