Chicago Missions Trip

Last week Matt and I went on a missions trip to Chicago with our church, Bloomington Covenant. We went through an organization called CSM - the Center for Student Missions. CSM leads urban missions trips for youth and adult groups to various large cities around the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, DC, Philadelphia, and more. CSM was fabulous to work with, and I would recommend them to any group seeking a meaningful learning and service urban experience. During the days our group served at Casa Central, which is the largest Hispanic social service agency in the Midwest. They offer many different programs for children and families. We worked with the School Age Program, ages 5-12. We played games, did crafts and activities, played outdoors, went to a water park, and more. We really enjoyed our time at Casa -getting to know the kids and playing with them was so fun and rewarding. Then every evening we went to different sites around Chicago to serve, including a senior home, a soup kitchen, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. GCFD distributes food through qualified agencies to feed hungry people in Chicago. We also ate at a different cultural/ethnic restaurant in the city every night, it was so good. Algerian, Ethiopian, Thai, Mexican, and Lou Malnati's Chicago-style pizza. :) Even though I have eaten Ethiopean before in Minneapolis and it wasn't a totally new experience, I think that was my favorite. SO YUMMY!

We had a wonderful time in Chicago, learning more about the various needs in the city, getting to know others, and growing in our personal walk with God. The following pictures are of our group in front of the church bus before we left MN, and of us at the senior home with residents after we played a rousing (several) games of Bingo. To learn more about how you can get involved with the organizations mentioned above, please visit: www.csm.org, www.casacentral.org, and www.chicagosfoodbank.org. If you ever have the opportunity to volunteer, serve, or go on a missions trip, do so - it is a life changing experience!

Trip to Japan

We took seven high school students from the school that we both teach at, Minnehaha Academy, to visit one of MA’s sister-schools in Japan. Honjo High School is located in Akita, which is a one hour flight north of Tokyo. One week prior to our trip the region was hit with a powerful earthquake, but thankfully the areas that we were traveling in were not majorly affected by the quake. We were blessed with a wonderful time in Japan – the country is beautiful, the people are very kind, the food was great, the weather was nice, and everyone stayed healthy and feeling well throughout the entire trip.

We all had the opportunity to stay in a Japanese host home during the trip, and it was such an authentic experience to live and learn in that way. I think most importantly, our group learned and got to experience more about God’s amazing creation abroad and how we can learn, grow, and make friends with others that are both different yet very similar to us in many ways. The trip definitely broadened our cultural horizons and gave us a wonderful immersion experience like none other. We hope to go back again sometime in the future.

Our first blog posting!!

Well, I guess it's about time that we started a blog... so here it is. Julie and I will both be updating this as much as possible, and are excited to finally get it going - we've been talking about starting a blog for a long time now! This is a great way to share some stories and pictures from our life with family and friends. We hope you enjoy this little peek into our lives.
The picture above is of Julie and I when we were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in early January 2008 over our Christmas break from school. Julie's sister Kristi was with us on the trip, and we had an awesome time together. For us, nothing beats sun, the beach, and the beautiful ocean. We will be going back to Cabo next June of 2009 with both sides of our family. We can't wait!