Help me get a library card!

I need some mail sent to me here in Chicago so I can prove I'm a resident and go get a library card! So send me something at:

Center for Student Missions
Maria Kreitzer
5047 N. Spaulding
Chicago, Il 60625

Ok, so I am quickly becoming a regular chicagoan (Chicagoian? Chicagean? i'll have to figure that one out) I think in the past 2 days I've spent over 6 hours on the CTA. For you non-Chicago peeps, the CTA is Chicago transit authority and it includes the El and the bus system. Both rock my face off! I LOVE THE CTA. You can get anywhere! Yesterday I went North to "Little India" and spent a few hours there eating and talking to people, South to Wicker Park neighborhood to explore and meet a whole bunch of people from the neighborhood, through the loop (blah), and over to Uptown to go to a Blues bar. Sound adventurous? It is! And today I went to the Humbolt Park neighborhood to visit one of my sites called "Casa Central" and then took four buses to get back (with a quick break at Starbucks on the way). This city is BEAUTIFUL and I have already fallen in love with it. I have been meeting Indians, Puerto Ricans, Lebonese, old people, young people, and everyone in between! I had talks with two Indian store owners that retired from teaching in India and came to Chicago. I met the cutest little boy in the park and we played soccer with a basketball. We named him Devon because he wouldn't tell us his real name. :). I met Linda outside a soup kitchen we volunteered at and learned all about drugs, dealing, and addiction programs here in Chicago, mostly from her personal experience. I met an artist in a studio on the South Side who has been commissioned to do portraits for everyone from Bill Clinton to Mandela. I met a women in the park who told me all about the night life on the North Side, although I will probably not experience much of it myself.
There are so many nice and friendly people here in the city, but it's still Chicago. Just last night there was a shooting on my street while I was downtown at a Blues bar. It was kinda surreal being called and told "be really careful walking back from the El because someone has already been shot on our street tonight." What do you do? I guess all you can do is walk home with someone, keep your eyes open to what is going on around you, and pray for the safety of the group.
Ok, so that is all for now
Remember, help me get a library card!

mississippi burning

mississippi burning- i don't even know what to say about this movie. We watched it as a team last night to prepare us to discuss racial issues today with a speaker. This movie made me bubble over in anger and it broke my heart and made me sick feeling.

here is a little discription:
Plot Summary for Mississippi Burning (1988)
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his former Sheriff partner. (Based on factual events.)

What really hurt me about this movie was the way whites used Christianity to justify their hatred to black people. How can we use Jesus's name to justify such pure hatred? And I bet they thought they were right- that they were following God's will in their hatred to African Americans. I wonder what we justify now with Jesus's name that is not at all of His will or character. How do we miss-use the name of Jesus for our own agendas? It sickens me just to think about it.

LOVE LOVE LOVE one another

here are two verses to pray over and think about:
Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. -1 Jn 3:15
Where this is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. -Col 3:11

Leave comments if you have something on your heart about this- it makes it a lot more interesting.

CHRIST IS FOR ALL

a few words of wisdom

as i go through training and start meeting my fellow chicagoans i keep hearing really good quotes and writing them down everywhere! here's a few to get you thinking.

It's all in your perception. You can be easily fooled by what you see so seek out the truth and know it for yourself.

Food banks don't solve hunger, they just put a band-aid on the problem.

Hunger and starvation kill more people yearly than TB, AIDS, and malaria combined.

We have do compete with the gangs for these kids, and that means battling the lure of drugs, money, and material things.

All these Christian high school students come in here to volunteer, and it's a shame, because most of them don't know the first thing about social justice. How are they supposed to help the people of this city if they don't understand their problems?

Jesus is in Chicago and active in His people; never doubt that.

keep praying for the youth of this city- i am starting to see that only the power of the gospel is strong enough to save many of them from the traps of this city

Jesus as Glue

So perhaps the subject line needs some explanation. Jesus is the glue that is bringing together and holding together our team. There are 13 other college students (and grads) working together and in just the past 4 days (it's tuesday, right?) we have been coming together in amazing ways. Just last night we spent some time writing each other encouraging notes. God has blessed us with so many gifts and the ability to see them in each other. We also did an "obstacle course" at the local playground. At several points I was blindfolded, holding on to a teammate's leg and being carried by another blindfolded teammate being lead by yet another blindfolded teammate. Sound dangerous? We were trying to climb under and over bars and playground equipment the whole time. Now that's trust- being carred down a ladder by a blindfolded person!

Ok, so to sum up, Jesus is the glue. Makes sense now? ;)

We're about to get started, so i'm off to more training.

JPUSA

It's 8:30 on sunday morning and I actually woke up early to get a little time to myself before we get started at 9. I think in about 2 weeks that will stop happening and I'll be waking up as close to 9 as possible when we start at 9 (which also won't happen anymore). This week and the next are training weeks and then the students start coming that first week in June.

So I have been getting to know one of the guy staff here. His life is full of stories and experience, far more than his 21 years would suggest. He's extremely opinionated and very smart- and sometimes ends up "preachin' to the choir" while talking to me, but he also is very inspiring. He's lived in Jamaica and found Christ while living in Jesus People USA after getting kicked out of his home. Below is part of an article about JPUSA. We'll be working a lot with this ministry this summer, so read up on how God is using JPUSA in this city. (check out jpusa.org for the rest of the story)

JPUSA
Jesus People USA is a Christian community in Chicago. We operate both as an intentional Christian community and as a worshipping church (not all members of our congregation live as full-time members of the community). We began as an independent ministry in 1972, and in 1989 we joined the Chicago-based Evangelical Covenant Church. We number about 500 people who live together at a single address on Chicago's North Side. We hold our goods and property in a common fund, looking to the model of Christian community depicted in New Testament (Acts 2:44-47, 4:32-35). Living communally and pooling our resources in this way has enabled us to minister to one another and those outside the community in ways that might not have been otherwise possible. This, of course, does not mean we believe God wants everybody to live in this way, or blesses us in some special way because we do. We have been privileged to function as a resource to the church, a haven for people in need, a learning experience for many whose journey has taken them in our doors and out to serve elsewhere.

first day!

Today was a day of goodbyes and many hellos...

Mike help move me in over the past few days and saying goodbye to him today was like cutting the last security string. Not only was it mike, but it was my last safety line and tie to Madison and my life.

Now here, in Chicago- I have a new roommate and 17 new friends (at least that's my plan!) and a new city to love and pray for. The adventure begins! I know I belong here and I can feel the reassurance of that in my spirit. I just pray that the Holy Spirit moves in my life, in my staff-mates lives, in the students that come in, and in this city.

My heart just weeps for the city and some of it's pain. Going past the projects today was another reminder of the lives of my (now) fellow Chicagoans. But it also brought me so much hope. Can the Jesus I know love enough to break the cycle of racism and hatred that captures so many in Cabrinni Green? Can the God I know have a vision big enough for this city and it's people to save them all? Can the Holy Spirit I know fall so thick that every tear will dry and every need be met?

I am so sure He can! I trust in His promises and His love and His saving GRACE! My God is a powerful God, and this city has such a thirst for Him. The youth that come in will need Him so badly. And I want nothing more than I want more of Him.

So enter in this city God. Be a force like we have never felt before! Do something we could have never even envisioned to pray for! There is hope, and there is light, but I see that in God's churches and missions and people spread to even the darkest corners of the city. (Such as Cornerstone Ministry which set up in "blood alley"- i bet you can reason where the name came from.)

Amen? Amen!
To all of you that read this- please pray for this city, for me, and for my fellow staff. We need the power of God this summer... we all do. Take care!

late-nite laundry

So it's 4am and i'm doing laundry and packing for Chicago. FOUR AM!!! I only have tomorrow left here in Pewaukee (so technically today) and then it's CHI-TOWN baby! While I'm doing laundry and packing i'm trying to watch enough episodes of Friends to make up for my complete lack of TV-time this past year and this upcoming summer. Maybe I just won't sleep tonight. It will be like finals all over again...

Bekah and I after the concert! 

the good, the bad, and the ugly

The University Gospel Choir concert has come and gone... In about a week I'll realize rehearsal is over with and then I'll start missing everyone, but for now I'm just enjoying memories of our concert. Wow, it was BEAUTIFUL- and there was so much POWER in our songs. I think my favorite part was seeing people in the audience get up and clap and dance (there was this lady in the front row who got up as soon as each song started- she's my new favorite fan), and Bekah sharing the gospel. God spoke straight through that girl!

I found out today that some of Mike's non-christian friends were really moved by our concert- one went to church and another is "re-evaluating" their life... All I can do is sit back in awe of God. We just get up there and sing and God somehow turns what we are doing, something so simple and singing, into something powerful enough to make someone re-think their life. Thank you Jesus!

The concert and my first two exams are over, so I had some time to mentally slow-down from the rush of this weekend this morning. As soon as I did that a rush of fear, panic, and saddness flooded in. I can't hold it back! I'm LEAVING in a week from Madison, and starting work in a week and a half. I just can't handle so much in so little time- my emotions can barely stay pace with me now and I'm going to be taking them through a spin-cycle of emotions in the next 11 days. But I can already feel the change- that nudge from God that it is time to move. I need to let go and hold on to Him alone- the one constant through this all. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever! So He provided for the UGC concert Saturday, He provided for my exam yesterday, and He pulled off a miracle this morning- why should I doubt He won't guide me safely through the rest of this season of change? He is my rock, and I am so blessed I have Him through everything- my rock, my strength, and my friend. :)

Only a few days to go!

Ok, so finals are just around the corner, the Gospel Choir concert is tomorrow, and I'm at the library creating a blog instead of preparing 30 essays for my exam on Sunday. You know the crazy thing? I know this summer is going to be even more full and abundant than everything that is going on right now.
I've finally started thinking about this summer- it is one thing to know you're working in youth missions in Chicago this summer, and it is a totally different thing to realize it. I'm just starting to realize it... and I have a confession to make, I'm scared. It all is going to happen so fast! And in two weeks I'll be saying goodbye to a semester, all my friends and boyfriend, UGC, my apartment, and everything else I know and love.
I keep finding security in God in all this. Wow, it is so beautiful to think that no matter where I go or what I do He is right there by my side, unchanging and eternal. I know He called me to Chicago this summer, so fear, move out of the way! because I'm on a mission!