It has been a long two days

Hello everyone,
Sorry it has been a couple days since I have posted. We have had some very busy days and many activities. So, to start, on Wednesday we went to two locations during the day. The first was the Wayside ministry project in Aurora. We started the time by working with the men who live there. Jared and I moved a bunch of boxes and then cleaned furniture that was on its way to the second hand store that the men run. After we finished up our work, the group loaded all of the sound equipment into their chapel and worshiped with all the residents.

Wednesday's theme of the day seemed to center around how God softens any persons heart with his word. The men who we were worshiping with, may come off as very intimidating to some people. Some of them are homeless because of the economy, some have served time in prison, some are in other bad situations. About half way through the music, some of these men were in tears because God was working on them so much through our music. I was terrified that these guys would be closed to our music and maybe even upset that we were there. Earlier in the day we had talked to a guy named Dan, who had mentioned a lot of churches come in and force their doctrine on the group; upsetting the men generally. God was present the entire time and changed the mood of these men drastically.

Later that night, we were at St. James working with the pastor, Booker Vance, from St. Stephens. This church is located in the South part of Chicago. This area, for those who don't know, is pretty rough. The church was having a Wed. night lenten service with a meal. Most of the people at the service were older ladies who were very sweet, but didn't seem like the type who would appreciate loud Christian rock music. God worked in their hearts as well. They ended up loving the service.

God worked on me too. I have learned so much from working with the group and working at our different locations. This trip more than any other has focused more on homelessness and we have worked closer with the groups more than ever before. We have eaten and now slept in homeless shelters along side the resident. This is very eye opening for everyone, giving us all a new and different perspective on this topic and our lives.

Wednesday was also a really bad day to be driving a 26ft truck. We had all sorts of trouble. First, we were stuck to the south of our location at Wayside because the opening under the bridge was 6 inches too short for the truck and we didn't want to chance getting stuck or hurting the truck, so we had to go several blocks out of the way to get to where we needed to be. Then when we left Wayside, we ran into a car on fire and had to take a detour. Then at St. James, we had to work around some very lowing hanging trees. We made it to all the locationis, even through all the difficulties.

At St. James, we had to choose weather we wanted to take all the equipment up two flights of stairs or use the smaller fellowship hall in the basement. Wanting to save our backs, we chose the basement, but I had to setup the board out in the vestibule. It was very interesting trying to run the sound while running in and out of the back of the room to hear how things sounded, but it was fun.

Thursday

This is the third year we have gone to the Holy Family School in downtown Chicago. The kids know who we are and are very fond of the music. Jared, Mike, and I were going through the hallway, when we arrived, and as we rounded the corner into the cafeteria, we were overwhelmed by students. The school custodian mentioned that we were like the Beatles. This kids are fantastic to work with. They have so much energy and are very polite. They knew we were coming several weeks ago and the place has been buzzing about our trip.

The concert was upbeat and crazy. When the kids were screaming, you could barely hear the band through the sound system. We signed many shirts, arms, and binders afterward. It seems really weird to us, that the students consider us to be famous, even though we feel nothing of the sort. We also helped out with the after school program by reading, helping with music, and practicing Tai-Kwon-Do with the students. As we were heading out, we shared many hugs with the kids. They are such a good group to work with. We enjoy going to this location so much each year.

We ate dinner at MacArthur's, a soul food restaurant that is absolutely fabulous. Next we headed off to Osh Kosh Wisconsin. Where we are staying at Father Carr's Place 2B, a homeless shelter, food pantry, church, etc. The trip up was long and foggy. At times we could barely see the cars in front of us. We were also exhausted and fighting sleep the whole way. Jared and I finally arrived in the truck at midnight, took care of some business, and crawled into bed. Father Carr's has two hotels on site that have been converted over to use as rooms for the homeless. One is for men, the other is for women and children.

Friday

This morning I woke up early and went out to the line of people waiting to get food from the food pantry. I talked to a man who used to work at a factory in Michigan before they laid him off because of the economy. Now he is living with a friend in Osh Kosh. After breakfast, we split into groups. One group painted a bathroom. Jensen and I took a group over to a dining hall where we worked on tiling the floor. This was a huge room, a group from Michigan State finished the first part, so we took care of the second half. The glue was messy, but we got it done.

We are getting ready to play a concert in the next 1/2 hour at Father Carr's. It should be fun. I will let you know how it goes.
-Hans