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).