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June 18, 2005

teply Update #2

So i have spent some time trying to get more in God's presence. It is amazing. i have learned that i love God and i love people, so why does it matter where i am at. If i am able to do God's work and to sing praises to God it does not matter where i am at.

Sad story of today is that i was heading back to Milwaukee and saw the most depressing sign. Some where around Kenosha there was a city doing garage sales all over the place, there where signs everywhere, the sad part was there was one sign that said "divorce sale". Though it helped spark a conversation with the third person i sat with (for some reason people take grey hound a couple of miles which made it hard but fun to talk to people).

Now that i am home, it is hard with being attacked with questions with my faith and why it is wrong. The good news of this story is i discussed the Bible with my Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt for a good two hours. So drained, i am excited. God bless you all...

~teply

Posted by at 06:56 PM | Comments (1)

June 15, 2005

Vote for Pedro

Hello everyone, hope your day is going well.
Today Debika and I went to visit Alisa at Au Bon Pain, and on our way back to the el we stopped at a Starbucks. There are Au Bon Pain's all over the place, but Alisa's is in the Merchandise Mart, which is currently hosting a gargantuan convention for interior designers...something like 40,000 of them. Suffice to say, a lot of suits and ties walking around. Anyway, as we walked into the place most of the tables were filled with retailers and their computers. There was one person in particular that distinguished himself from all the rest. He was middle-aged, and dressed in a crisp black suit with the standard blue shirt and dark tie. The only thing that differentiated him from his colleagues was his computer. I have no idea what kind it was (other than it wasn't a mac) because a sticker was placed over the cover logo. The sticker said in bright red letters, "Vote For Pedro." I pulled Debika over and we both snickered. I wanted to ask him if he was drinking 1% milk, because he could totally be drinking whole. It just made me happy to see that in the midst of all these "serious business" folk, someone had a bold enough sense of humor to advertise the best movie to come along in a long while.

The best part about Chicago is the people. There are so many of them! Woo hoo!

Posted by Heather at 01:10 PM | Comments (3)

June 14, 2005

Faith's Update to her supporters (#1)

901-B S Racine
Chicago, IL 60607

Well, I really intended to make it on this update long before the 5th week. The summer, so far, has been full of blessings. To begin with, my parents and I had a reasonably good trip out to Chicago and found the group here cleaning up the girls' condo. Once it was clean it turned out to be an amazing place complete with skylights and a jacuzzi in the upstairs bath. There are currently 9 girls living in 4 bedrooms upstairs (my room is the triple) and Paul and Christie live in the basement, there is also a 3 bedroom apartment with 7 guys living in it a little ways down the road. The first week went by with amazing answers to prayer as every person on our team that came without a job ended the week with a job. Last summer there were people who went many more long weeks without a job than any of us had to this summer. Though that first day, monday, came with news from home that was seriously concerning the program itself began without a hitch.

The second week closed with more requests for prayer within my family leading to my first internal battle. I didn't even really understand what was going on but while we were at Glen Arbor (the nearest Great Commission Church connected with the SALT Program) that morning I found myself having trouble understanding why I was breaking down. Eventually I figured it out and put my foot down. Poor Jackie didn't know what I was talking about all she heard was "I'm NOT GOING HOME!" God gave me a very clear sign that I was to come on this program and I am convinced He wants me to follow through. Those two bits of news from home were the first wave of a battl between Satan and I as to whether I should leave Chicago and go home.

In the second wave it's important to say that every Friday we have an "outreach barbeque" we invite all of the people we've met and hope that some of them are drawn by free food. Well, on the Friday of the second week Andrew and I had invited all of our coworkers from Jimmy John's to the barbeque, and 1 of the 6 who had said they were coming for sure came. His name is Beto, he's a guy from Mexico that can hardly speak any English. Well, him being my coworker and I being the most experienced with Spanish I talked to him, unfortunately he showed up about 5 minutes before it began to rain so we ended up watching everyone pack up and head for the house while we stayed behind with a few others talking to our guests who didn't mind getting wet. Toward the end of the conversation I was getting tired of carrying it all by myself so I wanted to make sure that he wasn't just waiting for me to stop talking so I told him "si quieres, nos vemos." (what I intended to mean, if you want to I'll see you later) unfortunately in the wrong context this means "If you want to we can see each other." His response being "When?", I soon figured it out.

Well I spent the entire next week in knots trying to figure out if I needed to pull him to the side at work and make sure he knew I didn't mean it that way or whether I was going to have serious trouble on my hands or what. Well if you spend your day in knots and your work place is advertised for being fast then you're going to screw up, a lot. I created a lot of paper work for my manager and it was just not good, add to all that there was a Jimmy John's inspector coming at the end of the week to score us on our performance. Everyone was in knots, especially the sporadic owner who pops in unexpectedly. And after having spent a long hard day at work I would come home to a house full of girls I don't know (I never did get the hang of girls, they just don't make any sense) plus everyone is going through culture shock at about the same time. That week ended with another internal battle also ending in my just wanting to go home. I was talking to my small group at our listening seminar and as soon as those words came out of my mouth I followed them right up with "I'm NOT GOING HOME!" the most relieving thing a the end of the week seems to be a good fist on a piece of furniture with those words flying out of my mouth. Once they're said it's like peace just comes over me.

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
James 4:7

Well, the fourth week ended well. I still had a moment when I had to decide to stay but it wasn't as hard to convince myself. I just end up seeing those as huge signs from God that something absolutely amazing will happen this summer if I just hang in there and listen to Him. At the end of this week the summer will be almost half over, and when I think of that I think that every day brings me closer to what He has planned. And if nothing else I will have learned amazing things this summer, because He's teaching me day in, day out.

Pray for unity among our team. We're finding it hard to rely on each other because none of us know each other very well, but we're starting to see the big picture.

Pray that we have people return to the barbeques.

Pray that those on campus can talk to more people and form a bible study.

Pray that we spend this summer hanging on His presence.

Thank you for being there for me this summer,
Faith Hall

Posted by at 09:45 PM | Comments (1)

SALT Teachings!

Hey Everyone! We have the SALT Teachings online!!!

(Right click and choose save as)

They are provided/hosted by Cramer Development at Rockisu.com/SALT

Posted by paul at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2005

Monday Morning

Well, we are all still alive. Let me tell you about this past week.

Rob and Sue Gerber were here to hang out with us. Rob gave a couple of great messages on living life as a unmarried and God's presence. They should be up on the web site within the next week. Check them out! Great stuff even if you are already married.
Chicago Art Institute
Christie and I escaped to the Chicago Art Institute. It was a lot of fun and the swords were cool. I still don't understand most modern "art" and have subsequently discovered that most art tour guides annoy me.

Mike and SteveFriday brought back our BBQ outreach. Even though we didn't have anyone show up whom we invited throughout the week we were able to talk to several people from the bus stop. Mike was able to talk to a guy named Steve for quite a while. Steve was headed out to LA.

The youngest SALTerJust like last week we were squeezed for time because we had Theophostic training starting at 7:30. Something that did add excitement to the night, however, was the guest’s we had from out of town. Tony, Kirsten, Madeline, Libby, Autumn and Sarah came from Ames and Eric and Ambre showed from IC. So it was a good time.

Please continue to pray that we are able to connect with people here. We met and/or seen a lot of people stop by our BBQ's but we haven't had anyone really plug in and come back.

Posted by paul at 10:29 AM | Comments (3)

June 07, 2005

Our Week

Well it has been a busy week here at SALT. We had Rick Beemer out here from Michigan Wednesday through Saturday giving us lots of information on counseling and listening.

BBQ#3But first our latest Friday outreach BBQ! We were rather tentative this week with out time because we had a seminar Friday night but we decided to go for it. Unfortunately none of our invitees showed but we did have a chance to meet a girl who was wandering through the little patch of grass that we claim for our weekly meals. Her name was Connie and she was just passing through the area going from Germany to South Dakota (like so many people do). She was headed out in a little while so if your in South Dakota and run into a German Girl named Connie that’s probably her.

Our TrainersSaturday we continued our Apples of Gold listening class with our excellent facilitators Rick, Leslie and Dawne. We all became a lot more sensitive. Or at least I did. Hopefully.

Bowling 3Then we went bowling with Glen Arbor. It was good to get out of the classroom and do something. I am a terrible bowler but it was still fun and I got some good pictures.

Posted by paul at 09:45 AM | Comments (3)

June 03, 2005

teply Update

So the teply is at salt. How fun is that? Anyways, i am just saying what i have been up to. it has been rough, with my fear of heights and living on the third floor, walking up outside to get to it, to understanding half of the words my workers say (little knowledge of spanish), to, for some reason, not being able to sleep much. Honestly, i am physically and spirtually drained and we are only one fourth done. The hardest part of any race is the last third, and i am not even there yet. But we all need to keep our eyes on the prize at the end of the race. That can be a miny update for now, which might be the only update for some time since i don't know how often i will have time to blog on this, along with how much i will remember to. Take care everyone...

~teply

Posted by at 05:29 PM | Comments (2)

June 01, 2005

Re: Prayer

Amy WinksHey! Amy Barret needs some prayer support. She accepted a job two weeks ago that told her that she would start training last Wednesday. She showed up then and ended up only doing paper work. She was told to come back yesterday to start. She showed yesterday and was told that because of construction delays (I think) that she wasn't needed until next week.

So pray that this job works out for Amy or that a temp agency gets back to her pronto on another job. Pray that she is depending on God during this time. Amy needs to make money this summer to enable her to live in the dorms next year. God got her here under miraculous circumstances now she needs him again. Join us in praying for her.

It's also Amy's birthday today!

Posted by paul at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)

SALT Birthdays!!!

It was Emily's 23rd yesterday!
It's Amy's 19th today!
It will be Ben's 22nd tomorrow!
Email them your congratulations!

Posted by paul at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)