Calvary High School Missions Chicago 2015: We have arrived!

It's hard to believe that a group of people can experience so much in such a short period of time and travel worlds away in such a short distance, relatively speaking. In less than 24 hours and only a mere 1,000 miles away from home and our group has been transported to another city, within our amazing country, but in some ways seems like more than just that. In the short period of time we have been gone our eyes have been opened to so many different places, cultures, ways of life and being all with in about a 2 - 3 mile radius from each other and from where we are calling home this week. One of our activities this evening after having an amazing dinner at a small local Mexican restaurant was to experience the great city of Chicago through a driving prayer tour around the city narrated by our City host Sara. Just a few of the things we learned today ---- Chicago is the third most diverse city in the US, has some of the most poverty stricken and violent school systems in the country and one of the highest homeless populations in the US. On the other end of that spectrum we also learned that it has some of the most elite and wealthy areas in our country including home to President Obama, many famous residents through the years, home to some of the most famous and prestigious college campuses in the country and beautiful parks.
With all of this diversity it is also a city that has distinct and deliberate lines of separation between cultures, class and race. Through all of those stark differences we had our eyes open to the reality that even in those differences we are all God's children, we all have brokenness and experience sorrow, joy, accomplishments, fears, love and successes and failures and that all human kind should treat each other with dignity, respect and love for each other and towards each other.
At the end of our driving prayer tour the students shared "snapshots" of what parts stood out to them about the history of the areas, stories and situations -- each one of us was moved by this experience and look forward to finding ways of using our talents and connections this week to make a difference in this community as others have before us and more will follow after us and realize that each cycle of giving and connecting makes a difference in it's own way and in it's own time.
It has been a long day, we have covered a lot of ground and a lot of daylight!
Feeling like tomorrow is going to be a good day!