Loosening up and digging in

As my title infers, our 3rd week in this crazy thing called “The Radical Journey” has both loosened up and gone deeper. It's loosened up in the sense of a schedule; we have more time in the day so that we are responsible to explore, interact and enjoy. But at the same time its also gotten deeper.
We’ve continued to build our teams, have fun as house and grow individually by participating in conversations and exercises regarding topics such as conflict resolution, expectations/apprehensions for the upcoming year, and just good old quality time. In our on going mixer of spiritual disciplines, we practiced Lectio Devina and solitude along with another service project where me and 5 others worked in a community garden a few blocks down the street. We’ve also had time to travel to Chinatown, explore some museums and see the WhiteSox play the Cleveland Indians. On an even deeper level, we’ve had some guest “speakers” (I’m not sure if they want to be labeled as “speakers”) come in and lead us in conversation regarding the cultural context of the countries we are entering, our role in ministry in our locations and maybe most excitingly because of its practicality, a beginners course in teaching English as a second language.
For those that haven’t heard or were fuzzy on the details, the majority of our time in our country will be devoted to teaching English to locals. In Paraguay, we will be working with those that are wanting to volunteer for Mennonite World Conference, in Asuncion, Paraguay in July 2009. Beyond this, learning English is seen as one of the most effective ways to break poverty cycles by providing a foothold in which to obtain better jobs.

So even though week three has come and gone like the departing blue line train at the “L” station, it’s only to be replaced by the arrival of week 4 carrying with it just as many hopes and opportunities as it’s predecessor.

Going off the deep end...

The second week of "The Radical Journey" has definitely proven to go much deeper. While the first week was exploring the city and getting to know each other, week two has dove headfirst into our Spiritual Narratives (aka testimonies), theological exploration/conversation, and continuation of spiritual disciplines.
We’ve also been able to break off into individual country groups to do some team building. This has mainly been composed talking through and getting to know some of our spiritual tendencies, love languages and personality traits. Besides this, the house has had ample time to bond as well. We usually have a good chunk of the day either in the afternoon or at night for free time that we fill with ultimate frisbee in the nearby park and a myriad of card/board games in the house. We also have time to explore the city and get acquainted with its diverse neighborhoods and attractions. We’re encouraged to go to festivals, new church services and experience Chicago’s different cultures. It’s been a fascinating time. In the midst of all of this we have also had some time to explore some service and ministry. After a unit on the spiritual discipline of service we were able to animate this by doing our own service. The house split up into groups; one went to a homeless shelter and the other went to a sort of preparatory preschool called Gad’s Hill to hang out with kids and help the teachers, I was part of the later group. The kids were amazing and the level of excellence there is off the charts.
Later that week we visited Emmaus Ministries in Uptown Chicago, what a uniquely amazing ministry. They work with male prostitutes and are one of the few, if any, ministries that do this. We listened in on a couple that musically recounts some of the guys’ stories that are worked with at Emmaus. It was a very honest and humbling experience.
Only two more weeks until we make the trek to Paraguay!

First Week Jitters

Hello all and welcome to my blog!  This is the place where I will be recounting and keeping you updated 

on all of my journeys in Paraguay this upcoming year.  As of right now all of the participants in the Radical Journey Program, including myself, are in Chicago for a month of orientation. Our present living quarters is a house, which we aptly named “Mennonite Real World” due to 16 Mennonites (let’s just assume I’m Mennonite) living in what feels like a reality show type of setting just without the cameras, that is located next to The First Church of the Brethren in downtown 

Chicago. 

Basically the program breaks down like this; there are four teams that are going to various locations around the world.  There is a team heading to Brazil, another to Sweden, a third to England, 

and finally my team that is going to Paraguay where we will be mostly working with local populations teaching English.  We will also have opportunities to become involved in the church and community (more details to come when I actually get there).

Celebrating our one week anniversary in orientation tomorrow, I have found it to be, at the least, very informational and experiential. 

 We generally have some sort of devotions in the morning as a group that focus on different spiritual disciplines such as prayer, hospitality, and solitude followed by late morning and afternoon exercises which, for the first week, were mainly learning how to navigate in a large city such as Chicago.  We still have 3 more weeks until we head out and I’m terribly excited to get there!

Please feel free to check back here often (at least once a week) and ask questions for more specific details that you would like to know!