Donuts and Daffodils

So this week was full of ups and downs. It was my first week at Spencer, the school that I’ve been assigned to for Build. It holds grades K-8. I went over there Tuesday and Thursday this week and helped the art teacher. I was so excited to be in the art room since I love art, love kids, and kinda sorta thought about becoming an art teacher. Unfortunately, I was pretty idealistic going into the day thinking it would be so wonderful helping sweet little children create beautiful pieces of art with cute little crayons and construction paper. Haha, silly Clarissa. It’s like I forgot I was in Chicago in a neighborhood with tough, inner-city, African-American kids.

Let’s just say that Tuesday and Thursday were rather long days. Half the class period (literally) was just spent taking roll and getting the kids to somewhat behave. It’s funny because back when I was working with kids at camp or in Kansas, someone saying “shut up” was unacceptable. Now, that’s the least of my worries. There’s kids punching each other, saying horrible things to each other, standing on the tables, crazy stuff. It was alarming to say the least.

I’m trying not to let it really get to me too much, but it was intense. There were several times throughout the day when I though “I hate this” or “I really don’t like kids” which was upsetting. I’ve always liked kids and enjoyed working with them. Was I fooling myself all along, in that I really only like nice little white kids? Do I only like kids who are respectful and want to please adults? Because if that’s the case, I’m in deep doodoo for this year! Anyway, now that I’ve been away from it for a couple days I’m feeling like I’ll get used to it and become better equipped to handle it. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway. In other words, keep those prayers comin!

On the bright side, things have been going great with Grace Seeds! Linda and I met on Monday for some planning and I got started on a couple small projects this week, preparing for events throughout the year. Wednesday we made deliveries and went to a meeting of pastors in Oak Lawn, a suburb. Then this morning we started planting a peace garden on the south side of Chicago. As you may know, the south side has seen a lot of violence recently. We’re planting a nice garden with flowers and chives (for the bees!) in remembrance of former volunteers at the pantry where the garden is located, and in hopes that it will be a space of peace in the midst of a scary area.

 We worked the soil for like 2 hours and then planted hostas, irises, flower bulbs, and some other random plants. It was fun! The ground was surprisingly soft so digging was pretty easy (although I think I screwed up my shoulder somehow) and then I learned how to plant irises and bulbs! And I got to take home some daffodil bulbs so I can plant my own pretty flowers! Yay! Also, Linda brought Dunkin Donuts this morning..hence the title of this blog. Fun fact- Chicagoans LOVE Dunkin Donuts. They are all over the place! I can’t find how many of them there are, but it’s ridiculous. Not that donuts are a bad thing! ;)

The whole group of workers! Minus Linda

Me with the first hosta I planted! It was a proud moment.

Had to pull out a mini tree as I was digging up the soil.

Also, here are a few things that I have realized that I have taken for granted:

Access to a vehicle

A fully stocked grocery store within a few minutes

Water that heats up within a few seconds

Kids who are respectful (and the parents who raise them that way)

Being able to walk around outside and not worry about safety

Feeling 100% safe

The opportunity to learn in a classroom that wasn’t overcrowded

My health

Splendid Sunday

Hello friends!

I wanted to tell you all about my Sunday adventures of church shopping.

First, we went to the mega church, Willow, downtown. It was in a gigantic theater, and hundreds of people were there. Willow is actually one of the largest churches in North America, and the average Sunday attendance in 2011 was 24,000!!!! I’m not sure how many campuses there are. I went into the service not really expecting to like it that much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t really think that I would be able to connect with God in such a large and seemingly impersonal setting. However, I really enjoyed the message and found it relevant in my life. 

I was thinking about my preconceptions going into the service. I didn’t expect to encounter God in that space, and I’m so glad that I was able to despite that mindset. I feel like there’s a sort of stigma against large churches like that. People seem to think that at large settings you’re just a face in the crowd, a seat in the auditorium, just a floating person. Perhaps that is true to an extent in some cases, but I don’t think people would attend those gatherings if they didn’t feel valued by their pew-mates. I didn’t meet a lot of people there, but felt very welcome at the guest info table. 

I feel like sometimes we put God in a box. We look at mega churches and think, people can’t possibly feel an intimate spiritual connection at a place like that, but they do. I did. We forget that the Lord knows no bounds. He’s not just in our small town congregations and communities, He’s not just in the suburbs, He’s in the city. He’s at work in the lives of the homeless. He’s at work in the lives of people who work at convenience stores and fast food places. He’s at work in the people we flip off in the midst of our road rage (not that any of us have ever done that…). It gives me hope to remember that our God truly is with us everywhere, and it is never impossible to connect with Him.

After church, Megan and I walked over to Dairy Queen for my second DQ stop since being in the city. In case you didn’t know, I LOVE DQ. It’s my weakness and my strength. I think it’s genetic (Thanks, Dad!). After that, we walked over to the Buckingham Fountain since we were so close by. It’s really cool. The fountain sits near the shores of Lake Michigan and has an awesome view of the skyline. It was nice to sit out and enjoy the nice weather, people watch, and listen to the sound of the water.

We enjoyed a pretty lazy afternoon, and went over to the church next door for a reception for the pastoral installation. That was pretty fun, a great way to sit down and chat with people in the congregation. We also met a few kids that are our neighbors! I look forward to having a play date sometime soon. If we had a DQ in this neighborhood, I would totally spend 15% of my stipend on ice cream cones with those little guys. Nothing brings people together like ice cream, if you ask me.

Megan and I went to Soul City Church at 5, which is just a mile or two away (still like 30 minutes any way you slice it). It reminded me a lot of UCC, where I attended in Manhattan for a couple of years. The sermon was about letting God work through our pain. I thought it was really great, and I LOVED how he indirectly sited human development theories! FSHS for the win! (that’s was my major at KSU-Family Studies & Human Services) We got free coffee and a mug! 

One interesting point from that sermon came from an email the pastor received from a girl who visited several times and was always in tears after the service, remaining in her seat to collect herself before getting up. Apparently not one person ever asked if she was ok. The pastor did a great job approaching it and saying how that’s not ok. He said something about how God didn’t create us to walk by people who are hurting. And then I thought about how often we walk by homeless people begging for change. Sure, some of them probably just want the money for drugs; but I’m sure that many of them genuinely need help and would use it for food or whatever. I’m having a hard time discerning how to respond to those people that I encounter almost on a daily basis. I agree with the pastor at Soul City in that we are not called to walk on by those in pain, but how do we respond to those who are actually addicted to drugs? It’s easy to think things like “they deserve it” or “they brought it upon themselves” but I don’t know that anyone would wake up and say “I think I’ll become hopelessly addicted to crack today!”. We all make mistakes; and I’m sure it’s easier than we think to fall into those habits. Maybe I’m idealistic, but that’s where I’m at. Maybe someday I will be thoughtful enough to buy granola bars at the store and carry them around with me.

Another struggle I am facing is balancing my middle class background with the reality of this neighborhood. Whenever I go downtown or to a nicer part of town, it’s hard to resist little treats like ice cream or coffee or restaurants that aren’t available in my neighborhood. I feel like I’ve done ok with that so far. Don’t worry; I do know something about how far $100 will go each month. But every time I do that, I go back home and feel guilty for treating myself to these things when I know that many of my neighbors cannot afford “luxuries” like coffee. This is hard to balance, while also not developing a negative attitude toward those who live luxuriously. It’s easy to point fingers and say that people have too much money, but for all I know they could donate a lot of it to worthy causes, or they could use those luxuries to help others. I have to remember that those people are fighting their own battles, too. Actually, come to think of it, I know plenty of wealthy people who do great things with their blessings.

One last thing- as I mentioned, I’m church shopping. The two I went to on Sunday were both pretty cool, but I still want to at least look at a few others. I don’t really know what I’m looking for in a church. Maybe that sounds bad, but I think a lot of churches have amazing things to offer, and I just don’t know what to go after. Prayers for discernment and pursuing a church for all it’s worth. 

Prayers and encouragement are always appreciated. Thanks so much for all you’ve done so far!

Jumping in

Hello!

My apologies for taking a while to make another post. I feel like recently, I’ve just been trying to get in the groove of work and thus haven’t felt like I’ve had much to report. 

Up until just a couple of days ago, I wasn’t sure where I would be placed within Build. They initially talked about putting me at Douglas High School, which was pretty intimidating to me. I’m not super great or experienced with adolescents in the first place, let alone inner city teens. I was just putting my faith in the Lord, knowing that he would carry me through and strengthen me. However, I just found out that I’ll be at Spencer Elementary School! Yippee! In case you didn’t pick this up in a former post, I really enjoy younger kids and have much more experience working with upper elementary-age kids.

Anyway, so this week felt like my first “real” week working since before I had been working from home and going to training. I worked with Linda from Grace Seeds on Monday and Wednesday. Monday, she drove up here and picked me up and then we drove around all morning picking up vegetables at community gardens (at churches) and delivering them to a food pantry. We also had breakfast at this really awesome café that I can’t remember the name of. Wednesday, we pretty much did the same thing just at different gardens, and took them to a food pantry out of a church in Oak Lawn. She also treated me to lunch at Potbelly, an awesome Chicago sandwich chain, with one of the most amazing Oreo milkshakes I think I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot of Oreo shakes in my day!). 

I’m really looking forward to working with Linda/Grace Seeds. I’ve recently become really passionate about the idea of food justice/hunger in America and am excited to work with that in an urban area. Grace Seeds is an organization with lots of big picture ideals like sowing God’s seeds (grace seeds, if you will) and cultivating peace and justice. One way they do this is through Share the Harvest, a little sub-organization under Grace Seeds. Share the Harvest collects produce from community gardens and shares it with hungry neighbors (the work I described in the last paragraph). I think this is really awesome that it empowers people like us in churches to actually do something to help. We have the skills, knowledge, and access to do things like garden to feed others rather than simply giving money (which don’t get me wrong, that’s VERY important work also!). I just think that sometimes givers enjoy giving so much more when they can see tangible results of their labors. Sidenote- hopefully this blog gives you all some of that satisfaction! Anyway, I’m just really excited to be part of this organization and see how I can help make it grow and flourish (pardon the pun) in the next year.

Back to Build! Last week was all very fun training. I was only there for 3 days of it, but we learned about the basic organizational structure and stuff, so that was good. This week, I helped Dot a little bit with getting the ball rolling at Douglas High School. (I was going to go over on Monday but it turns out they didn’t need me so I got to hang out with plants in the Conservatory again! :) ) Tuesday, I went over and called 43 homes to invite kids to the in-school/after school programs starting at Douglas. That was pretty exciting since at least 2/3 of the numbers were disconnected. I guess that’s just the reality of this neighborhood.  Then I met with Samantha and we nailed down my schedule, hooray!

Yesterday I went over and helped at Ericson, the elementary school right by our house. I first helped supervise the indoor recess for the younger kids (like Kindergarten and first grade-ish) which was super fun. Right away when I came in, some of the kids remembered me from a couple weeks ago, ran up to me, and gave me great big hugs! Who doesn’t love that?! Then I jumped rope with some kids (slash swung the rope for them since I’m SO TALL! that they can’t get it over my head :) ) Then a kid nailed his face on the gym floor so I sat with him in the office for a bit. 

Today was community day! We met with JD from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and did outreach like we’ve done for the last couple of weeks. Basically we go to Melody School in the morning and pass out fliers to parents with info about benefits that homeless families are entitled. The federal government set aside lots of money to help homeless families with kids in school so that they could have a chance of succeeding. Then that money was given to the various schools based on how many homeless children went there. Many schools have record of receiving the money, but no record of spending it; thus not using it to help families in need. We’re trying to bridge the gap by informing people of these benefits (bus cards, uniforms, school supplies, etc) and encouraging them to take the initiative to go into the office and get them.

So we did that this morning and then came back and played Settlers of Catan (best game ever, except for the fact that Megan keeps winning!). Then Krista brought lunch over and we revisited our covenant and wrote it out. Then we played Ticket to Ride! Now we’re all relaxing and thinking of something fun to cross off of our bucket list tonight!

Last weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to go back to KC for my wonderful friend Michelle’s wedding. Michelle and I lived together for three years at KSU and she is such a blessing to me. I’ll post more pictures when the photographer puts them on Facebook, but here are a couple that my friend Hayley took.

The wedding party got to ride on a gigantic trolley!

 Such a fun weekend! It was great to see everyone and celebrate the marriage of two wonderful Christians :)

Fun times in Chicago

Friends, So far you’ve mostly heard about getting oriented to the city and what we’ve been learning. However, I think it’s high time that you see some more of my time here- the fun stuff! 

First of all, here is our kitty cat! Her name is MJ. She may or may not stick around since she actually belongs to Krista, but will probably come around periodically to keep mice away!

 

Megan and I riding the L! We've already used it countless times- so we're basically professionals. Not really. But it's been pretty easy to figure out. Public transportation is awesome. 

 

Our first weekend here, Jazzfest at Millenium Park was going on (and it was free!) so we went and checked it out. The park is pretty cool, I'm excited to go back and check it out in daylight! If you can see in the picture on the left, the lights in the building spell "Jazz at 35" how nifty! On the right, my first encounter with the famous bean!

One awesome thing about my neighborhood is definitely the Garfield Park Conservatory! It's actually the largest in the Western HEMISPHERE and it's really awesome! My cousin Hannah came to visit that day so she, Megan and I went through the awesome (and also free!) Conservatory. I'll refrain from posting a billion flower pictures, but you must come check that out if and when you come to Chicago! 

After touring the conservatory, Hannah took Megan and I to another neighborhood and we saw Harpo Studios! (Where Oprah recorded her shows!) I was pretty excited about it.

The church next door!

Billy, Megan and I after church on our first Sunday here

There's also a community garden next to our house!
I've already enjoyed a few tomatoes from it!

On Labor Day, I rode the train up to Evanston (a suburb just north of the city) to see my friend Chelsea who is starting seminary at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary! We had a really fun day in Evanston and the campus is beautiful!

Visiting the beach of Lake Michigan!!!

Kyle, our friend from K-State/K-State Wesley also goes to seminary at Garrett.

One night, I went out with some of Chelsea's friends and we walked by Wrigley Field! Haven't been inside it yet, but that will happen at some point this year!

Billy and I had some free time so we went down to Navy Pier one afternoon!

They have a gallery of stained glass in the main building on Navy Pier.

 

 Megan and I had girl time after church one day. We got cupcakes at this fancy place and then walked down to the beach!