We were sad to leave Chicago Hope Academy because of the friendships that were made. What our team realized was that we are all the same everywhere: we all want love: we all want to be in relationship with loving people and we all need Jesus!

We finished our work projects for the academy: cleaning out a garden area and planting plants, painting firescapes, baseball fences and touch ups, working on the rugby and soccor fields and office help. We tutored the kids during summer school and had alot of great laughs at mealtime with them. Pictured above is Bob and Tina Muzikowsky, the founders of CHA. Their love for inner city kids is contagious. The picture of one of the team members, Caitlin Ruff, is a favorite because she is pictured with Tony, the CHA staff member that took us everywhere. He is an ex-cop and loves these kids and works for Bob and Tina. Caitlin has been a Heal Ministries intern for the past two years and it was a blessing to see her in relationship with the girls that she had so much in common with in a totally different environment. The entire team from Nashville bonded with the students. I am looking forward to being a part of CHA for years to come.

We took the kids to two museums and out to eat at Navy Pier. The gratitude and thanks from the kids was overwhelming. Several of the students came up to me after Navy Pier and said that it was one of the most magical nights they have ever had. The 150 foot ferris wheel overlooks the beautiful city of Chicago and made me think about how HUGE God is. When we were at the highest point and I could hear the screams and laughter of everyone around: I thanked God for allowing me the blessing of becoming a part of the Chicago Hope Academy family. The ferris wheel at its highest point was so symbolic of the CHA kids: they have been given a great opportunity at this school and can be anything they want or dream of. They can reach for the sky!

This has been an awesome week at Chicago Hope Academy. We have enjoyed getting to know the kids one on one. We work during the days, painting, cleaning, gardening, and tutoring the students. At night, we hang out with the kids and get to know their personal stories. It was so much fun to take them to the Museum of Contemporary Art and then out to eat at the Grand Lux Cafe on Michigan Avenue.

One of boys asked me if he could call me "mom" and I said yes. He told me that he loved his mom but she would never be able to afford to take him to a restaurant like that one. It was one of those moments that God was smiling down saying............."these kids are worth the very best". They have risen above adversities in a world that has not always been kind to them. They have found Chicago Hope Academy, been given hope in a hurting world and now will be able to bless others with the light that shines through them. I have never been around a group of kids that love so well. A table next to ours at the restaurant told one of the waiters that they were impressed with the manners of the kids. They didn't even realize that what was impressive is the truth and HOPE that outshines all situations and cirmcumstances!

Our team arrived in Chicago Saturday and had an evening of bonding time in the city. There is nothing like Uno's Pizza to start off a mission trip! Sunday morning we visited the New Life Church inside Chicago Hope Academy and had an amazing worship experience.

The pastor was teaching on the book of James which is what every mission trip with Heal Ministries starts on. James 1:27 is the scripture that Heal Ministries is founded on. How does Chicago Hope Academy fit in? The majority of the families are single parent homes and some of the kids do not live with either parent. Most every student here has experience some type of abandonment: divorce, killings, gangs, poverty, etc. Our mission teams goals are to serve humbly, be strengthened in Christ and to build relationships.

Today, we worked along with students that attend CHA. We scraped rust, painted a fire escape and cleaned out a garden area. The truth is, CHA would be just fine if we did not show up and the work would be done......maybe even better! We are here for the experience and the pure joy of spending time with the students. We always think that an American mission trip is so different than a mission trip out of the country. That is not true.

A hurting heart is the same all around the world. Abandonment feels the same whether you are playing basketball in a city like Chicago or playing marbles in Africa. Poverty evokes the same feelings in any location. The one thing that is different here at Chicago Hope Academy is that these kids have been taught that they can make a difference. They can be lights in a hurting world and be a mentor to all who are lucky enough to be in their presence.

Today, we spent time with a student that just graduated. He has never known his dad and his mother is a drug addict. He lives with his aunt who is in her early twenties and has 4 children of her own. He would rather spend time at Chicago Hope after school than go back to the projects that have become his home. He is a fighter. He believes that God is in control and he will succeed in college because he has been given HOPE. This is why we are here: to love and encourage the students and the staff for the excellence they have achieved.

Tonight we went to a little league baseball game which is how Chicago Hope Academy started. Bob Muzikowsky was given community service and started a little league many years ago. God has used Bob to change the course of many students and the students were chosen to change his course as well. The student that we got to know today that will be going to a college in August is because of a man that desired to give that little league baseball player an opportunity. To be given an opportunity to better yourself is priceless. We have learned so much in the two days that we have been here. We have learned that Christ is real at Chicago Hope and that we have been blessed to receive an opportunity to serve. We have already experienced Jesus from the students and the staff. We have painted and cleared a garden but God planted lifetime memories in the smiles of a student that is going to college because of Chicago Hope Academy.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27