Now? Now we are in Chicago. Mark is sleeping by my feet and Roranicus Rex is snuggled into my side - the jet lag is definitely lagging us.
We are in the Windy City for METE. What is METE? I don't actually remember. Essentially, it's missionary training. For 14 booked solid days we will be trained in the fabulous art of ECC missionary-ing. I will let you know a little bit more about what that means once I know...
Our travel to Ludlam Ave was a lot simpler than I had imagined (see: panicked excessively about). Rory had zero trouble on the flight and while he didn't get a nap (too much to see), he was such a pleasant little boy and everyone on the plane enjoyed his between the seat peek-a-boo and giggles. We lucked out with a social child. All of our bags were carry on, so being picked up from the airport was easy peasy and our very kind chauffeur, Curt made sure he already had a carseat all ready to go and we dropped him at his house and then drove ourselves to our newfound home for two blessed weeks (aka: the home of the generous Husby's).
We were so exhausted on night one that we fell asleep early and got most (but not all) of the jet lag out of our system. Day two began with a member-care interview and lots of plastic dinosaurs for Roranicus Rex. He felt quite at home. Rory will be the only kiddo at this conference, so he gets to just tag along any and everywhere we go! I'm praying for good behavior and premium naps, but we will see. Our care interview went well, Mark was his sassy self and I tried my best to deflect questions about myself and play with Rory. We have discussed how much I hate talking about me, yes?
But hey, "We're on a mission from God."
I have only seen two Starbucks establishments (sacrilege) and no other coffee stands... ergo, I'm not sure how I feel about this city all-in-all. Except, of course, the over abundance of Blues Brothers references (see above quote), that I quite enjoy. There is a Chicago version of a Whole Foods exactly one block away, so that is nice and we have gathered many snacks for the mini monster. The weather is: hot, muggy, sometimes pouring down rain, sometimes thunder and lightning, generally heavy. I don't really understand it, but I like the heat part.
This morning we met with the head of the missions department, Lana, which was great because we have been emailing back and forth for a year and its always good to put faces to people. We went over our (hypothetical) budget and made adjustments as we needed them, it will continue to be a process, but we felt a lot more comfortable with the numbers once every penny had been accounted for. Yay monies? Or something...
I have been reading Barefoot Church by Brandon Hatmaker and it has been amazing. He and his wife are phenomenal authors and really stretch me in ways I need to be stretched. Brandon talks a lot about the flaws with our churches today and why people are leaving in ever greater numbers, but also how he and ANC (Austin New Church) have sought to repair the image of the church within his community by living out Jesus' commandment to love ones neighbor as themselves. It is a heartfelt challenge to not only churches, but individuals. To carry the banner of Christ and truly exemplify love and kindness.
I apologize if this is getting spotty - I am typing it on my phone while being head butted by my freshly awake 9 month old dinosaur of a son.
Tonight will be the first true day (evening) of METE and we will meet the other new short termers and get the low down on why we are missing two weeks of work. I am excited. It has been really nice to be in the home of such loving people who used to be missionaries and meet everyone we've been in contact with for so long. It has also been nice to kind of just get my traveling heart back out there on my sleeve.
"It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."
"Hit it."
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