Tuesday has been an encouraging day in Chicagoland. When we went to Watseka this morning to do VBS, only one child showed up. After some discussion, we decided to change our strategy in Watseka from VBS to blitzing the city with coffee mugs full of candy, and invitations to the Watseka Baptist Church. (I explained the coffee mugs in yesterday's post.)
We really didn't feel like God sent us all the way to Chicagoland to sit on our hands and wait for something to happen, so we gathered the kids together and explained to them that our new objective in Watseka was to "mug" every home in the city by the end of the week. Quickly, we had an assembly line of teenagers cutting open boxes, stuffing mugs with candy, and putting the mugs back in the boxes for transport. We divided into three teams and took off across the city. Even through occasional rain showers, we kept on going. And by the end of the day, we had handed out 700 mugs! Added to the 200 we did yesterday, our running total is now at 900! The church only has 600-700 mugs left, and we plan on handing those out tomorrow. If we can do it, that will mean we "mugged" about 85% of the city.
And oh yes... We also left two of our ladies at the park (Pam and Charity) just in case some more kids showed up. By the end of the morning, five children had shown up and the ladies were able to befriend and share the plan of salvation with each one of them! Maybe more will come tomorrow?
If you can't tell, today has been a good day for the VBS team. Spirits are up, and people are encouraged. I think the pastor and people of WBC are encouraged as well. They seem proud to play a role in doing something for their community. (They have been our drivers, and have allowed us to shower in their homes.) We feel like we made a positive impact for the Kingdom today. The contruction team has not returned to home base yet, so unfortunately I can't tell you too much about their day. But please continue to pray for us, that God will use us, and that we will all be kept safe and healthy. Tomorrow afternoon/evening is our free time, and we will be going into downtown Chicago for some r and r. Peace.
