Brandy and i took a spontaneous road trip to chicago this weekend and we left saturday morning early!! we arrived in chicago with not much of a plan but soon navigated to fulerton rd in chicago to visit inner city impact then back to our home base at moody then collaborated and headed to a ministry neither of us had heard of before this trip but it is the oldest inner city ministry in the country Pacific Garden Mission neither of us knew what was in store for us there GOd had great plans!it just so happened that they do tours of their new facility every saturday and we got to hear their broadcast of the radio show "unshackled" which is aired all over the world!! well PGM is a ministry that serves the homeless in chicago and they had to leave their place on state street in chicago because the city didnt want to deal with it anymore and they wanted the homeless outside of the city but as the bible says "what you meant for evil God meant for good" and he did he has blessed this ministry that houses 800 women men and children each night!! the new facility is amazing everyone that showed us around is in the 1 year program where they learn about the bible and work at the facility with very strict rules!! these people were amazing! their stories of being on the streets and battling with addictions were amazing!! this ministry is not only a house for the homeless because as they say we are all homeless unless we know where we are going when we die! they have 5 bible services a day for the people and last month alone they served 75000 meals and gave out over 43000 pieces of cloths!! God is so good to this ministry!! they also to into the economically depressed places in chicago and hand out their left overs and share the gospel with the people!!
Then God wasnt done with us we got back and quickly left for the House in Laundale where we got lost in a interesting neighborhood!! the house is the hip hop church service at laundale community church put on by phil jackson who co-authored the book the hip hop church. it was an experience like i had never had before!! the people that would go to this service may never be found in church besides at this service and the gospel was preached and it was awesome!!
God still had more plans for us as we went to laundale community church for church on sunday this is the church where the founders of the CCDA(Christian community development association) have started the ministry known as the CCDA where you assess your community and you meet the needs!! it was amazing this church owns almost a whole street in urban chicago they have a medical clinic church, boys home for boys with addictions, gym, youth center, education help and so much more it was inspiring made me realize how much we need to do a community needs assessment in Rock Island and see what the real needs are and try to accomplish them!!
i love visiting other minitries that target the same people we do it is nice ot learn off of other people and see what they are doing!!
