It's not goodbye, but see you later!

Last week Christina and I were able to take our Youth Group on a Mission Trip to Chicago, IL. We had a great time. We got there on St. Patrick’s Day. Let’s just say we made the youth stay inside (especially after a drunk guy started to hit on one of our youth). The next day the church we were working with (Chicagoland Community Church) asked us to go down the streets and pick up trash. Afterward we went prayerwalking throughout the neighborhood. This was a great experience for the youth to see the problems of the neighborhood and pray for them in that same moment. We spent the rest of the week doing construction work around the church, working at Salvation Army Harbor Light, and doing community surveys in the neighborhood for the church.

                                                                                                                         

 

  

One of the best experiences I had on the trip was doing a mobile outreach with the Salvation Army. We went to different parks in the inner city and handed out soup and bread. Some of our youth went and did the actual food distribution. I simply sat back and watched. At one of our stops however, a man named Louie came up to me and started talking. He told me he had cancer, and that treatment was not working. He told me his life story. I prayed with Louie. I prayed for healing. I don’t know if he was actually healed, and I probably won’t in this lifetime, but I feel like I did the other thing Jesus did with sick people: listened. That may be just as healing for the soul. So all in all the trip was a great success and I hope Belview and C3 start a long lasting partnership in ministry.           

After we got back from Chicago, we had our last day at Belview. I started off the morning baptizing Mickey, a man I helped lead to Jesus a couple weeks ago. After that we had our Chicago Mission trip report that night and a fellowship for me and Christina. We did not say our goodbyes, but see you laters. The church blessed us with going away cards with Scriptures to encourage us in each of them. Our hearts were truly full after that. We will miss Belview dearly. The members of Belview have been our church, our family, and our dear friends.