My New Mailing Address

To anyone who wanted to know my new mailing address in Chicago it is below! No pressure to send me anything however I absolutely love getting mail and might be more inclined to get you a better Christmas present if you send me mail =P 

CSM Chicago 

Attn: Rachel Rey 

5047 N. Spaulding Ave. #3

Chicago, IL 60625

Thank you in advance for all the wonderful love notes I know you all will be sending to me =) 

Update in Picture Form

The housing site after the move

Kat and another one of the host's in the Bay Area during the busy spring

BARM Pictures

The BARM youth

Adieba

Hiking in Moab, Utah with Jake on the way back to Michigan

100 pirate cake pops I made while home for Robert's 4 year old birthday party

Well hello there Chicago

Awesome mural in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood

All the wonderful Chicago hosts

Chicago host's serving together during training

Chi-Town Bound

I am sure you are all experiencing some serious feelings of neglect since I haven’t written on my blog in so long. It has been an incredibly busy spring for everyone and me over here at CSM.  I am going to give a very quick update about how things finished off in the Bay Area and update you all on what I am doing now.

        We had a lot of spring groups in the Bay Area, which caused us to also welcome a few new temporary hosts to the Bay Area team. It was great to get to know these new great people as we served alongside one another.

I also got the opportunity to host one incredibly awesome group this spring. After hosting for a full week I have realized just how much I truly love hosting. I had such an amazing week with the middle school students and their leaders. Being able to get to know each individual student on some level, made it that much more enjoyable to host them. I loved getting to joke with them but then also have great discussions that cause them to think about issues in new ways. I could see these middle school students growing tremendously as light bulbs came on. Getting to be a part of witnessing God working in them is so awesome.

Hearing a 6^th grade guy pray for the principal at one of the schools in Oakland on the Oakland prayer tour with such sincerity and care made me want to cry it was so beautiful.  There was also another incredible moment with this group as we were doing a sock and blanket give-a-way in UN Plaza in San Francisco.  After giving away the entire sum of blankets one woman came up asking for one. We apologized to her telling her that we had given away our last blanket but had plenty of socks to offer her. She greatly desired a blanket and proceeded to beg one of the homeless men named Van that we were talking to give her his blanket. He hesitated but eventually after her persistent begging, gave her his blanket. Van didn’t think he would get another blanket but was still selfless enough to give her his. As he gave her his blanket one of the girl’s from my group leaned over as if she had a secret to tell me. “Is there anyway I could go buy him another blanket?” She asked me. I praised her incredibly excited that this middle school girl wanted to spend her own money to go buy a new blanket for this man.  We trekked way down the street to go shopping to find the best possible blanket to give Van. This middle school girl challenged me to think if I would be willing to do the same with my money, not just as a middle schooler but now. Anyone that says middle schoolers aren’t capable of doing great things for the Kingdom is crazy! These were normal middle school students from a wealthy suburb of LA that through Christ were able to serve the city in such a great way. I know that these student’s growth was not due to my great hosting abilities or even due to their youth group, but because God was working in them. I am just so glad to have been able to be a part of what God was doing in and through them.

            Along with hosting we were in the process of a grand move from our old housing site to a new housing site. The church we were renting from sold their building a few months ago so we had to haul everything we owned to a new location closer to Lake Merritt in Oakland. It was quite the trek!

            After we finished the move it was time for me to say my goodbyes to all the amazing people I was so blessed to spend the last year of my life with. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye to everyone at the after school program and all the other friends I had met. I found these goodbyes to be the hardest I had ever had to go through because I realized I have never left somewhere knowing that I may never be back for a significant amount of time and if I do it will be incredibly different. I still pray for BARM everyday and I ask you all to keep them in your prayers as well. I still miss the Bay Area a lot at times but I know that God has a lot planned for me in this next season of life as well.

            My brother, Jake, flew in to make the long trek back to Michigan with me. We spent many LONG hours traveling through mountains, blizzards, salt flats, and boring countryside, eating a million Hi-Chews and laughing together. We stopped in Moab, Utah to do some hiking and kayaking with our second cousin Brad. It was so much fun enjoying the beautiful scenery and it helped to break up our driving. We also stopped in Denver to visit more family and for Jake to check out the law school of the University of Colorado- Boulder. It was quite the adventurous fun trip and I couldn’t be more thankful for the wonderful brother that I have.

            After making it home I had 2 weeks to spend time with my 4-year-old best friend and nephew, Robert, and the rest of my family. I also spent time with friends and had to unpack and repack. It was so great to be home and see everyone but it was far from the relaxing free two week that I expected.  It did not nearly feel like I had enough time to do everything and see everyone that I wanted to.

            I am now back in Chicago working for CSM in Chicago. After deciding that I wanted to return back in the fall to North Park University, where I was my freshman year for school, I decided to spend the summer in Chicago. I hope to learn more about the issues facing Chicago and hopefully connect with a ministry partner like BARM that I can serve at for the next few years while I am finishing my schooling. If you haven’t been able to tell from all of my posts, the partnership I had with BARM was by far my favorite aspect of my time in the Bay Area. I would love to be able to form a relationship like that with another ministry here in Chicago that would be slightly more permanent.

            I have been here in Chicago for almost 3 weeks now and it has been so great thus far. In Chicago I am not longer an apprentice and are instead what is called a “city host”. As a city host my job entirely is to lead groups through the city and teach them about issues facing Chicago. I will no longer have a ministry partner that I volunteer with outside of CSM such as I did in the Bay Area. Hosting is an incredibly busy 14 hour-long day job with only about 24 hours off each week between groups. I absolutely love hosting even though it is super busy and I can’t wait to get started again on Sunday. CSM Chicago is the largest city operation CSM has and is almost double the size of any of the other cities CSM is located in. As it is the largest city I have 13 other men and women that I will be hosting with to guide the almost 200 group members that will be here on any given week. The other hosts are all such amazing, fun, hilarious, caring people that I am very excited to get to know better throughout the summer. CSM Chicago rents their group housing from North Park, so I am staying right on my school’s campus for the summer. The group stays in the bottom floors of some North Park apartments and us hosts stay on the top floor. We just finished a grueling 2 weeks of intense training where we learned a lot about the city, visited our 50+ ministry partners, and bonded over jamming to horrible top 40s radio in the van. This week there are only 3 groups here so only 3 people are hosting, which has meant the rest of us have had a lot of free time. We have done some CSM work and some volunteering but it has largely been a pretty restful week. Next week however, the madness begins, as we will have a completely full week of groups.

            Please be praying for the students that will be coming to CSM Chicago that their eyes will be opened to what God wants to teach them and that their hearts will be broken for God’s people. I also ask you to be praying for me and the other staff to have energy and to continue to get along, as we become more sleep deprived. I also ask that you be praying for me to not become too accustomed to the issues facing cities. Please pray that these issues will continue to break my heart everyday, as I know they continue to break God’s heart.

            Thank you all for praying for me throughout my time in San Francisco and for continuing to keep me in your prayers while I am in Chicago. I will try my best to continue to write on this blog more consistently then before. Despite the fact that the name of the blog is no longer relevant I won’t change it because that is just way too much work! I hope you all are doing well and are enjoying the beginning of summer! 

My Friend John

When I walked out of the church this morning I noticed a large pile of blankets pilled up in the hallway. I didn’t think much of it at first because I never know what is going on in this church half the time, but when I walked outside I noticed something had changed. For the last few months there has been a man living behind the dumpster of the church I live at in Oakland. This man’s name is John and he is an elderly guy that has been struggling to maintain a stable living situation with the Bay Area’s incredibly high cost of living. John has become my friend over the last few months as we have had many conversations and I have been frequently bringing him my leftovers and other small goodies. 

He is a very sweet guy and having him in the parking lot where my car is parked each night has made me feel quite a bit safer. Many car break-ins happen every night around where I live in Oakland, but having someone around seems to be a deterrent from anyone wanting to choose my car as the next candidate. I believe in many ways he has taken on the role of protector over my car and me. Through many conversations we have had and various comments he has made to me about how I need to stay safe and ways he is working to keep the parking lot to the church safe and secure, I know he was greatly concerned about my safety. 

When I walked outside this morning I noticed that John’s home was no longer there. The dumpster was pushed back against the wall of the church and all of his belongings were nowhere to be found. I am unsure whether the church made John leave or if he chose to relocate, but the fact that some of his things were inside the church makes me wonder if the church did not have something to do with it. Homelessness has become an issue incredibly close to home since I have been out here. I have many friends around the neighborhood that I will find sleeping outside the church on the sidewalk at night. It can still be shocking to drive up late at night and see several bodies lined up sleeping right outside my window.  I wanted to ask you all to be praying for John. I do not know where he is headed or if I will ever get to see him again, but I want to bathe him in prayer. I just ask you all to pray for his safety and his living situation. Also please pray that through some manner John will come to know the Savior who loved him so much He died for him. I do not know if John had any kind of faith but I do know that his Father in Heaven cares for him deeply. Thank you all for your prayers for my dear friend. 

Oh No! Another Four Letter Abbreviation for the Name of a Ministry Site

Hello all you wonderful people!

These last few weeks have been pretty dandy although nothing particularly striking has happened. I wanted to start by saying the Women’s retreat was absolutely amazing. It was such a wonderful time to be surrounded by God’s wonderful creation in nature and in the other beautiful women that joined me that weekend. There were about 30 women total on the retreat and I loved getting to know each of them more. Through this experience I feel that I am much more connected with the women in my church and have really started to develop some great relationships out here.

            For the last month at least I have been working with another ministry site called Chinese Christian Herald Crusaders or CCHC for short. I know what you all are thinking, "Oh no! Another four letter abbreviation for the name of a ministry site!" I felt like you all must be comfortable enough with what BARM is by now that I could introduce CCHC to the mix... Sorry you should tell ministry sites to start coming up with some shorter names and we won't have this problem! =P  Becky, one of the other girls on staff, started working with them first and for the last few weeks I have been joining her. CCHC has a number of programs they are involved in but we have been working with their Chinese immigration program. We help them practice for their immigration interviews. There are three parts to the interview. The first part is simple questions about the person and their family, the second part is a number of United States history and geography questions, and the third is a reading and writing portion. I also just wanted to say how much harder the citizenship questions are than I even would have thought they would be. I am very thankful to have been born in the United States because many of these questions I definitely do not know. Many of these men and women who desire to gain their citizenship have been living in China their entire lives and greatly struggle with the language. Not only does it help for them to practice the English but also to have someone that is proficient in English speaking with them.

Although I was hesitant at first to work with CCHC because it is something that I have never done before, I absolutely love it! I have found just how much I really do love different cultures and enjoy working through some of the language barriers. I don’t have much experience with Chinese culture but working with CCHC has caused me to learn a lot about their unique and interesting culture. I also really love that CCHC is literally across the street from where I live because it allows me to be directly involved with my community. I have also discovered about myself how much I really do enjoy one on one teaching. Although BARM is working with kids and CCHC is working with adults, the concept of working through a problem and trying to explain it in a way that makes sense is something that I really love. I go to CCHC Wednesdays and Fridays for a couple hours each week and hope to be able to continue that relationship with them for many weeks in the future.

            I am still working on the video project alongside many other smaller projects for CSM. I have been beginning to teach the youth lessons at BARM and am enjoying discovering new ways to teach in a manner that reaches urban culture. I have never really given bible lessons to unchurched urban youth so the learning process has been incredibly interesting. It has caused me to look at my own culture in a different perspective and has stretched my mind through the planning process. I am still getting closer to the youth at BARM and have been receiving calls from some of them just to chat. The fact that they see me as a friend and in some ways a mentor makes me extremely happy. I am so thankful for all the ways that they have blessed me with about a million laughs. They are some of the most hilarious people that I know and I don’t know what I will do without hearing their jokes everyday when I move. Our relationship has in many ways blessed me far more than I could ever have blessed them.

            We haven’t had a group for a couple weeks now but one does come this weekend. I however will not be hosting this group so it doesn’t really count for me.  I will be leading a prayer tour for one of the cars on Friday night but besides that I will not be with them during the weekend. I will not be hosting again until the last week in March, so I have even more time to invest fully into BARM before I have to host again.

            Becky, Kim (the city director), Kat, and I have been going through a book called Space for God together for the last 6 weeks. This book is basically about how to create space for God within our day. We meet every week to discuss it and throughout the week we go through the chapter on our own. The book has some readings but also just has specific spiritual exercises to do throughout the day/ week. I have really enjoyed going through this book with these ladies. The book itself isn’t anything that extraordinary but I am really growing through the act of carving out multiple times throughout the day to be in the presence of God. I have also really loved going through it with the other women that work for CSM, as they have caused me to think of things in entirely new ways. We are all very unique people which makes coming together to discuss the word incredibly interesting and fulfilling. God has been challenging and growing me a lot throughout this study.

For the last few weeks as part of our nightly Space for God time we have been writing down a list of things we are thankful for during that day. After we write for at least 15 minutes we are to pray over our list and thank God for these things. I have found how much I truly love writing down things I am thankful for each day. I am now keeping a separate journal with all of the specific things I am thankful for. I have found how much more throughout the day I am thanking God for things He has done or has given me and also how much quicker I am to thank other people for the ways they have blessed me.

Thank you for reading this update on my life out here in the Bay Area. I am very thankful for all the ways God is working here in the city and within my own life. God is definitely moving every day even if I don’t always choose to notice it. I hope you are all able to experience God’s presence in your daily life as well.

Economics and Racist Cops

This week has again been nice and steady although definitely busy as always. The somewhat consistency of my schedule over the last few weeks has been nice. We haven’t had groups for a couple weeks, which allows me to spend some good time investing into everything else I am involved in out here such as the after school program and church. I have been continuing to work on the pre-visit video for CSM. I am struggling to find working on this video exciting but I have to keep reminding myself that it is making it easier for groups to come experience the city and grow from it. Although I know it is an important video I am finding myself much more mentally and spiritually invested into the work at BARM, the after school program. Although I don’t think it is bad to be invested into BARM I don’t want to lose heart for my work with CSM. Pray that I will have renewed energy to invest into my work with CSM as well as BARM. Below are a few pictures I snapped of the after school program. They limit photography because not all of the students have permission to get their picture taken. Since they don't allow it I haven't been taking pictures but 

The name of the after school program is the King's Club. This painting is in the main room right when you walk in.

Homework Time!

Preston jumped in and tried to ruin my picture but actually ended up making it through his cuteness.

After I worked with one of the teens at BARM named Adieba on one essay for her to get into this summer program, she asked me for more help with a few others. I enjoy helping other people with schoolwork in general but especially with papers. Although I am no essay writing expert I enjoy the piecing together of words and the discovering of information to support an idea. As we worked together this week on two more essays I found that one was about Macro Economics. I had to read the prompt several times to understand exactly what she was to be writing about. Helping her with this well was way over my head. Although it was over my head I knew exactly who could help us with this, my brother. As an economics and finance major about to graduate I knew he would know exactly what the best argument would be. I texted Jake and asked him if he could look over the prompt and talk to me about it. I knew he would look over it because that’s the kind of guy he is, but I had no idea he would be as invested in it and happy to do it as he was. He texted me back right away saying he was really looking forward to looking over it. I sent him an email with the prompt to have him look over it and he sent me a long email back saying how happy he was to see God using some of his knowledge on economics in this unique way. The next day him and I talked on the phone about it for almost an hour where he filled me with a multitude of thoughts and ideas regarding the essay. I then brought the notes I took from our conversation to Adieba to help her develop her arguments.  He offered to look over her essay once she has a draft going and he said I could call him anytime if I have any other questions about it. I am so thankful to Jake for being the man of God that he is and for being so willing to go out of his way to help this girl. Jake, you are truly an amazing person and I feel so blessed to have you in my life. I love you!

            I was just amazed by how God can work through relationships and connect people in such amazing ways. My brother’s enthusiasm to serve in this way was such a testament to me. Even though I asked him incredibly last minute to help someone he would never meet, he still trusted God to use his efforts and made himself available.  I also thought it was just incredibly awesome that God used his knowledge from school through my calling for this year. I was also just reminded of how great relationships in general are. If it wasn’t for me and my brother’s great relationships I wouldn’t have been able to serve and meet Adieba’s needs as well. Relationships are not just great because people are fun, but they also help further the kingdom and this is an example of that. I was just amazed by God’s ability to connect our strengths and knowledge together in the best way possible through relationships to serve Him and meet the needs of others.

            I have been continuing to work with Adieba throughout the week and we have gotten together a couple times this week to work outside of BARM. I have loved just investing into her life even more. She is an amazing beautiful hard working sophomore girl that I feel so blessed to know. Although she is already opening up to me more and more I hope that by investing into her school life that eventually our relationship can grow even more to where she feels comfortable coming to me about anything.

Tuesday night I experienced racial profiling in a way I had only heard about but had never actually felt first hand. Every Tuesday, one of the after school program staff named Jesse and I take some of the high school students to a church youth group at the church Jesse attends. I have enjoyed getting involved in the youth group and feel that it has allowed me to connect on a deeper level with the youth at the after school program. On the way home from youth group I was driving 4 students from BARM (the after school program) home to Richmond. My seats were filled with three African American students and one Mexican. As we pulled up to a stoplight near one of the student’s houses in Richmond there was a cop in the lane over from us. As soon as we pulled up to the light the police officer began to shine his spotlight on us. The entire drive I driving incredibly carefully, we weren’t listening to music super loud (just a little jamming), and all the students had their seat belts on. As we turned the corner the cop continued to follow us and shine his spotlight on us as we were driving. When I pulled over to let one of the students out in front of his house, the cop pulled up behind us and put his lights on. When the cop came up to my car he didn’t even come up to my side of the car. He approached the car on the passenger’s side of the vehicle and didn’t even ask for any of my information. He asked if everyone had their seatbelts on but didn’t even try to accuse me of doing anything illegal while driving. He continued to question the group of students in the car and didn’t even look at me. When I spoke up and explained to him that I was simply taking these students home from a church youth group he asked, “Is that really all that is going on here?” I quickly answered “yes” and he headed back to his car. After he left I continued to take the students home.

            This situation enraged me for a number of reasons. First of all I was angry because it really upset some students and one in particular. I was mostly upset because this was the first time I had experienced racial profiling from cops for myself. I had heard people joke about getting a DWB (Driving While Black) ticket, but I liked to pretend that it wasn’t actually a reality. I can without a doubt say that this white cop would not have pulled me over had I been driving alone. It would have been easier to remain ignorant and believe that all police are sound thinking, nonracist individuals, but I am actually very glad that I got to experience this. I now feel great sympathy for individuals of different races that have to go through life with even law enforcement automatically judging them as being trouble. I was driving with some incredibly bright, gifted, strong, loving children of the King that are working so hard everyday to get out of the system of poverty that entangles so many. Although they are all great, respectful, non-troublemakers, they were still stereotyped by the color of their skin. I can’t imagine how frustrating that would be to have to deal with. I pray that eventually one-day people really won’t be prejudged by the color of their skin but will be viewed equally.

            This weekend I will be going up to Inverness, California for a women’s retreat with my church here in Oakland. I am incredibly excited to spend time with the women in my church surrounded by God’s beautiful creation in northern California. I am looking forward to the spiritual refreshment and growth that I hope to occur through this weekend. Pray that it would be a great weekend getaway for all of us. I leave for that tonight and will return on Sunday just in time for some Super Bowl madness! Go Niners! Thanks again to you all for keeping me in your prayers and for being interested in the ways God is working in and through me this year.

           

           

Happy New Year!

Hello all!

City Hall in San Francisco at Christmas-time 

I am sorry for how long it has been since my last blog post. I think this is a new low for me… Last I posted it was Christmas time and all the busyness and funness of Christmas was underway. Christmas at home was absolutely amazing. It was so great to see family and friends that I have missed. It was an incredibly busy week at home but that meant I got to do a lot of fun things and see a lot of wonderful people. I enjoyed all of the holiday festivities as well as getting to go snowboarding with my family in Michigan for a little family vacation. Thank you all for the wonderful memories and great times while I was home. Leaving Michigan knowing that I wouldn’t be back for a long while was one of the most difficult things that I have been through this entire time I have been in California.

            After leaving Michigan I didn’t get much time to be sad because I had to jump back into work with CSM right away. My flight got in at midnight on the 1^st and we had a group come the next day. This group of high school and college students was a super goofy fun group to lead. They left on Sunday morning and another group came that evening. The second group was a college group for Turlock California that was really great. It was a very busy turn around from Michigan, to the first group, to the second group with getting only a few hours in-between each thing. Needless to say I was very exhausted after the second group left and had a nice day of rest after they left.  

        On Sunday when the college group from Turlock had just arrived I had a really awesome challenging experience. We had eaten dinner and were starting the prayer tour in Civic Center. I was exhausted but ready to inform those in my group about some of the issues within the city of San Francisco. While I was beginning a woman came up to our group asking if we were doing some sort of prayer tour. When I answered yes she said she wanted to listen and stood slightly at a distance. I continued with the introduction to the park. As I continued she approached me specifically asking me about my shoes. I was wearing almost 10-year-old converse shoes and was confused why she was so interested in them. As she got closer she started to become very aggressive and threatened to hurt me. I was frozen. I was concerned for my personal safety because clearly this woman was under the influence of something and I wasn’t sure what she would do. Even more than my personal safety I didn’t know how to handle this situation with the group. My stomach flipped, my palms were sweating, and I was trembling. I brought the group to a different spot in the park to finish the prayer tour and thankfully the woman left us.

                    When we got back into the car the very first thing the group’s leader did was ask if someone could pray for that woman. Right away a few people offered to pray and we lifted this woman up in prayer. Although I was set out to teach this group about San Francisco they ended up being such an example to me. After that woman left I was incredibly angry with her. I had done absolutely nothing to her to deserve her threats. I was still shaken up a bit and I knew it was going to affect me throughout the prayer tour. When they lifted her up in prayer all the negative feelings I was filled with vanished. I pray for myself and for those I care about frequently but I rarely pray for those that upset me. God asks us to even pray for our enemies and I was reminded of this through the example of this group. It impacted me strongly and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to lead this group.  

            Since the hosting has slowed down I have been busy working on some other projects. It has been so nice to get back into a normal rhythm of life and to able to go to my church more consistently again has been awesome. I am currently working on a pre-visit video for CSM San Francisco. Normally we have group leaders that have never been on a CSM trip before come on a pre-visit. During this time we go over a lot of logistical issues as well as give them a tour of our housing site. We also take them out to lunch and show them around San Francisco and Oakland a little. This allows us to point out some of our ministry sites and give them a feel of what it’s like to be in the Tenderloin neighborhood for example. Although pre-visits are great they are also expensive. They are expensive on the group’s part because they have to pay for travel expenses and it is expensive on our part because we take them out to lunch every time. It is also can just take up a lot of time because we usually do one a month and they take most of the workday to do. Due to these reasons CSM has asked every city to put together a pre-visit video with all of this information so the leaders can simply watch the video and have a follow up phone call instead of spending all the time and money for an in person pre-visit. I have been assigned to do the pre-visit video. This is a big undertaking as there is a lot that goes into all of it, but I am getting somewhere and plugging pretty hard at it.

Recently at BARM, the after school program I have been working at, I have been talking about ways I could get more involved than I had been previously in 2012. I don’t want to just be another volunteer, but I want to actually be thinking of creative ways that I can actually impact the King’s Club with. I also want to be able to spend more time invested into BARM during the week when I am not actually at the King’s Club through planning and such.

                    My first idea was to create a vegetable garden with the flower boxes they have just sitting in the backyard. My hope is to be able to do the planting and care alongside some of the students. By having the garden I think it could create some maturity as they have to care for something other than themselves. The responsibility that it takes to grow plants could create growth in the students. I also just think the simple lesson of how to grow plants would be a cool thing for them to be able to experience. And hopefully we could actually eat something we grow eventually! I am really exciting about working this out and getting everything underway with this project. I plan to do the actual planting sometime in the near future. I will keep you all posted!

                   My other idea that I am in the process of working out is to start leading a teen girl’s bible time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have been spending more and more time with the youth and am definitely spending more time with the youth than the elementary now. On Wednesday one of their staff named Jesse talked to me about leading a talk that day on relationships after an incident that happened on Tuesday evening. With this being an issue talked about best in a split gender atmosphere and with it being one of my passions to discuss with girls it got me thinking. A few nights ago I talked to the director of the program, Marshelle, for a long time about my thoughts about the teen bible study and how I would love to be more invested into it. Marshelle loved the idea of splitting the girls and guys and was on board with everything I was thinking. I know Jesse has been working on what he wants to do with the teens for these next few months in bible study. I emailed Jesse last night about my thought and plan to talk to him on Tuesday when I am there next. From what Marshelle was saying it sounds like him and her have some different opinions on what the next few months will look like for the teen bible study, so I hope everything works out. I would love to have the complete freedom to do what I want with the girl’s on the days that I am there.

                    I am really excited about being able to be more invested in BARM for the next few months. I find myself getting so excited when I start thinking of new ways for me to be involved. I am also really excited to be able to spend even more time with the teens specifically since teens are really one of my passions. I am looking forward to where everything is going to go and where God is going to move. I pray that while I am getting more invested that I remain humble and dedicated to working for the Kingdom and not just for myself. I pray that if everything works out with the teen girl’s time that God will give me wisdom to know what to say when difficult topics come up. I also pray for wisdom on a daily basis with the teens to know what to say in the constant situations that come up that are difficult.  

            After all that writing I have pretty much filled you all in on the last few weeks in the life of Rachel. Sorry for the extreme length but it’s been quite a while so it’s only natural. Please be praying for all these projects and me over these next few weeks. Just be praying that they come to fruition in the way in which God intends them. Also I ask for you all to praying for my decisions regarding my future. I have been thinking a lot about returning to North Park in the fall. With these thoughts I have also considered transferring for the summer to CSM Chicago to do hosting instead of finishing here in the summer. This is all very early and therefore could very easily not end up working out. I think hosting in Chicago would be an awesome experience that would allow me to expand my knowledge and heart for the city. This would also give me an idea about the ministry sites in the area that I could hopefully partner with more long term. One of my favorite things about the apprenticeship so far has been being able to invest in the after school program I work at. I would absolutely love to be able to find a ministry in Chicago that I could invest myself into for the remainder of my schooling. Hosting in Chicago would also give me another entirely different perspective on ministry and specifically how CSM looks in a different city. I also just love the hosting that I have been able to do out here and I think it would be a really awesome experience in general to host exclusively this summer. Please pray for these decisions that God will have his will in them and that whatever ends up working out will be for His glory.  Thanks again for all your prayers and care. It is so wonderful to know how many people I have on my team praying and supporting me through this. I hope you all are doing well and would love to hear some ways I could be praying for you as well.