Chi Hoowah Hoowah

So I just got back a couple of days ago from spending a week in Chicago. Greenville does this thing called Interterm, which is a two week long term where you take only one class if you choose to participate. I took a class called Diversity Issues. For the class we stayed at a hostel owned by Jesus People up in Chicago, and we were there for a week doing random service projects. Some of the days we had opportunities for free time, and each night the leaders had some sort of activity planned for us. I will do my best to keep this brief. There was quite a lot packed into not that long of a period of time, so I will try not to overwhelm you with information...anywho...My service projects consisted of: working at a temporary home for people who are transitioning out of homelessness, painting an apartment building for women in need, stuffing boxes for a group called MAC that were to be delivered to elderly people (a month's worth of groceries), serving at the Bishop Conway assisted living facility, serving at a soup kitchen (it was actually a full meal, rather than a normal soup kitchen), being a teacher's assistant in a class of 3 year olds (the preschool was in a poor neighborhood), and helping with various tasks at an organization called Little Brothers (basically, the purpose of the organization is to provide friendship to lonely people in the elderly community).

We spent a lot of time in downtown Chicago, so that was a lot of fun. I love Chicago; there's just something about it that really appeals to me. Our evening activities consisted of: attending a Taize service (it is centered around meditation), having dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, attending a play in a very small theatre, talking with people from Emmaus ministries (they are a ministry that serves male prostitutes), going to a concert by an acapella group called Men of Destiny (these men met in drug rehab, and were amazing!), and taking a tour and having dinner in Pilsen (the Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago).

On Sunday we attended two church services. One was a Greek Orthodox service, and the other was a Hare Krishna service (Hare Krishna is a form of Hinduism). Both were extremely different. The Orthodox service was extremely traditional, and was one liturgy. The church was absolutely beautiful. It was an interesting experience, but none of us felt welcome because they made us sit in the back (we were heading in to rows towards the center of the seating, and the greeter actually came in and told us to sit in the back of the sanctuary). The Hare Krishna service was exactly the opposite. The worship was uninhibited, and was full of singing and dancing. We stood at the back, by choice, to observe, and after a few minutes a couple of the women came and grabbed me and some of the other girls and invited us to dance with them! A little while after that, some of the men got some of our guys and invited them to dance with their group! It was so awesome. We were all worshipping, and even though God looked different to us than He did to them, we were still invited and united. It was a wonderful experience.

I was worried about the trip at first because I was friends with only one person that was going, and we weren't that close. However, I met a lot of amazing people and had a really great time. I won't go in to detail about everything, because that would take forever, but I do want to highlight a couple of things. My two favorite moments were serving at the soup kitchen and hearing from Emmaus ministries. Both those opportunities really touched my heart. The whole time we were hearing from the directors of Emmaus, my heart was pounding. I'm not exactly sure why, but I just know I couldn't get it to stop. And while we were serving a room full of homeless people at the soup kitchen, I was incredibly moved. I got really emotional during the meal. I think I was overwhelmed by the fact that all 130 people in the room were without a home, and there were a lot more people that needed a meal, but didn't make it into the room because there weren't enough seats for them. I felt really in my element as I walked around and interacted with the people, and there was quite a mix of people there. I had one woman who called me a b**** because I wouldn't give her a cigarette, I listened to a little old man do impressions for five minutes, each sounding the same, and I was hit on by two other men. They were all interesting, and all needed our love. I guess that's one thing that every person we helped during the week had in common: they all were in need, and had many needs that we couldn't meet, but we could help fulfill their need for love. I'll end with saying that I'm really glad I took this class and had all of these wonderful opportunities. I really learned a lot, and had a great time doing it.