To be continued . . .

Friday - finish/clean/pack/drive

Especially on this trip - Friday has come all too soon. Crews heading back to job sites to do minor cleanup, present the families, Rockford Urban Ministries and Second Congregational UCC with the stained glass - cross (always a bitter sweet moment). Pack up, load up & hit the road by 1:45 (I don't think there's any rush hour traffic near Chicago, is there?).

ALL the jobs were finished yesterday (we may have stayed late, as usual). Simply an awesome job by all the crews. Thank You to all the prayer partners - we could feel the love from everyone here & back in the Mentor area.

More crew stories & photos will be posted before Sunday (as the email-photos trickle to my inbox). So for now ........

Misc Photos

Trolley Tour of Chicago

Navy Pier with the Chicago skyline

Late postings

Apologies for posting late - WiFi & WWAN issues plus a dislocated thumb . . . . . .
                                                                                                       Pauley

Many thanks to Ryan for doing a considerable chunk of the typing, Mike Fournier for pulling the thumb back into place on several occasions (go ahead - ask him to "pull my finger") and Jeanie Nelson for the miracle kineseo-tape job (it works!).

This is the size of the local bugs.

Family Dinner Night

One of the YSP / ASP trqaditions has been to host a family night dinner (or cookout) on Wednesday for the families to meet the rest of the YSP crews, and the other crews to meet the other families.

The cook team of Jim, Liese, Jeanie and Chuck (along with I-can-flip-it-grill-master Mike Gallagher) did a great job of burgers, dogs (and grilled potato chips) chips, salsa, watermelon, brownies and pop before SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS moved in (God provided a great light show). The temp went from 99 to 65 in about 15 minutes with a whole bunch of wind & rain.



We still managed to have our evening devotions in the park shelter, the worship music team went "unplugged" with acoustic guitar, fresh ain and the shelter provided a great soundstage for everyone singing.

Probably the highlight of the evening was Allee Vito doing a 5 minute riff on the bongo drums.

(for us old-folks Dobie Gillis watch out)

Bats in the Belfrey

No bad jokes (well, maybe a few)

Many thanks to Anthony for capturing the bat that got into the stairwell (yes, we were sleeping on the 4th floor). The stairwell went up to the old-church bell tower.

The girls described the bat as having a 20 foot wingspan and made sounds only small children and animals could hear.

Energy - in the Gym

The youth are amazing - after a full day's work at the job site, they find the energy to get together and burn off more energy in the gym playing kickball or basketball.

2nd Congregational UCC is host to the Boys & Girls Club of Rockford and has a HUGE gym & filedhouse (plus showers with HOT water).

Adam Nagle - TV Interview

We were really surprised when a TV crew from the local CBS affliliate, WIFR, showed up on site on interviewed one of the youth about the mission service work and why they do it.

Adam Nagle did an exceptional job! (he'll be signing autographs when he gets back to Mentor :) )

The interview can be found on WIFR.com

Can we Fix it decking

Just a few photos of the repairs being made

One of the little things that we do is leave our mark behind the scenes. Usually the youth and crew leaders sign YSP and the year along with their names and a message of hope on the back side of a deck board, sheet of drywall or roof repair.

Just our way of continuing the blessings from MUMC onto the families we were privileged to serve.

Team Can We Fix It day 2

YSP is driven so much on the emotion of the people that we help that we can’t help but sit down and talk to our host. Today, our team experienced one of the nicest gestures of kindness that I have ever seen. Angel, our host, bought us pizza and soda for lunch today, and we sat down and talked with her while we were eating. She has been through so much in her life that she could write a book about it. It really makes you want to do even more to help when you know and understand what they’ve been through. It really touched us all emotionally to see someone who had been through so many horrible things, and then invite us into her home and sit and talk.

We got a lot of work done today, as we have almost completely finished the wheelchair ramp and are almost ready to start replacing the top layer of the front porch. We spent a lot of time cutting and unloading wood and for some of us the day went mostly slow. It was also an interesting experience when the local news showed up and interviewed Adam. It was amazing to see that our gesture of loving and serving God was noticed by more than just us and hopefully will leave an impact on people seeing us on T.V.

Everyone in our team is seriously amazing with what they can accomplish, and it shows that even the most unlikely person can do an awesome work for God. I hope that we can continue to have accident free days and that everyone will stay strong in our work so we can finish our project. I look forward to working with my team tomorrow and serving God some more. Amen

Ryan C,

Team “Can We Fix It”

Cooks Day 2

Dear God,

                Morning comes so early for a cook on YSP. It starts with an obnoxious wake up in the middle of the night about 4:30AM. There is coffee to be made, eggs to cook, bacon to crisp up and to have ready when the troops arrive at 7:00AM expecting to be fed. All this without as much as a simple thank you, but wait……God, you are good, looking into the squinted eyes of 18 teenagers mutter the words Good Morning.

 Now that’s a thank you.

Mister B.

Team Ice Cream Day 2

Team Ice Cream

At the greatest worksite, with the greatest team, it was about one hundred degrees, everyone was sweating buckets but we knew we had a big job and didn’t want to stop till we met our goal. Katy, Jim and Nick cleaned out a whole room that was filled up to Katy’s waist with debris. All of it got shoveled up, bagged, and tossed out the window. We also found and were able to save some vintage trains. Betsy along with Morgan carried all of the bags and other trash to the dumpster. The dumpster is approximately twenty feet long, six feet deep and eight feet wide! About one-third of the stuff in the dumpster came from the room Katy, Jim, and Nick cleaned out. Anthony’s contractor skills came in handy as he built the frames for holding up the dry wall for the ceilings. I’ll bet everyone’s appreciated that. He also completely vacuumed out the entire room that was emptied. Tyler and Cori are renovating the kitchen by replacing tiles in a drop ceiling and prepped the floor for new linoleum tiles. Cori thought bombs were going off when the demolition was going on and dropping dirt all over them. There are two work teams at this same sight and we really learned to work well together and can’t wait for tomorrow.

Ice Cream

Rockford Peaches Day 2

Rockford Peaches: Allee Vito, Sam Kramer, Kyle Nagle, Andrew Denton, Kennedy McMillen, Larry and Rhonda Hoon

We’re having a peach here in Rockford. We are working in a century old house owned by Larry and Michelle. In a bedroom, we took down the old plaster from the walls and ceilings, and are replacing them with drywall. The house was formerly heated by coal, which caused soot to form in the ceiling. As we hacked and toiled at the ceiling, we became increasingly disgusting and covered in filth. Sam, Allee, and Kennedy spent some time speaking to the seven children in the household. Allee helped teach the boys how to play the piano, colored pictures and talked about favorite foods. After work today, we spent time at the free trade store; which is important because it helps provide living wages to the artisans of foreign countries, oppressed women from the area and supports families in difficult times. A local man explained how the local church is working to eliminate indecency from the area during our tour of the town. So far all is going well and we will continue to update you on the actions of the Peaches.

Worship Team

The daily schedule is something like this (but we're always flexible)
6:30 a.m  Wakeup
7:00 a.m.  Breakfast
7:30 a.m.  Morning Devotion
8:00 a.m.  leave for josites
Noon'ish   lunch & jobsite devotion
4:30 p.m.  back at church, shower, dinner prep
6:00 p.m. Dinner
7:30 p.m. Evening Devotion & Worship team (that's us singing & playing music)
10:30 p.m. quiet time
11:00 p.m. lights out
        R E P E A T
  All the teams will be at the traditional services this Sunday, as well as at iConnect services the following Sunday. Listen to our projects, our stories and our songs. This trip would not be possible without ALL the support of the congregation, family, friends and countless others.

Dollar Generals - youth

Team Dollar Generals Day #1

Today we arrived at our work site expecting to remove and start replacing drywall that had been water damaged.  When we got there however we found the rooms we were to be working in were stacked floor to ceiling with garbage.  After spending the whole day cleaning out the rooms including the mold that coated most everything in the room we should be ready to begin the dry walling by Tuesday afternoon.  Our home owners are very sweet, the husband Melvin lives with his wife and grandson. Their grandson helped us carry some heavy stuff out before he had to leave to work and their next door neighbor allowed us to eat lunch in the shade of the tree in his backyard.  We accomplished very much today and we’re looking forward to what we will accomplish the rest of the week.

Cori Babcock and Team Dollar Generals

Cooks & Day 1

The cooks succeed.

Breakfast Day 1 on site.

Up at 5:00am only to liese Veto, Jeannie Nelson in the kitchen hard at work, 90 blueberry Pancakes later, 3 dozen oranges, 2 seedless watermelons and 90 Bob Evens sausage links.

Dinner day 1 on site

Pasta for 32 with garlic bread sticks and mixed salad.

Chuck takes Ryan under his wing and shows him around the kitchen

Together they cook 90 breadsticks.

The crew is beginning to mesh and ready for another day.

Now I lay me down to sleep…………………ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

posted by Jim Post

Team Dollar General & Team Ice Cream

Team Ice Cream

·         Nancy Leyden

·         Jim Nagle

·         Anthony Wendorf

·         Tyler McCann

·         Betsey Strader

·         Katey Strader

·         Jim Post – Cook

·         Rob Pauley – Construction Superman & Dollar General

Team Dollar General

·         Rod Ring

·         Mike Fournier

·         Mike Galagher

·         Nick Jarell

·         Kevin Brock

·         Cori Babcock

·         Morgan Nelson

·         Liese Vito - Cook

The temperature has been HOT HOT HOT. 

We were provided the opportunity to help Melvin, his wife and their grandson Joe who in turn helped us. 

Our job was to remove a lot of stuff out of the house and tear down dry wall and ceilings.  In order to do the Katy & Bets bagged the stuff and threw it out the window.  A crew below tossed it into a dumpster.  While Anthony was working he go overheated and took a break from some water.  Just a he finished what he had , Joe walked by and asked if he needed some water Joe went inside and got 2 bottles of water and said he had put a bunch in the refrigerator for us.

We broke for lunch (and Tyler broke a wall – but that is another story) and the next door neighbor offered to le us sit under his tree.  He had loaned us his ladder when we first got there to protect the windows below from falling debris

One room was so crammed with debris that we could not even open the door.  After much pushing and shoving we cracked the door and were able to slide a few of the skinnier guys around.  The ceiling had completely fallen down.  The room was just chalk full of junk that had got wet dried and fused together.  We were not able to complete our demolition but hope to tomorrow then onto some dry walling.  So far we have filled a 20 X 10 X 8 foot metal dumpster.  And did I mention that the weather was HOT HOT HOT. 

Just before bed Anthony and Tyler bravely captured a bat that was running around loose in the church where we are staying.

Submitted by Tyler & General Mike

Can We Fix It - day 1

Our group name is Can We Fix It and we were tasked with the job of repairing a broken wheelchair ramp for our project. We didn’t know what to expect, but when we got there we were greeted by one amazing host. Her name was Angel and she was very happy and appreciative of our help. She had been though some really rough times, and the bad neighborhood just made it worse. We were very thankful for her hospitality, and we were more than happy to help her. We quickly realized however, that a wheelchair ramp wasn’t the only thing that needed assistance. We decided that the front porch also needed an overhaul, as well as trash in the yard. We quickly got to work and by the end of the first day we have already demolished the old wheelchair ramp and are ready to install the replacement. We also have ripped up the carpet and boards to the front porch, and have the new boards on standby. Our first day was not uneventful, as we found a groundhog living under the ramp and two snake skeletons in the porch! We look forward to our work tomorrow when we can serve God more.

We  had a wonderful trolley - tour of the Windy City. We were blown away with the beauty and architecture and history of the downtown area and the Chicago River, the Miracle Mile, the Water Front area, Navy Pier and Historic District.

98 degrees and 99 percent humidity wears you out (actually we're just checking to see if the grass is safe for napping on).

Crews start their jobs tomorrow, deo water damage drywall, another has soffit repair and replacement, and another has porch repair & stair replacement.

Each work team will be posting beginning Monday.

After a long day in the car, we cooled off by going rafting. Despite an overboard passenger, and wet clothes, it was a truly fun experience! After was another long drive in the vans (with stops for ice cream, of course). A bit later, we arrived at a beautiful, historical church. We made ourselves quite at home, then set off once again to go to the Navy Pier. After a few hours of riding ferris wheels, playing mini golf, and spending time together, we went on the Sea-Dog, a jet-powered boat. The highlight of our night was watching fireworks on the Sea-Dog. The fireworks won't the only thing lighting up the night, The towering buildings of Chicago looked beautiful. Exhausted after a busy first day, we fell asleep quickly, excited for tomorrow.

Safe and sound at Trinity United Methodist Church

Beverly Hills (Chicago), IL

Sunday Service at 9:00

load up for sightseeing and travel to Rockford

Hey, mine's the white van!

To those that have been an important part of who we are ...
Julie - you are missed.

On the road with 32 youth and adults to Rockford Work Camps, part of the Rockfor Urban Mission in Rockford, IL.
 Follow us, drop us a comment (pardon our bad spelling though!), keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

Just for today .... Lord, help us to have a good day.