Every day is an adventure here. I imagine that church planting is always an adventure, regardless of what that look likes; having an old limestone building that seems to have not been cleaned thoroughly in 10 years+, creates some unique adventures though.
Friday and Saturday a pre-teen group from Duneland Community were here. Working with pre-teens after working with high school students was a learning curve. Every group of teens has their own uniqueness. They did accomplish a lot, and they played a lot too. It's always great to see our building getting use.
One of the projects we worked on was cleaning out a very neglected storage area. We pulled everything out, and began organizing everything into piles of keep, rummage sale, and throw out. In our journey of cleaning things out, we discovered several mouse homes, and I discovered a weed growing up an air conditioning coil into the storage area. (I'm grateful the Freemont teens weeded all around the air conditioning units, which was a HUGE undertaking. I am sure that's why the weed I found was dead, and not continuing to grow up through the unit).
This is the weed I pulled. It seriously is an adventure every day.
Vacuuming up a whole lot of "presents" left by mice
A small fraction of the stuff we pulled out of the storage area
Much better, and ready to store things without mice, weeds, and dirt everywhere.
Despite all the work our groups are getting done, it is truly a great blessing to have guests. I was trying to do the math of who has spent the night in our home, and I think the count is up to 36 right now, not to mention the many more who have had dinner here, the family that's helped us out, and the service workers (plumbers, electrician, a/c repair, etc.) that have been in and out of both our home and church building. Having people here truly makes us feel like we aren't alone.
We also had a surprise visit from 2 of our dear friends from Mundelein, who now live in Seattle. It was such a blessing to see them, and to share with them all we are trying to accomplish here in our little corner of the city.
Almost daily we are reminded that the kingdom of God is bigger than us. It reminds us often that if God is for us, who can be against us? That despite not having money, despite the struggles we sometimes face, the doubts of some of our neighbors, etc. that God is working, and that He is continuing to work here and around the world.
So, I continue dealing with the adventures. Weeds, mice, pre-teen hormones, etc., because these are such small things in light of all that the Holy Spirit seeks to do here. The best days are yet to come (and these days, are pretty good).
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