Last day in Chicago

Hello everyone!

Today was our last day in Chicago for orientation. The Paraguay team was here at the church alone basically all day as all the others began their travels this morning. We head out tomorrow morning to catch our early afternoon flight.

Last week we had a lot of sessions by various Mennonite Mission Network staff and others from the area. Some of the most interesting sessions for me were about White Privilege and Racism, the different streams or focuses of Christianity (social justice, evangelism, contemplation, etc.), living cross culturally, poverty, and sustainable living. It was good to talk about all of these things, as we will face many questions and issues in the next year that will relate to these topics. We also had several sessions on more specific topics like finances and Paraguayan culture.

Every day we were introduced to various spiritual practices that we can choose to explore more in the coming year. On Saturday, we took three hours to do a mini silent retreat. Many of us walked around the neighborhood and the Garfield Park Conservatory. Last week, we also took time to hear every person tell their personal story, including their faith story. It was great to hear about each person's past and how they have come to their personal beliefs. It was also good to think about these things for myself while preparing my own story. 

In our free time, our group of eight participants often played card games like Rook, Dutch Blitz, or Scum. We also played and sang music together a few times. On Saturday, we went to the lake to swim and play frisbee, and then spent some time at the Chicago Jazz Festival in Millennium Park. Last night, we had a closing meal at a Greek restaurant in Greek Town to celebrate our time together and send each other off.

It was a great ten days as we learned quite a bit to prepare us for the year ahead and made great friends with everyone that was here. It was sad to see all of the others leave today, but I'm excited about our team going to Paraguay and the fact that we're leaving tomorrow.

¡Hasta Luego!