Focus, Jobs, and ObamaPalooza 

Wow.  It has been awhile since my last post – but its not been because I’ve been bored!  Actually, I’ve picked up a seasonal job to make a little extra money for the holidays.  It’s working for a property management operation down in Rogers Park.  I like working with them because it gets me down into a neighborhood I’ve been praying a lot about for the last month or so – even gets me into people’s homes!  I am praying that the Lord put the right person in my path to invest in.

We moved to Chicago with part time support, meaning we didn’t know where the rest of it was going to come from.  So far it has been amazing to see God take care of us – both through working hard at part-time jobs, as well as straight up gifts from above (or at least the mailbox).  I think September was pretty scary – we were short about $200 in our budget and had no clue what else to cut.  We started getting testy with each other.  To cool off, I went downstairs to check the mail, and…yeah…a surprise $200 in our monthly support.  I started dancing.  DANCING!  God is awesome.  I am under no illusion that I’m supposed to sit back and live on surprise checks all my life – I’m working more than ever before in my life.  But I’m praying that 2009 will be a chance to lay off the part-time job gas pedal and really focus in on some of the relationships and mission projects God has me focused on here.

For those who’d like to see another friend who is in the business of simple church planting here in the US, check out Phil McCullom.  He and I have been chatting back and forth since the move to Chicago – and he has been invaluable in keeping me focused and thinking big.  Recently, they put together a video that gives orientation to what they’re doing in East Hollywood, CA.  Give it a watch!

Last Tuesday I went to ObamaPalooza (or whatever the call it) in Grant Park.  It was amazing to be a part of history.  It was only a few miles north in Lincoln Park that the Yippies staged their famous 1968 Democratic National Convention Protest and a few miles south where Martin Luther King Jr. was hit in the head with a brick and the riots broke out.  Chicago is a political city – in fact, that’s where the term “Windy City” originally comes from – the long-winded politicians!  (it has no more wind than any other US city).  So I find it fitting that in Grant Park on Tuesday, a quarter of a million people gathered to see the Civil Rights Movement reach a climax.  Obama’s words began with a nod to the final words of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night of his assasination in Memphis, Obama: “The road is steep…we may not get there in one year or even one term.  But I promise you, we as a people will get there!”

It was great to see Obama, but mostly, I was there to be with the people.  A missionary never misses an opportunity to share his faith and to love his neighbor.  Keika and her daughter had come from LA to be a part of the celebration, but they didn’t have tickets to get in.  I had a ticket that admited two, and so I snuck one in while the other found another willing participant.  It felt good to be walking into the event paired up with a black American, welling up with pride and emotion as they watched the racial glass celing shatter.

In the coming days and weeks, it is important to be in prayer for this country’s leaders, and simultaneously recommit to being citizens of another country.  No leader, no matter how charismatic, will give us the kind of hope our President Jesus Christ does.  My candidate won 2,000 years ago!

Finally, I’ve put up a few Fall photos from life and events here in Chicago.  Enjoy!

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