Saturday, March 26, 2011 9:55pm
The Chicago team got off to a great start with a late morning call time at NCCS. It was such a blast walking in to school as people were arriving for Open House. Our Upper School students definitely understand what a blessing it is to be a part of such an incredible community and they were excited to see new families checking things out! We spent a few moments going over details in the cafeteria, we prayed together, and then we loaded up the bus in the sprinkling rain.
The bus trip to the airport was fun as everyone talked about what they were hoping to do on the trip. There were many funny stories shared about airport and airplane memories. I know that Seth and Morgan probably loved that as they were preparing for their first flight ever! Once we got to the Atlanta airport, we made it easily through check-in and security, and arrived at our gate in plenty of time to eat lunch and pick up the necessary plane snacks and magazines. Fortunately there was a Moe’s nearby, so most of us felt right at home!
Our flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful and the flight attendants were very complimentary of our kids. One of the flight attendants actually lives about two blocks from Soul City Church. We invited him to come to church, so maybe we’ll see him tomorrow night! The best part about all 40 of us wearing our Fall Retreat shirts…besides the obvious coolness factor…was the number of people who asked us what we were doing. What an awesome privilege it is to share about what God is doing at North Cobb Christian School and the task before us this week as a part of Spring Term 2011.
We rode the “L” into Downtown Chicago. That was a lot of fun. We had to go down some stairs, across the block, down some more stairs, then into the subway, then up some more stairs. Some of the girls are considering packing lighter next time! However, huge kudos to our guys…they were extremely gentlemanly offering their seats on the train and helping the girls with their bags. Just as you would have anticipated right??!
One of the happiest moments of the day came when our students realized that there was a Starbucks in our hotel. They have already been several times! We checked into the rooms, unpacked, and relaxed for a bit before heading out to explore. The Apple Store was first on our agenda as we headed out to Michigan Avenue. We left there and went to Water Tower Place to do some shopping and grab dinner. It was an interesting place and packed with people. In our group of 40, the rule is to stay together in groups. The awesome part…is that, for the most part, they all enjoy hanging out together and we watched students move from group to group all day as they genuinely enjoyed being with their classmates.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel by way of Trader Joe’s. We had to stop there for snacks…because it had been 3 minutes since we ate last! When we got back to the hotel, we had a great time of worship as Nathan and Kelsey led us in some music. We spent time praying specifically for the Dominican team as their plane was finally taking off. We exchanged names for secret prayer partners for the week and then discussed some details. We closed our time together by sharing prayer requests and praying together as a team. One of the biggest blessings of the day was reading the notes that were written for us by the 4th graders at NCCS. The 4th grade is praying specifically for our team this week…what an incredible partnership!
In just a minute, we will do a room check to make sure our precious angels are all ready to call it a night. We will start tomorrow by heading out to find the train to Wrigley Field. Today was a great day to get to know each other better and check out Chicago, our home for the week. Tomorrow is going to be an even better day as we worship with the people at Soul City Church and continue developing a heart for this city. Thank you for your prayers!