There is a legend in Chicago city history - the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  It was possibly the greatest U.S. disaster of the 19th century, and only from the immediate rebuilding of the city and support from cities all over the world was Chicago able to emerge as global city and economic hub for the country.  It’s why the city is sometimes known as “the Second City” because so much burned in the fire that the rebuilding essentially created a whole new community.

Over the past week, Hurricane Ike partnered with a Pacific tropical depression dumped over 90 billion gallons of water over Chicago this past weekend, flooding sewers and rivers, and eventually streets and whole city blocks.  Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich declared Chicago and the 7 surrounding counties disaster areas.  Though Chicago is far from any coast, the combination of both storm systems actually gave the city more rain that Houston!

Over the air waves, I kept hearing stories of families whose basements had been flooded out, or others who had evacuated from their homes and were living in temporary shelters.  During an age of extreme weather, I have seen New Orleans and Indonesia and others get hit hard, and yet still felt disconnected from the disaster and did not involve myself in assisting those in need.  Usually the voices in my head say something like, “I’ll just get in the way,” or “I don’t have time to do this - I’ve got to take care of myself.”  When disaster came to us, I felt God saying, “The body of Christ helps its neighbors - you are a part of the body of Christ, and your neighbors are in need of your help.”  It was pretty obvious what I was supposed to do next.

I put on my oldest clothes, put some of my personal stuff in a ziplock bag and headed out the door.  I didn’t have any tools, and virtually no knowledge of how to safely deal with a flood, but I went with hands to serve.

The streets in Albany Park were either filled with cars trying to get out, or water pouring in.  I walked up to a water managment truck waiting in the long traffic lines and asked where to help out.  They pointed me toward St. Louis street, and I set out.

There I met a river where once was a street.  No body was out except an old man named Pete, who was fuming mad that no one in the city was listening to him.  He had worked on sewers and flooding back in Greece, and knew that all they needed to do was vaccuum the clog in the sewer system, and the water would recede.  In the meantime, he’s trying to figure out how to drain his completely flooded basement, check his foundation and turn his power back on.

More city crew began arriving at the dead end street.  Most were wearing nice shoes and weren’t getting into the water.  I hadn’t yet gotten wet either.  And when I saw some locals at the end of the street repositioning sandbags against the riverbanks (they were just sitting out in the street), I felt like I needed to join them in the filthy waters.  A city official stopped me after he saw my intentions, telling me how nasty the water was since the sewers had overflowed.  It was tempting to turn around and find some other way to help out - I’ll be honest - I’ve never been fond of tuberculosis.  I paused, waiting for the Spirit to give me some confirmation that I truly was supposed to wade into the waters.  Maybe against sound judgment, but certainly not against the model Christ gave us, I joined my neighbors in the mess.

We worked for several hours, pushing back the power of the river.  There is something deeply spiritual and worshipful in tossing sandbags.  Among the dozen or so out there were Mark and Tanya, a young couple who worked for the Chicago Symphony.  Their whole basement was floor-to-celing flooded, and their first floor was soaking too.  I can’t imagine the feeling, but I kept wondering what good it was to fight the river since everthing was submerged already.  Then I heard some talking about how the water had severely weakened their foundations.  Yeah - that would put me to work too!

Some were really angry at the city for doing so little.  While I was there, it seemed the city was doing everything it could with all the redtape it has established for this sort of thing.  It was disappointing to see neighbors in the mud and waters while city workers still had nice, dry shoes on.  One city official came over and helped us with a sandbag line, saying, “I just can’t stand back and watch - this is what I’m here for…”

It became a great mix of neighbors and city workers.  Those working for a paycheck and those working to save their home, and me, just watching the momentary community rising above the disaster.  I did not go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in fact, I’ve never been to a disaster area in my life.  This was a sort of baptism into serving those in crisis - just a few miles from my own home.

John 1:14 says that Word of God became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.  If the powerful, pure creative power of God can become something as lowly, frail and decaying as a human, shouldn’t we be able to walk through sewer water and share in the burden of humanity with fellow neighbors?  This is a struggle for me - but it is the message of the cross.  It is, like Ghandhi and Jesus agree, how we lose ourselves to find our true self.

I’m on to some exciting projects lately.  Don’t have much time to give them the proper introduction to you all that they deserve, but nonetheless, I wanted to give you just a peak into some of the things I’ve been working on lately!

An exciting venture lately has been furthering development of my Chicago Spiritual Map into a full-blown collaborative wiki!  The goal in the near future is to help incorporate others; students, professors, churches, local missionaries, summer interns and others into a city-wide project to discover what God is up to in Chicago.  The ultimate dream is to engage followers of Christ at a ground-zero level, giving them an experience in prayer-walking, spiritual mapping, and of the great mission field of the city. You can find the baby stages of this project emerging at Pray4Chicago.

Second, I’m putting together a site that will help connect other Chicago missionaries, and organic church networks.  Since I’ve been in Chicago, I’ve met dozens of church planters and emerging church planters focused on bringing the profoundly lost into friendship with God.  Some are working with poets and artists, others are sharing the gospel with Somalian refugees, still others are focused on hispanics.  This October 31-November 2 Moody Bible Institute will be hosting Niel Cole’s Greenhouse, a conference/workshop teaching the basics in organic church planting.  This might be a good time to discuss how church planters around the city might resource one another, cross-pollinate ideas and church networks, and serve the city and see God’s shalom reign!  I’ve got the url and basic files installed, but I don’t want to post more on this one just yet.

Finally, I’ve been blessed to share my faith with several at my part time job!  These friends of mine are seriously searching, and I’m praying that God reveals himself to them in a special way as we begin to meet for our first bible study!  Also, there is a new friend of ours interested in reaching out to some of her friends in another neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.  God seems to be moving lots of things at once!

It’s fun being on this journey, and I know its what I was made to do.  God bless you this weekend!

I got these two (count them, TWO) great Chicago maps for my birthday in early August, but just recently had the money saved to purchase legit frames for them!  I’m psyched about hanging them in my office (or sharing one with a friend or placing elsewhere in the house - didn’t expect to have two of them), and studying the layout of the city, as well as learning to pray for the city a chunk at a time.  What do you think would be possible if a whole city began to pray for peace?

A few other church planters and I are looking into Wikispaces as a common ground for spiritual mapping and saturation church planting.  Its a neat site - imagine: you’re own free wiki on ANYTHING or EVERYTHING you like!  How cool is the internet!?!

“For in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, Cubs or Sox…”  (Gal 3:28…ish)

Wore this outfit to a Sox/Royals game, Sox hat with a Cubs shirt…hoping for a protest from the crowd.  There was one guy who yelled, “Figure out which side of the fence you’re on!”  I told him I was sure I was on the right side. :)  Its interesting that over a hundred years ago, the Sox were the south side German Protestant team, and the Cubs were the north side Irish Catholic Team.  Somethings never change…but one day they will!

Note: This is part of a blog series on Chicago and its neighborhoods.

Rogers Park (wikipedia) is the northernmost neighborhood in the city limits. Evanston borders it to the north and we drive through Rogers Park regularly on our way to the loop. It’s been a village of immigrants from the very beginning, from mostly nomadic Native Americans to Germans to Hispanics today. The anchor in the community is Loyola University, one of the largest Jesuit universities located in the southeastern part of the neighborhood. The more north you go in Rogers Park, the more culturally diverse the neighborhood gets. Its got beaches galore, and its still the most affordable neighborhood in the city’s north shore.

I gotta say, I love the movement of Rogers Park. It seems like a happening place, with lots of culture (a big community well is the Heartland Cafe - a spot for spoken word poets and in-the-closet anarchists!) and pride. CAPS is the largest community policing program in the country and has actually drastically reduced the crime rate significantly over the last 10 years.

God is obviously at work in Rogers Park. I found a coffee shop that is offering free massages to its impoverished neighbors, murals painted by children under the train tracks, a funky “gathering place” book store called Armadillo’s Pillow (pic below). Children playing, new green construction projects, and incarnational, missional church plants.

I met John Hoekwater, pastor of Many People’s Church, co-owner of the Common Cup and on the board with Neighbor’s United. His commitment is to the transformation of lives in Rogers Park, and he’s seeing it happen.  With John was Don, a recovering alcoholic who is fully invested in the people of Rogers Park.  Currently he works at a laundromat, and as he and I walked down the street together he was waving to kids on the street and friends in the barber shop.  I kept thinking, “This is the kind of ‘person of peace’ Jesus talks about in Luke 10.  He told me that more than anything, people of Rogers Park need freedom from the oppression and death of drugs.

Praise God that John is helping him on the road to recovery and the Way of Christ.  It was great to pray with them for the peace of the city - I hope for more of that in my travels!

Lewie Clark is an intentional discipler and gospel planter who just moved to Rogers Park from another neighborhood.  He’s helped me keep my head about me and think carefully about what prayer walking and spiritual maps might look like.  I pray for him and the emerging church network he’s a part of in the neighborhood!

This is my first entry to this “neighborhood map,” and honestly I don’t know exactly what its fruit will be, except that the city will be covered in prayer, maybe I’ll meet some Kingdom workers and people of peace, and I’ll have a better picture of this great city I’ve been called to.

You can travel “the world” visiting the neighborhoods in Chicago.  I am amazed at the convergence of culture and life here.  It reminds me of what heaven will be like.  I think that is ultimately the draw of the city for humanity, whether it is conscious or subconscious.  I pray that in this fallen world, Chicagoans will see the glory of God in the midst of the hurting city, and seek him.

- Lord, thank you for your mercy over Rogers Park.  Guide those learning at Loyola and other schools in the neighborhood.  Protect your kingdom workers, John, Lewie, and many others.  Open their eyes to the people you’ve put in their path, and give them the strength to serve.  May your kingdom come in this very diverse place.