Monday, April 23, 2012
Quick Trip to the Windy City
Tashi and I recently made a very brief trip up to Chicago in order to share with our church's mission committee at one of their meetings. Although we were only there for two days and parts of a couple others, we made the most of it! We arrived at O'Hare Saturday evening and were picked up by our friends, Del and Myra Parks. We met Myra last summer when she volunteered with CCCD for a couple weeks and then her husband, Del, and her made the trip over to Leo in August for our wedding reception. Myra is completing a two year interpreting program soon and will complete her studies at C-Sun. They picked us up and we grabbed dinner at a nearby pizza joint, Giordano's that happened to be delicious! It was great to catch up with them before they move to Cali and to see Myra's preg-o belly before they have their first child.
Tashi and I with Del and Myra
Janice Anliker and Becky Stoller met us in the parking lot at Giordano's and we made the "taxi" switch and then headed to Janice's parents where we stayed for the weekend. Sunday we worshiped at Elgin AC Church and enjoyed meeting quite a few people. My Aunt Val is from Elgin so it was neat to meet her parents and Tashi knew quite a few people from her college visits with Janice. After church we ate with Janice's sister's family and enjoyed a good 'ol American meal of home grilled burgers, fries, veggie tray and a great fruit salad....it was delicious!
Tashi and I with Janice and Becky
Monday we did some practice and preparation for our presentation and then some last minute shopping at Target, Wal-Mart and Menards (how I wish there were a Menards in Kingston!). Mid-afternoon we headed over to the meeting location to have dinner with our Jamaica team prior to the presentation. After meeting at the agreed upon restaurant and deciding it wasn't really where we wanted to eat, I suggested a delicious little pizzeria around the corner....you guessed it, Giordano's! Hahaha, you know it's either really really good or I just miss American pizza! Maybe a tad of both. We enjoyed a great dinner with Chad Huber, Alan Roth, Loren Dettwyler and Marvin Leman. After dinner we headed down the street to the hotel and conference center and got ready for our presentation. There were about a dozen brothers from the mission committee that listened to our presentation and asked great questions. We felt very encouraged by their warm welcome and genuine interest in our team's ministry to the Deaf in Jamaica and are excited for whatever the Lord has in store for all of us. The hardest part was saying goodbye to our teammates after only having a few hours together, and especially hard to wave goodbye to Chad as he drove away from us in a very large family van for the second time in less than a week (it was only last week Tuesday we bid farewell to him and his family at JDV). Tuesday morning we caught the 5:30am shuttle to the airport and were home by 3pm! A short trip but definitely sweet. We praise God for the opportunity to share about His working in Jamaica and for the chance to spend a few precious moments with dear friends and family.
# posted by Blake @ 6:17 PM 
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