Return to Columbus

It's finally that time again: I'm going back to Ohio State. It feels like forever and a day since I last stepped foot on campus for a class. The last time I was at school was June 8th, over three and a half months ago, which feels like forever when all your friends are back in school already. At least next year we'll be on semesters like everyone else, but for this year I'll have to deal with one final dose of quarters, meaning I go back later and get out later, not a very fun situation.

But still, this year is bringing with it a lot of excitement. On Friday, I'm moving in to my new house (new in the sense that I have never lived there before. It's not in the best of shape) where I'll be living with nine other guys. All of us are in Cru, so it will be fun to live with other Christian brothers for a change. Our house is called the Bruderhof, which either stands for brotherhood or house of brothers, I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to creating a lasting brotherhood between all my housemates. It's definitely going to be a cool experience and I look forward to what God will do in our house this year.

Other excitement comes in the form of new responsibilities on campus. I am deeply involved with the Campus Crusade (Cru) movement on campus and this year I've been given the opportunity to act as head tech guy for the weekly Cru meetings. I almost stumbled into the job by accident. I was in Indianapolis for Christmas Conference and got to talking with an OSU Cru staffer about how I used to do tech for my high school youth group. As it happened, the guy who ran tech was a senior who was graduating so the staffer introduced me to him and the rest of the crew and everything went from there. I got training for most of Spring quarter and now this year I'll be heading up the Cru crew. I'm really excited because I love technology and making sure things run smoothly for meetings, so this year is going to be fun.

I'm also planning on leading my Bible study with one of my buddies this year. We lost a couple of our leaders to graduation, so I felt like this was an opportunity to step up and live out the gospel more by leading underclassmen and freshmen to Christ. I want to make an impact on my university before I graduate and this will be an awesome way to maybe change a few lives or the whole campus for Christ. It will be interesting, as I've never lead a bible study full time before, but if God really wants me to do this, He'll give me the words to say.

Classes will be different as well, since I'm out of the freshmen sequence finally. I'm excited to try new and different subjects and to get a taste for what being an ECE major is like. Hopefully things won't be too terribly difficult, but as an engineer, there's not that much hope on that front. I just pray that I end up enjoying what I'm doing because I don't know what else I would do. Maybe become an orthodontist like my dad. (He says he doesn't care if I do or not, but I know he wants me to ;-P)

Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends again, especially the ones I made during my time in Chicago. I feel like I'm building a bigger, more solid group of friends and I'm hoping to build that group even more. Chicago taught me a lot about socializing, something I am desperately poor at doing, so I feel more confident around different types of people. This year is going to be exciting!

Home Again, Home Again

Well, I'm back, both on the blog and back at my home in beautiful Lebanon, Ohio. I sincerely apologize for keeping everyone out of the loop for the past 3 1/2 weeks. 'Twas a busy time on Chicago Summer Project and I was experiencing life to the fullest with all of my fellow project students. And oh, what a life that was! So many things happened after I last blogged. The "Five-Dollar Prom" was just the beginning.

But first, an update on our ministry. As project began to wind down and more and more students finished up their time working at real jobs, we began to spend more and more time on campus and around the city, sharing the gospel and engaging people in conversation about what they believed. We were able to do several outreaches, as well. Twice groups went throughout downtown handing out sandwiches to the homeless on the streets. Several students shared stories of how grateful people were for simply being blessed with a sandwich. It was awesome that our group could be a blessing to those in need.

On UIC's campus, we did a poster/prayer outreach for finals week. We created posters with different thought-provoking questions like "What burdens you?", "Who/What inspires you?", and of course "How can we pray for you?". People were able to come up and write down their thoughts and we would talk to them about what they wrote. It gave us an interesting avenue to present the gospel and it worked pretty well.

I don't have exact statistics for our outreach from the entire summer, but I heard at one point a few weeks ago that we had initiated over 150 conversations with students on campus, presented the gospel 60-some times, and presented the "Spirit-filled Life" (a message to believers on living a life filled with the Holy Spirit) over 50 times. So the students of Chicago have definitely been seeded with the Gospel.

Besides blessing our ministry in the city, God also blessed me with a great many opportunities to explore the city and experience Chicago at it's best. That experience included going to see a Cubs game at Wrigley Field when the Reds were in town. About 15 of us went, and while it was not as enjoyable to see the Reds get hammered into the ground, it was fun to go out as a group and see a classic part of the Chicago experience.

My favorite experience by far was going to see Coldplay at Lollapalooza. I, two of my roommates, and another guy from OSU trekked out at 8:00 in the morning so that we would be first in line at the gates, which didn't open until 11:00am. So we sat and waited, while the line grew behind us. When the gates did open, we raced to the stage where Coldplay was going to play at 8:30 that night and promptly took up residence in THE VERY FRONT ROW. More and more people came as the day wore on and eventually we were wedged so close that we couldn't sit down or even hope to get out. It didn't help that it was sweltering and we were woefully short on water. We also suffered through five other bands blasting out music right into our ears before Coldplay came on stage. But when they appeared, it was so worth it. They played hit after blessed hit, serenading our ears with beautiful waves of sound. And the new stuff they played was phenomenal, only increasing my enthusiasm for the new album, which comes out October 24th, btw. And when it was over and the crowds dispersed out into the city, I couldn't help but feel like I had just been in heaven.

After the concert, the only big event left was the Final Banquet. Think prom for Christian college students and you'll get a good picture of what it was like. Everyone on project got dressed up and looking all fly and flossy. Then we headed out to the banquet venue, a cozy loft-type building on the outskirts of town. We had awesome food catered by a french restaurant that I can't recall the name of; the staff project directors made a cameo with words of encouragement and advice; there was another dance party, though it was shorter than that first one; we had a project slideshow, with superlatives for everyone; and we ended with an acoustic worship set. It was a great cap to a wonderful summer, and reinforced the great community that we had built in just ten short weeks. And now we can take that back to our campuses and grow our movements all across the country.

I am so glad that I was able to go on this trip. God definitely used these ten weeks to change me, both spiritually and personally. He taught me to trust in Him through the good and the bad, that the Christian walk is not always easy and is often very difficult, and that if I trust in Him through everything, it will all work out for my good in the end. He also taught me that it is okay to be social, that girls can be my friends too, and that I need my brothers in Christ dearly. I have been blessed with a great number of new friends, especially at OSU, and through all I've learned and experienced this summer, I feel more prepared to take on a new school year and to grow in the Lord.

Thank you so much for all your support. I would not have been able to do this without your help.

Thanks, and much love,
Brad Girdwood

Back to Normal

Another week. Another update.

Well, it seems I'm back in my 7-or-so-day cycle of posting updates. I hope the past week has been kind to all of you and that God has been teaching you more about him and his character.

Thursday was another meeting day, so not a whole lot to address there. The projector has been nice to me the past few weeks, I think because it felt bad for all the trouble it's given me, and has worked like a champ. The student leadership has been doing a great job organizing the meetings, too; it hardly feels like the staff is gone at all. We've also been seeing a lot of students from campuses coming to the meetings, which is encouraging.

This weekend was an awesome community-building experience for me. I've been getting to know people better and better on the project and we are all coming together as a group. Friday I went out with a group of guys to play basketball in a park near where we live. That was an awesome community time, and good exercise, too! Friday night I had dinner with some of the OSU girls and then we watched "Country Strong" and laughed at how confusing and terrible it was.

Saturday I went to Goodwill with a group so that we could get outfits for our "Five Dollar Prom" on Sunday. We were such kids in a candy store as we mixed and matched superbly absurd outfits. It was a really fun and goofy time. I ended up going as a bro, with a crazy patterned shirt and tacky pants.

On Sunday, we had a progressive dinner, which was basically the girls making the guys dinner as appreciation for all our appreciation to them. We split up into groups of eight guys and then traveled around to different rooms for different courses. First there were appetizers. Our girls made us buffalo chicken nuggets and nachos with sausage cheese dip. It was so good it ended up filling us up pretty good. For the main course we had stir-fry, also tasty and wonderful, though I think only one of us finished a bowl because we were so full. By the time we got to dessert, I didn't know if we could eat anymore, but since the dessert was Oreo cheesecake and sugar cookies, I had to try some. It was so worth it.

The icing on this awesome cake of community was the dance party Sunday night. We set up a computer with tunes in the meeting room and then partied like it was Twenty-Eleven. It was a hot, crazy time - I was sweating buckets by the end - but so fun, and yes, I did break it down several times myself. I think we all enjoyed just being able to go nuts and have a good time after the past seven weeks.

We are definitely getting closer as a group, and in these last three weeks we have here I think God will continue to build us up as a group. If there's one thing that God has taught me in the past week, it's that community is so very important. Don't neglect community.

Trials

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
- 1 Peter 1:6-7

I will admit that the past few days have seen all kinds of trials shoved my way. From disappointed hopes to juvenile arguments to tense moments of uncertainty and even to anger and frustration toward my brothers, the past few days have been a whirlwind of emotion, and I can say that I easily eclipsed in a couple days my amount of tears shed from the first half of the year. Satan has been attacking me full force, dragging me away from my brothers and my God, trying to convince me that he is right and not God. But I think all of this has been serving to teach me a lesson of dependence on God and Christ's salvation.

One of the guys on project made a comment last night that took me aback. He said that regardless of whether we got hurt or injured, exiled or ostracized, if anything bad happened to us, as long as it brought us closer to Christ and into a better understanding of him, then it was all worth it in the end. At the time, that really bothered me, mostly because brothers had really been hurt (albeit unintentionally) in the name of community building. It seemed ridiculous to me that someone getting hurt could result in anything good.

But after thinking about it for awhile, and listening to a sermon on trials by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, I have actually come to believe that that is the right attitude. Bad things come into our lives not to harm us but to bring us closer to God and Christ. As Peter says in his first letter, trials work to strengthen and perfect our faith, to prove that it is genuine. If we stick with God through the hard times, He will build us up and continue to shape us into the sons and daughters that He wants us to be. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28. God works in ALL things, good or bad. He never guarantees our lives will be good, so we should not expect things to go well all the time, but we should take heart in the trials because God is working in us.

In fact, we should rejoice in our trials, because God is trying to improve us. I, being a perfectionist, am always trying to make myself better, but inevitably I fail in my efforts. So the thought that God Himself is trying to make me into a better person is actually kind of exciting. That he cares enough about me to want me to be a better person is humbling and astounding. And we must also remember that we have the greatest gift that has ever been given: Jesus Christ! How we do not rejoice in that always, I do not know, but whenever we face hard times, we should hold on to the fact that, no matter what the world throws at us, we still have Jesus, and when this brief span of eternity called life is over, we will be taken up to heaven to spend eternity with the Creator of the Universe, our Savior and our God.

I hope that you all take heart in this truth, and remember that we have Jesus and that, through trials, God is trying to bring us into a better understanding of Him and His love.

A Very Creative Date

Ok, for the non-Cru people (aka non-Campus Crusade folk (aka anyone over 23 who's not on Crusade Staff)), Creatives Dates are when a group of guys - in this case, our guys' Action Group - takes out a group of girls - our partner girls' Action Group - on a group date to show them how much we appreciate them and to let them have a good time. It's also a way for us to get to know our sisters in Christ better and become closer as a project. Being such outstanding gentlemen as we are - and partially because we were late in hatching our plan - we shot for the moon. This is what we did.

First off, we headed to Little Italy, which is just south of our apartments, for appetizers. Along the way, each gentlemen - excluding the navigator, because we have more guys than girls - paired up with a girl to chat and ask questions and get to know each other. We each had a silly question that we had to ask the girl we were with and then, when we reached our destination, we shared their answer with the rest of the group. It was definitely fun getting to talk to all the girls in our group and learn little tidbits about each of them.

For appetizers, we went to Chez Joel, a French restaurant for some reason situated in Little Italy. My good friend Joel Bosque actually picked out the restaurant, which I think is entirely appropriate because it's named after him. At the restaurant, we had a very intriguing salad consisting of greens wrapped in a cabbage leaf. It was covered in a vinaigrette and garnished with dates and what appeared to be a petal of a flower. The salad was pretty good, but I made the mistake of trying to eat the flower thing. It ended up being super bitter and nasty. I had to drink a lot of water to get rid of that taste.

The Salad of Mysterious Green Plants

(From Left to Right) Kristen Jolly, Josh Silliman, and Ben Jenkins

Joel Bosque (who almost always looks at the camera) and Sarah Cline (who makes weird faces)

After appetizers, we traveled to Millennium Park in downtown for a picnic dinner. We spread out on a grassy area near Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world, and ate a dinner of sandwiches, chips, vegetables, and pickles, with drinks of course. The coolest thing about dinner was that right when we got to the park, music started playing over the loudspeakers around the fountain, so we were treated to a nice background of classical and patriotic music while we enjoyed each others company.

Kristen, Allie Black (idk what that face is), and Shayla Mays enjoying the picnic

Adam and Sarah in deep conversation, while Kristen looks on

Ben doesn't know what's up

Caleb Eno being picturesque and Alyssa Sander

Josh Silliman intensely looks up directions on the iPhone

Our next stop was Greek Town for dessert. We went to a nice little bakery and cafe called Artopolis and had a fantastic cake, picked out by Josh Silliman, a fellow Buckeye. It was Chocolate Raspberry Truffle and was so incredibly rich and so, so good. The pieces they gave us were huge, but I made it a goal to eat my entire piece, mostly because it was so enjoyable but also because I wanted to man up and finish all my food. I think the sugar made us all crazy because all the people at my table started laughing at everything, and we had a mini-dance party at one point. I think this was probably my favorite part of the date.

We sat in the balcony at Artopolis

The amazing Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake that we had for dessert

Proof that we were in fact at Artopolis

"The other table", not as cool as our table

For the finale, we headed to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks, or at least part of them. We got a little bit behind, so we arrived at the finale. We decided to chill there anyways and sat at a large table and chatted as a group about sundry things. Everyone agreed that it was a very awesome and fun time. I would say that tonight was the absolute best night I've had on project so far. I doubt anything will top it.

I want to thank Allie Black, Shayla Mays, Kristen Jolly, Sarah Cline, Alyssa Sander, Adam Reneker, Josh Silliman, Dan Seguin, Joel Bosque, Caleb Eno, and Ben Jenkins for such an amazing evening. You guys and gals are the best!

Another Week, Another Update

Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Bradley!

Yes I am still alive and still in Chicago. Project is now hitting full swing, as the staff are gone and the students have taken over. As a result, my busyness levels have risen. I am now handling support and reimbursements for all the students here, as I mentioned last week, which requires me to scan and fill out a bunch of paperwork to send to the financial people of Campus Crusade for Christ. It's exactly as exciting as it sounds, but the job is essential and I'm glad that it fell to me to get it done. It's nice to be needed.

I'm also doing tech for pretty much everything here, which is fun, if stressful. I get to set up and tear down all the equipment, run slides and videos and music, and generally be the go-to guy for tech needs. It's awesome to get to do something I enjoy so much. And people are genuinely grateful for what I do, which is a new experience for me. I'm not used to getting so many thanks for simply being who I am. It feels good, and I thank God to be able to work with such awesome students.

God continues to work on the campuses we are reaching with the Gospel. International students continue to come to English Club and the International Bible Study that we started on UIC's campus. A group of project students also started a volleyball outreach on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, which has seen many of the IIT students participate. And a lot of students have been coming to our Thursday night "Chi-Time" meetings. God is definitely moving in Chicago. Please continue to pray that hearts would be opened and turned to Christ.

I think this last week was most beneficial in helping me get to know more of the students here on project. Sunday afternoon we had a human scavenger hunt, where we set out in groups to search for members of the Community Team dressed up in disguise. My group and I ran all over the area around Michigan Avenue chasing down the undercover students. The search was hectic and exciting as we raced through stores and down roads. At the end my team found 7 of the 9 tricksters and ended up winning the competition. We got gift cards to Forever Yogurt, so a group of us went out for some froyo afterward. So, so yummy.

Tuesday, I went to the beach with my fellow Buckeye, Ben Jenkins. On Tuesdays, we do beach outreach, where we go talk to college students chilling on the beach. However, for some reason, there weren't a lot of people at the beach when we arrived and most who were there were families or kids' camps. So instead of talking to other students, Ben and I talked to each other and got to know each other better. We shared life stories, talked about our families, what we had experienced with faith, and other such things. I felt really blessed to be able to learn more about my brother in Christ.

God has continued to build up my friendships with other students from OSU. There are 20 of us here and, like Ben, I am getting to know them better and better. Going back to school next fall is going to be an awesome experience, since I'll have these relationships to go back to and we can all take our work here for the Lord back to Columbus and continue the spread of the Gosple throughout the Buckeye Nation. It will be interesting to see what great things God does through us.

Updatedness

Well, I hadn't planned on there being a gap this large between my updates. It seems that I just keep getting busier and busier as the weeks go on. Project has really begun to ramp up: the staff are leaving today, which means the students are taking over their jobs as student leaders.

I was given a job on the operations team. What we do is take care of all the nuts and bolts of the project. We are responsible for writing checks for project expenses, distributing CTA passes and other things, searching for job leads and preparing team folders for next year, and many other things. I received the responsibility of processing reimbursements and support checks. This means that, if any student receives a support check in the mail, I have to record the value in their account, mail the checks to headquarters, and then handle reimbursement paperwork. It's a pretty cool responsibility and I'm excited for it. I also get to be "Printer Captain", which means I keep watch over the project's printers. If people need to print something, they come to me.

Besides transitioning to my student role, this week also marked the first week that I spent entirely on campus. I decided against continuing the job search since I had no leads and there would be no worth in hiring me for 5 weeks. So I spent Tuesday through Thursday on campus sharing the Gospel with students.

Tuesday I went out with my friend Josh to the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC). The campus is very convenient to do ministry on, since it sits directly across the highway from our apartments. You really just have to walk across a bridge and you're there.

During our time on campus, Josh and I got to share with four guys. We used this tool called Solarium that uses pictures to help people explore their thoughts on life and spirituality. The first guy we talked to was Muslim student from Saudi Arabia. We went through Solarium with him and talked about the pictures he chose. One of the pictures he chose struck me. It was of a locked door and a person peering through a window in the door. He said that he felt like he could not get close to God. Regrettably, I didn't address how Christ brings us into a relationship with God, since I didn't know how he would respond as a Muslim, but Josh and I invited him to English Club, a club project students started to help internationals with speaking English. Hopefully he comes and we can talk more.

After that, we talked briefly to a guy name Hieu who said he was a Catholic but was not really in the faith now because he was busy with school. We shared Solarium with him and went over the points of the gospel with him, just as a reminder. Maybe God will work in his heart to bring him back in the fold.

The last guy we talked to on Tuesday was a guy named Scott. He said he was agnostic, that if there was a God then He didn't interact with the world. From there, we got into an hour-long conversation on different aspects of creation versus evolution, how we know God exists, the complexity of the world and the universe, human behavior, and a bunch of other things. It was really cool and not at all argumentative. We basically just exchanged our opinions on different things. Josh and I did get to share the gospel, just to tell him what we believed. At the end, we exchanged contact info and book recommendations, so we might get back together sometime and talk again.

God continued to work through my friends and I on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wed. I and my friends got to talk to a couple international students, one from Poland and one from South Korea, about their backgrounds and experiences with the gospel. Then we went to another campus and had a volleyball outreach where we set up a game of volleyball and then anyone could come. It was really fun and we got to engage with several students who stopped by to play with us.

Thursday was also encouraging. I went out to lunch with my discipler Steve Ng and my friend Caleb Eno. We went to this burger place called Jim's, which has really good burgers for really cheap. It was fun to hang out with Steve on more time, since he's leaving with the staff today. I have been so blessed by Steve's guidance and friendship over the past five weeks and I'm sad to see him go.

After Caleb and I ate with Steve, we headed to UIC again to spread the word. We talked to two guys, both who were from a Catholic background. The first guy, Ed, said he was still practicing and that he believed in Christ. We invited him to our weekly meetings. The other guy we talked to, Ken, was raised Catholic, then became Buddhist, and now wasn't really anything. Caleb and I were able to share our testimonies and why we believed in God, so that he could hear the truth and what we believed. We invited him to our meetings too. Hopefully he comes.

So that's what God has been doing this week. Sharing has definitely been a stretching experience for me, but God has been giving me more of a heart for evangelism. And over the next five weeks, He has plenty of time to work through me to reach these students.

Apologies, Taste, and A Long Entry

I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with this blog over the past week. There has been a lot going on and I have had little time to sit down and just write what has been happening. I'll try not to make this too long, but there's quite a bit to go over.

 Friday the 24th marked the beginning of the "largest outdoor food festival in the world", The Taste of Chicago. Fifty-nine restaurants from all across the city converge on Grant Park to sell their dishes to the nearly 3 million festival-goers that will pass through the gates during the week long festival. It's a pretty epic experience, to say the least.

A group of us went out to the fest on Friday, to sample the many foods on display. The trick with Taste is that you can't use cash to buy food. You have to buy tickets, at a cost of 12 tickets for 8 bucks. Also tricky, the tickets are worth 50 cents, so you pay 8 dollars to get 6 dollars. But I guess they have to make a profit somehow.

Anyways, we made our way through the dense crowds to try out what Chicago had to offer. The first item I got was a chicken taco, which was as unspectacular as it sounds. Not a lot of flavor, and it was quite spicy. Second, I got to try some sesame beef on a stick from a Vietnamese restaurant. It was probably my favorite dish of the day. The beef was really tender and the sauce was very flavorful and sweet. If it wasn't so expensive, I would have gotten more. Lastly, we tried some cheesecake from one of the dessert vendors. I have to say it wasn't the best cheesecake I've ever eaten. It was almost buttery tasting and lacked that hint of sharpness that most cheesecakes possess. The crust was pretty 'meh' as well, being without much flavor. Overall, the experience was more about the atmosphere than the food. It'd be more fun if I had copious amounts of time and cash to spend trying dishes, but I think I'll save my money and buy better cheaper food.

Much cooler than the expensive festival foods was when we went sharing at Taste on Sunday. Sunday was Gospel Day at the festival, so what better time to share the gospel than on a day focused on Christ?

We split up into groups of two or three and then ventured out to the park to share Christ with people. I was paired with Joel Bosque (pronounced Joh-elle Boh-s-kay), a fellow Buckeye. He had a bit more sharing experience so it made it more comfortable to go sharing with him.

During our time at the Taste, Joel and I got to talk to four guys. The first guy we talked to, we just did a simple survey and didn't get too much into spiritual talk, although I felt we might have been able to segue more into that. But I digress.

The second guy we talked to was a slightly homeless looking guy named Archie. We went through the survey with him as well and talked about his spiritual background. He said he was a christian, believed Jesus was the Son of God, etc. But he made this weird comment about how if a person grows up, say, Buddhist, and they sincerely believe it with all their heart, then God looks at it as them believing in Christ. I tried to explain to him that Christ is the ONLY way to God and that it says so in the Bible, but he got super defensive and said it's a free country and people can think what they want. Not wanting to seem oppressive, I worked my way out of the conversation and wished him a good day.

The third guy I didn't get to talk to personally, but Joel got to talk with him about what he believed about God and people and life. Then he shared the gospel with the guy and prayed the sinner's prayer with him. I don't really know if the guy was receiving what we were saying, since he never really said a whole lot, but either way, we shared the gospel.

The last guy we talked to was also a Christian, but not crazy like Archie, so we didn't have to share too much gospel with him. He had just arrived in the US two weeks ago from Puerto Rico, which was cool, because Joel happens to be of Puerto Rican descent, so they talked a bit about PR stuff and what not. By then it was time to go, so we bid him goodbye and headed back to the lofts.

The majority of this past week has been spent trying to get a job, with no success. I'm honestly not surprised at this point. Although Chicago has a lot of summer tourism, most of the workers in shops live permanently in the city, so there's very little need for seasonal work. Plus, there are so many people here that the competition is pretty tough anyways. And most employers don't want to hire kids who can only work till 5 on weekdays and not on Sundays for ten weeks. It's really no big deal since I got so much support from all of you. I can use the gifts you've given to support myself through the remaining six weeks I'll be in Chicago.

So I've begun switching my focus to doing ministry on campus full-time. I feel like that's the main reason I'm here anyways. Although I could do ministry to co-workers at a job, I really feel like I need to reach the college kids here in Chicago. That's what I signed up for and what I'm going to focus on doing. PLus, by doing so, I can take the experience I gained here back to Ohio State and begin spreading God's word to my fellow Buckeyes. Maybe someday Buckeye Nation will become a Christian Nation. If I and my fellow Crusaders do the work of spreading the gospel, then why not?

I'm hoping that God continues to grow in my life and help me grow in Him. I feel like in the next six weeks there is the potential for so much spiritual growth and bonding among the students here. We're on the verge of doing great things. Many people have been told the good news of the gospel, and many more will hear it in the coming days. Our numbers are growing already. It's exciting to think of what God is going to do next. He works in amazing ways!

It Matters Who You Know

It really does. On Wednesday, we had our daily jobless persons' meeting. While we were meeting, a group came in from running and among them was Mike Gause, a 6 foot, 5 inch tall hulk of a black man who formerly played basketball on the Ohio State team. Mike, since he set foot in the city, and for obvious reasons, has been inundated with job offers at every turn. He also had a ton of leads, so Captain Zag (our nickname for David ZagRodny, our job coach) suggested that Mike take a group of us around the city and help us find jobs. Mike, being the outstanding and nice guy that he is, agreed to be our Coach for the day.

There were rumors that stores at O'Hare Airport were hiring for the summer, so we took the train all the way out there. The trip took about an hour, even running express for a few stops, which really put a damper on my enthusiasm for the jobs, if there were any. When we got there, we realized we couldn't get into the concourse to check out the actual shops. A security guard directed us to an employment office, which took us about 15 minutes to find. And when we found it, it was closed and we found out we had to apply online. So O'Hare was pretty much a bust, which was a bummer.

Mike and I, along with two other guys, headed back into the city and got off near Michigan Avenue. There's a brand-new Chik-fil-a down off Chicago Ave and the city is really taking to the restaurant. We stopped by to get some food since the other three guys had never had Chik-fil-a. The line was out the door and around the corner to give you an idea of how many people there were. It was nuts, but the service was surprisingly quick.

After we ate, we hit up the adidas store and Best Buy. adidas said they were hiring, but that it would take about two weeks for them to get back to us. By that time, there would only be 5 weeks left in the trip. Best Buy also said they were hiring and needed part-time workers. I got the manager's business card and was told to fill out an app and then follow up in a couple days.

I actually followed up today and got to talk to the hiring manager, Kay. She told me it would take about 3 days for the application to enter the system (I filled mine out Wednesday) and then a couple days for them to call me. I got to talk briefly about what positions I applied for, which I fit best, and why she should hire me. It was really encouraging to finally get talk time with a manager. Hopefully, she'll see that I'll be a hard worker and hiring me for 7 weeks will be worth it. Otherwise, I may just have to get a job in fast-food.

The thought of that makes me cringe.

Spreading the News

First the bad news: I still don't have a job. That's pretty much all I can say about that. At every turn it seems that I am being thwarted in my searching. All my leads are going cold. It is an entirely frustrating process. Through all of it, I've had to hold on to the promise that God has something planned for me. And it's hard, because I keep looking to God to show up and He's not showing up in the ways that I think he should turn up.

Still, I know I'm supposed to be here. After all, the overflow of support that I got from all of you proves to me that this is where God wants me. And perhaps the reason that I have not gotten a job as of yet is the overabundance of funds that I have been given. I have more than enough support to cover my expenses for the summer, while others are in deep need of a job to pay for their time here in the city. And so maybe my purpose here is not to work, but to engage the people and students of Chicago in spiritual conversations.

That's actually what I ended up doing today. I went out with Steve Ng and a few other leaders and students to a beach north of Michigan Avenue to share with the people there. This was actually my first time going out to share the gospel so it was a pretty intense experience. Steve and I got to talk to two guys while we were out. We didn't get a good chance to share the gospel with that guy, but we did talk a bit about faith and Christianity.

The second guy we talked to was all over the place. His name was Marjan and he called himself an atheist, but then made a comment that we all came from God. But then he said God didn't need us because He's God. And then he claimed that God was deep inside every one of our cells and that we all innately had God in us. Finally he decided that God didn't exist and that everything in the Bible could be explained by aliens. It was so crazy and really off-putting that I couldn't get a word in about Christ. The guy just really couldn't make up his mind. It made me sad because I really wanted him to see the truth of God and Christ, but he really didn't want anything to do with either of them.

After we talked to that guy, Steve and I met up with the rest of the group and switched up our teams. I went back out with Collin, one of the other leaders, who insisted that I take the lead on sharing. I was honestly really nervous because I had never really shared before and the first two guys I had talked hadn't really inspired my confidence. But I went out again. Collin and I walked around for a while and talked about why I was worried about sharing. He eventually convinced me that I could do it through God's strength.

We didn't have a lot of time left by the time I got my confidence up, but we were able to talk to this really cool guy named Chandler. He wasn't actually from Chicago, but was in the city for vacation or work or something.We talked a lot about his life, what his spiritual background, what he believed about God. He actually said he believed that Jesus was the Son of God. It just seemed to us that he had been burned by a lot of people in his past. He kept telling us that we would come to realize a lot of things as we got older and that people changed a lot over time. I was actually able to share a bit of my testimony and how God gave me hope for a future through the sacrifice of his Son. He was really cool and Colin and I could tell that he was definitely searching for something good in the world. Colin suggested he read "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel as a starting place, which Chandler seemed pretty enthusiastic about. I think if he actually reads the book, he'll find his way back to God.

I'd say today was a good experience with sharing. I got to see the good, the bad, and the neutral responses to the message of God. Hopefully my experiences in the future will be just as varied and exciting. And I hope I get to see the word of God move among the people of Chicago.

Don't Call It A Comeback

Not much has gone on the past couple days, so I haven't really felt compelled to blog. Today, however, was the annual Staff vs. Student kickball game. All 70 of us students squared off against the 20 or so staff and their families. We actually played on a very nice turf baseball field near the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. Why there is such a thing as a turf baseball field, I don't know, but it was really nice to play on.

The intriguing part of the game was the fact that all 70 of us had to play against the staff. Each one of us had to kick or play in the field, so that we could never get a consistent rotation going. The staff, on the other hand, could keep players on the field for longer and get into a rhythm. I suspect this is part of the reason why the staff are undefeated. Still, we thought we would give it our best shot and try to knock off the champions.

The students raced out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the staff followed that up with two runs and took a 2-1 lead into the second. From there it was all staff, as they went on a 6-0 run to break the game wide open. We were down 8-1 in the top of the 6th (we played to 7 innings) so we got our rally on. We scored three runs in the 6th and closed the gap to 8-4. After blanking the staff in the bottom of the sixth, we had one last shot to bring it home.

We started off the seventh by getting two runners on base. There were a few near outs but due to errors by the staff, we kept runners on the bases. After a long shot to the outfield, another runner scored and we had a few runners in scoring position. But the rotation lagged at that point and we were never able to take advantage of our scorers. The game ended with another staff victory and the students bowing out 8-5.

The staff were nice to us, though, and took us to this little place called Mario's Frozen Lemonade. It was kind of like shaved ice but much finer, and it had real fruit in it. I personally got cherry and blue raspberry, which was very delicious. After that, we walked back to the Lofts and chilled.

That's pretty much the most significant thing that happened this weekend. It was a blessing because I really needed time to sit back and think and relax after the stress of trying to find a job. Still, I have to go out again this week and get it done. I'm really hoping that God shows up in a big way and helps me get hired. And if not, well, I have this story kicking around that I can work on. Either way, I'd be happy.

Students taking the field

The lady students

The dude students

The enemy (staff)

The Sears Tower reflecting the setting sun

The Vast, Infinite Blue

I won't write a whole lot here, but in honor of my determined efforts to find a job, I took it pretty easy today. I visited a Subway that a guy worked at last summer and then turned my app in to Chipotle and talked to the manager, who said she would talk to the higher manager.

Then I trekked back to the Lofts and chillaxed (that is, chilled and relaxed). I surfed the web for a bit, something I actually haven't done too much of while on project. After that, I retreated to my room to watch a movie and work on a book idea I've been kicking around for a couple days. The characters will be based on the guys in my suite and the story... well, I'm still working on that. Actually the titles to my blog posts inspired me to use them as chapter titles, so that's my base.

Anyways, I took a break from that and a group of us went to the aquarium since it was free today. But when we got there, the entire city of Chicago was there too. So instead of waiting in line for 2 hours, we walked down to the planetarium and chilled by the edge of the lake. It was a cool view looking both out on the endless water and back toward the city. Below are some of the picture I took.

The pier next to the Schepp Aquarium

The gang heading down to walk by the waves

Looking over to the rest of Chicago

The Schepp Aquarium

Taylor, Steve, Kaylee, and Bekah

The group chatting by the lake

For some reason I thought this sign was funny and took a photo of it.

The Windy City, majestic on the shores of Lake Meatchicken

Water as far as the eye can see

A jank beach near the pier

Grievous Injuries, Joyous Victories

Although the job situation in Chicago certainly causes me quite a bit of grief, there is something that I look upon every day that makes me even sadder: a beautiful stallion, born to race, born for speed, severely injured, left to die alone in the middle of a dirty city lot, so far from its natural habitat, the open road. The images that follow are graphic and may make my male followers cringe, but I felt that a story this sad had to be shared with the world.

I first noticed this wrecked Ferrari 360 Modena while looking out on the parking lot that sits caddy-corner to our penthouse suite. There are quite a few wrecked cars sitting over there rotting away, but this is by far the most noticeable, mostly due to how exotic and out of place it is in a wrecker lot in downtown Chicago and also due to the severe state of disrepair the car is in. As you can see in the picture above, a significant portion of the left front bumper is missing and the rest is cracked and scraped pretty badly. However, the damage to the front pales in comparison to the rear damage.

The rear bumper has been ripped nearly all the way off. How, I don't know, but the whole thing is riddled with cracks and ready to fall completely apart. It's also apparent the car has been sitting there a while, as the exposed structure underneath has begun to weather pretty harshly. The tailpipes you can see on the right are actually beginning to rust and a lot of the trim around the windows has begun to peel and fade. The Ferrari logos on the top of the trunk area is gone as is the one on the front right quarter panel.

The interior is also in a pretty bad shape. The leather in the seats is cracking, another sign the owner hasn't come back for the car in a very long time. It's pretty dirty inside and there's a compartment behind the driver's seat that's missing a cover, showing some exposed wiring and electrical boxes. Probably the saddest segment of decay in the inside is the engine itself. Because of the bay window over the engine compartment, the paint on the engine has faded a lot. Somehow, there's dirt in the engine too, and what looks like leaves or something. I can only imagine how bad the state of this once-proud racing motor is.

There are a couple of things that baffle me about this car. One, how and why could/would someone wreck such a beautiful car? An original Ferrari 360 Modena cost around $120,000. You would think that people who are rich enough to buy such a nice car would take better care of it. And two, why, even if you wrecked it, would you not pay for repairs to your beautiful car and get it back on the road. As it is, it will rot away in that lot unless someone foots the bill to repair it. I did hear from one of the staff that the repairs could cost around $40,000, so maybe the owner thought it wasn't worth it to pay a third or more of the cost of the car to get it back. Heck, someone give me 40 thousand and I'll buy it, fix it, and then have a Ferrari for my own. Regardless, rich people baffle me with their wasteful excesses sometimes.

However, lest you think that Chicago is all rain and no sun, "The View", as we call it, was on full display a couple days ago. It is absolutely stunning to look out on the sunlit Sears Tower every day. I guess that's one of the little joys I've had while living in the Windy City. The view from the penthouse is superbly exceptional!

"The View" in peak condition

Also enjoyable was the family dinner that we had with the room of girls from 605. We invited them over for yesterday so that we as men could serve them and get to know them better. Stephen went out in the pouring rain to get groceries for us to cook and then we made sesame chicken with red peppers, snow peas, and chopped green onions. This we placed on top of brown rice and then served with Caesar salad and grapes. The girls were duly impressed. I would say the guys were equally impressed by the cake that the girls brought over for dessert. It was really fluffy and very flavorful and so, so moist. The whole dinner was a fun experience and it was nice to socialize with some of our sisters in Christ.

The green onions that I chopped for the chicken

Some Caesar salad

Steve, Dan, and Taylor hard at work impressing the ladies

The final result

Well, that's all for now. I hope this wasn't too long, but I wanted to post all these pictures and update you on some of the things that have been happening.

It Never Rains, But It Pours

Well, yesterday continued the downward spiral from Tuesday night. I headed over to GameStop first thing in the morning to turn in my application and talk to Peter the manager again to maybe convince him to hire me sooner. When I got there, he was on the phone and, instead of finishing his conversation before talking to me, put the phone down on the counter and began to talk to me. I didn't want to hold up the person on the phone, so I hastily handed him my application and told him how much I wanted to work at his store. I asked when he would be hiring and he then told me he would take about a month to do interviews so he could find the right person for his store. Of course, a month from now the job will be useless to me, so that put a damper on my enthusiasm. But I thanked him and left the store to pursue other ventures.

From that point on, there was kind of a cloud of discouragement following me around the city. I took the L to the Old Navy where I had applied to see if I could talk to the manager, but the lines in the store were horrendously long, so I left to explore the city and search for other jobs. I looked all over downtown Chicago and in the Loop area. Every place I went to either had online applications or weren't accepting summer workers. I walked around for an hour or two with no progress.

And then the clouds opened up, literally. It started pouring rain, and even though I had planned ahead and had my umbrella, I still got soaked from my knees down to my feet. I am convinced now that there are few things so demoralizing as being tired, soaked, and unable to find a job in an unfamiliar city that you are living in for the next two months.

I am also convinced that this is the work of Satan, trying to get me to doubt God and turn away. After all, my string of misfortune did begin when I decided to fight Satan's influence in my life so that I could be closer to God. It's hard not to give in to the doubt, because that would give me a place to dumb my frustration, but I know that God brought me here for a reason and he will place me where he wants me. I just have to hold on to that hope.

Ups and Downs

Well, today was my second day of job hunting. There weren't many new targets on my radar, although Josh and I did wander into an Old Navy that had a "We're Hiring" sign and were able to get the manager's information and a number to call. Other than that, we just revisited the GameStop on South Canal that we visited yesterday. I got to talk to the manager, Peter, and gave him my resume. He told me that he actually had four openings coming up and that I should print out an application and bring it back in, that he would be there until 5:30pm if I could get it there. This was really encouraging news because just yesterday the employee there had told me there were only two openings. The progression of improvements in my prospects for getting a job at GameStop really served to lift my spirits and improved my outlook a good deal.

I left GameStop feeling pretty good about life and so I ventured over to Wicker Park to return my application to The Exchange, which is similar to GameStop but with DVDs, records, and CDs, and any game for any system since the NES. I walked in and handed my application to Rick (I got his name right this time) and did my whole "I'd love to work here so if you have an opening soon, let me know" spiel. He actually told me that they had another store closer to where I was staying and that he would fax my application and resume over to them. And if they had another opening sooner, then I would hear from them, too. So, in addition to the GameStop news, now I had better prospects with The Exchange as well. I felt like maybe God was really wanting me to work for one of these places.

I went back to the Lofts in high spirits and then trekked out to Columbia College to meet with my discipler, Steve Ng (ning). We walked around the Columbia buildings looking for students to interact with, but because of the nature of the city and campus, there really wasn't a central location to set up and just interact with a ton of students. So we went to an Asian restaurant and Steve convinced me to try sushi. While I was somewhat not enjoying my sushi experience, Steve asked me about my life story, what my expectations were for project, and what would hold me back from enjoying project to the fullest. It got pretty real pretty quick and I told him all the hopes and fears I had for myself. And I got to hear Steve's story and we formed a bond as brothers in Christ to help each other out. It was a really cool experience, even if it did cut to the core of my being.

After talking with Steve, we made our way back to the lofts, where I finished my GameStop application. By that time it was 5:10 and I had roughly 20 minutes to get from my apartment to the store, a walk that normally takes 26 minutes. I ran/jogged pretty much the whole way there, a distance of about a mile, which was something I hadn't done in quite a while, despite my constant attempts to get in the habit of running. I made it to the store out of breath and sweating with barely 2 minutes to spare. And what should I find out but that Peter had left at 4:00 because it was a slow day. This was the first discouraging blow of the day, because I wanted to make a good impression by getting my application in quickly - I had just talked to Peter that morning.

I offered to give my application to one of the workers at the counter, but the guy told me that if I really wanted the job that I should come back tomorrow and hand it in in person. He also showed me the paltry amount of applications they had gotten so far, which I suppose was encouraging. The other fellow behind the counter, Angel, who I had talked to yesterday, then unknowingly delivered the second discouraging blow, by saying that Peter probably wouldn't be hiring for "three weeks" so I had plenty of time to turn it in. Little did he know, that three weeks is way too far in the future to be any use to me if I got the job.

So now, I'm not sure where God wants me. I'm sure if he wants me to be at GameStop that he will sweep the "three weeks" under the rug and help me gain rapport with Peter so that I could get the job quickly. And if he doesn't want me to be there, then one of my other leads may pan out. All I know is that I have no control of where I'm going, so all I can do is give my path over to God and let him lead me.

The Hunt Begins...

The job hunt, that is. All the quarters kids and the semester kids who didn't have jobs were forced to awake at the unseemly hour of 8:00am to meet and discuss finding jobs. David ZagRodny, one of our leaders here on project, gave us an overview on how the process worked and what to do, and then some people shared what progress they had made or what advice they had for those of us who hadn't been out to search yet. It was all very interesting, but it made me realize that I didn't really have a plan for where I wanted to go or where I wanted to work. I just assumed that I would be told where and what to do.

Since I wasn't given all the answers, I decided to draw up a quick plan of some of the stores that I would be interested in. The list was decent, if a bit short and slightly repetitive: 2 Verizon stores (which I eventually nixed), 2 Staples, 2 Radioshacks, a few Subways, an FYE, and my personal favorite, a Gamestop, which I had applied to previously but never heard back from. I mapped out the most efficient route to my destinations and then headed out, armed with my plan and my friend Josh "Sillyman" Silliman as backup. We set out with high hopes, as we had been hearing stories of people being hired almost the instant they started talking to store owners and managers. Chicago was our oyster and we were aiming to pull out the best pearls of the job marker.

Sillyman and I began our journey by walking (yes, walking) toward the Staples on South Canal Street. Along the way, we chatted about what our job prospects were and where we had worked. We came to the conclusion that we would try pretty much any place we came across, within reason.

The first store we actually came across was a Home Depot. Now, I do not consider myself the Home Depot type with my slight frame and lack of working out, so I let Josh take the lead on that one. It turned out that they weren't hiring so we headed over to Dominick's (the Chicago Kroger) to see what they had to offer. This was where we encountered the dreaded phrase of the day: "online application". The nice lady at the customer service desk informed us that they had jobs open but that we would have to fill out an application online, which completely defeated the purpose of us walking there in the first place. It ended up that Radioshack, Whole Foods, Staples, World Market, and FYE were all online applications. So essentially we walked some 3 or 4 miles all over Chicago for nothing.

If I may make a tangent, this is one of the "progresses of technology" that I now sincerely wish had never been created. In my opinion, online applications eliminate the personal aspect of actually getting involved in the application process and networking with the managers and owners who may not otherwise get a chance to see how you stand out personality-wise from the other applicants. I feel like who you are in person matters as much if not more than what you put on an application. Through online apps, an applicant could potentially fudge their answers and get hired, while a well-qualified, personable young college student in need of a summer job gets left out. But I suppose that's the purpose of interviews. Still, getting to meet managers in person instead of just getting on a website makes it more personal and feels like the company actually cares about you as a potential employee.

With that out of the way, there were a few promising leads that I came across today. I had previously visited a video game/movie exchange store in Wicker Park, Chicago (a.k.a. Hipster Town) called the Exchange where one of the employees told me that they would potentially have openings soon and that I should come back and talk to the manager. I made my way over to the store and interfaced with the manager, Rick, who I mistakenly called Robert (stupid, stupid, stupid). He still gave me an application and told me that they might need workers when the summer started in a week or so.

The other lead, and easily my favorite lead/dream job, was the GameStop that I had previously contacted. I told the guy running the store that I had previously sent in an application and that I was curious if they had any openings available. Lo and behold, he told me that they had two employees who would be leaving soon to pursue other careers and that they would likely have openings sometime in the next two weeks. I couldn't believe my luck. Here was the job I had wanted so very badly and it was going to be open soon. I asked him when the manager would be in to talk and he told me they would be in tomorrow at opening. So you can imagine where I'm going to be in about 9 or so hours.

With this amazing opportunity sitting in front of me, it's hard to sit still and not be too excited. But this empty time that I'm filling write now just makes me more nervous that the opportunity is going to slip through my grasp just as soon as it lands in my palms. I'm sure if God wants me there, then I'll be there. I just hope that my idea is in line with God's idea. If it's not, then I pray that it won't be too long until he leads me to where I need to be. And most of all, that I wouldn't miss what he wants for me. In any case, the game is a foot, and Simba* is on the hunt!

*Simba is the nickname given to me by one of my new friends, Ashley King, for my starring role as Simba in our recreation of the movie "The Lion King".

Charlie Brown

So I don't know how many of you are Coldplay fans, but they just started their summer tour series and have been playing a lot of their new songs from the upcoming LP5. Well, videos of the new tunes have made it on to YouTube courtesy of Coldplayvideo42, and so far, the new stuff is rockin'.

Perhaps my favorite of the ones posted is the song "Charlie Brown". It's a very adventurous song, to say the least. It flows from peppy guitar riffs to deep verse chords and back to the upbeat chorus. Chris does well playing his acoustic guitar on this song, delivering grungy bar chords for the verses. Guy is solid on the bass as always. And Will does a fantastic job with the arrhythmic beat of the song while also providing his superb back-up vocals to Chris' stellar voice.

Probably the most noticeable part of the song is Johnny Buckland's reoccurring guitar track. His expert songsmanship has once again produced an easily recognizable guitar riff that serves to keep the song upbeat and lively. It definitely acts as an identifying factor of the song and anchors the chorus to the verses by acting as a link between each section of song. And, of course, it acts as a fitting intro and outro for the whole piece. Long after you listen to the song, you'll still have that note pattern playing in your head.

Overall, the song is really, really good. Pairing this with "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" creates an instant mood improver on account of the shear energy in each of the songs. And if these songs are any indication of what is going to be on the new CD, then I'll order my copy right now. But I may die from the anticipation.



"Charlie Brown" Lyrics
I stole a key
Took a car downtown where the lost boys meet
I took a car downtown and took what they offered me
To set me free

I saw the lights go down at the end of the scene
I saw the lights go down and they're standing in front of me

My scarecrow dreams
When they smashed my heart into smithereens
I be a bright red rose come bursting the concrete
Be the cartoon heart

Light a fire, light a spark
Light a fire, a flame in my heart

We'll run wild oh
We'll be glowing in the dark
Glowing in the dark

All the boys, all the girls
All the madness in the world
All the boys, all the girls
All the madness that occurs
All the highs, all the lows
As the room is spinning, oh

We'll run wild oh
We'll start glowing in the dark

So we'll run wild oh
We'll be glow in the dark

The First Sunday Church Service

Today was the first church service that we had as a group on project. I went, with the rest of the students and staff, to Willow Creek Church in downtown Chicago. It was pretty fun getting there since we had to take the L train. What a sight to see 100 or so students and staff all getting on the subway at the same time. And it wasn't obvious at all that we were all together.

A cool thing about this church is that it's held in a theatre called the Roosevelt Auditorium. It's exactly what you would expect from an old-fashioned theatre: golden arches along the ceiling lit with old-fashioned light bulbs and covered in flowers and plants and vines. And there were these gold domes spaced across the arches that I couldn't figure out the purpose for except an elaborate decoration, a purpose which they served well. One of the coolest details of the arches, in my opinion, was the gold leaf tracings around the edges of the arches. The intricacy of the patterns in the gold leaf was amazing to look at as it shimmered in the dim light.

The golf leaf that frames the edges of the arches

The golden domes and some of the plant detail

Another intriguing part of the theatre are the murals on the walls. There was a main one over the stage that depicted various peoples doing various things. There were monks and angels and runners and fainting naked women (because for some reason that is a requirement for Classical and Renaissance art) and all of them surrounded a stone monument which read "The Utterance of Life is a Song, the Symphony of Nature." It acted as a nice headpiece for the stage and along the side of the stage were names of famous composers like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven framing the band on the stage.

The stage, it's murals, and the golden arches on the ceiling

The main floor of the theatre

I sat up in the balcony and there were two other murals on both sides of where I was sitting. One depicted a graveyard among the trees. According to it's description, it represented the requiem of eternal sleep. I couldn't get closed to it before I left so I am unsure exactly what it said. The one closest to me showed a spring in a field and it represented life and love. It was a very neat experience to be surrounded by such intricate details and beautiful expressions of life and nature. I would be lying if I said I wasn't more enthralled by the building than the sermon. Maybe next week I'll pay more attention, but the Roosevelt Auditorium is certainly a fascinating building to be in.

The "Spring" mural near where I sat

A picture of the intricate detail in the tile floors

As always, thanks for the support. I am so glad I get to be here.
-Brad Girdwood