Learning and Serving

Here are some more photos..          .

Making new friends on the trip to Chicago. 

I will continue to post pictures for all to view.  I really encourage all who went to Chicago to post an impression from the trip.  Let’s start by posting your favorite activity and your worst activity and maybe why?  

My favorite activity was working at Heritage Park garden on Friday.  (By the way I “goggled” Channel 2 local news and saw the video.)  I do not think I had a worst activity but watching Micael Jackson”s Thriller DVD and the Ada Niles, the elderly daycare center was pretty sureal.  Here are some  family pictures….Stay tuned.  

Friday is freaky.  We finished up at DOOR after a Thursday evening service and then we headed to the airport.  Most of the day was spent enroute so there wasn’t much time to write but there was time to reflect on the week’s activity.  As we have returned to Topsfield, I invite the young people who went on the trip, to post their thoughts about their experiences.  I will continue to post various pictures.  Here are some taken mostly by John Daniels.  Keep checking in on this site.  Stay tuned. 

Here are some pictures from Taste of Chicago and Thursday.  Not enought time to write more but will tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

We have done our work groups for the day and are gathering to go to the Taste of Chicago.  Weather is not cooperating as it is raining but it will not dampen our Spirit.  Here are some pictures from this morning.  Stay tuned.

We got a post from Uncle Larry and everyone wishes to say hi to him and others back home. Today’s title is a tibute to his past mentoring trips and, Larry, everyone is doing fine.  We have talked about other trips we have taken and those who have been with us.  That which we carry with us are laughter and joy.

We sent our work teams out to different sites again today–as we will each day this week.  Some went to Ada Niles an elderly day center and worked with voulteers there.  Charlotte and Alex lead the senior citizens in there exercises and we all played games with them.  Sarah and Leslie gave manicures to some.  Other groups went to St Vincent’s and served lunch to the homeless while others helped out at Vital Bridges, a halfway house for families.  All of the kids are doing fine and getting much from there service here.  We have processed their thoughts and observations through discussions and the all important “circle”  time.  Tommorow we plan to have some fun and attend the “Taste of Chicago”  at Millenium Park–formerly Grant Park where President Obama spoke the night of his election.  Some groups were actually working near his house. 

We are also staying in a church where Martin Luther King had his office in 1967 and organized many of the events in the latter part of his civil rights movement. 

Chicago has much to offer all of us.  Stay tuned

Monday morning: 

We divided our L&S team into smaller work teams. Each work team left this morning from the Church of the Bretheren and went to different parts of Chicago serving in various capacities.  Some of us worked at a food coop and packed food packages for distribution throughout the state.  Others helped cut grass and weeded at Open Lands a land conservation area.  Another group went to St. Martins a local shelter and assisted in the care of young children whose families are at the shelter.  Some of the students went to a senior citizens center and others went to work at a thirft store.  Attached are some of the pictures from the day’s adventures–