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21 March 2010

Spring "Break"

Hello family and friends!
We are so sorry it has taken so long to update our blog! Please forgive us!
These past few weeks have been full of events over spring break (and even before), we could hardly have called this "spring break"!
Our slideshow below will hopefully help you see what we have been up to over the past several weeks.
The slideshow begins with Micah's volunteering at WorldVision before Moody's Service in the City. We also celebrated our friend Michael's birthday late last month. This was followed by Moody's annual Service in the City (also Lauren's birthday and our anniversary)! Micah co-led a group at Sonshine Gospel Ministry where we were able to reach out and interact with the local community. The next day Micah took Lauren downtown to celebrate her bday and anniversary. During spring break Micah was very busy at work as they prepared to help with Moody radio's (WMBI's) "Share 2010" event, where the radio needed to raise funds to support their ministry for this year. Micah and his co-workers went to Five Guys to hang out one day after work (of course Lauren came with)! After dinner we introduced them all to geocaching! It was so much fun!
Later that week we went with a couple of Micah's friends to see AVATAR in 3D at the IMAX! It was the very last show at the IMAX and was totally sold out! We had the best seats in the house though! Not only that, but there were 2 empty seats in the very middle that no one ever claimed (which was very odd)! We also only paid 8 bucks for parking (versus the normal 24 needed to park at Navy Pier)! CSF went on their spring break trip to PA, but stopped to visit us and spend the night going there and coming home. We were blessed to have breakfast with the group at an Algerian crepe place near the church! Check out the sweet pictures of some of those crepes!
With all of this going on, Micah has been doing a lot of studying for school, drilling with the Army (just last weekend at the 863rd), and volunteering at First Free, helping with their website. We are blessed to be so involved with our church, community, school, and life. We are also both looking forward to a real "break" sometime - hopefully the time between the end of school (sometime in May) and Micah's 42 days at CH-BOLC.
Thank you all once again for your prayers, kind letters, encouraging emails, random acts of kindness through surprise gifts, and for your loving support. We don't know where we would be if it wasn't for God giving us friends and family like you.
Love you guys a bunch!
- M&L


01 March 2010

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend - Lauren's birthday and Moody's Service in the City were awesome!
On Friday night, we drove around Chicago using Lauren's birthday coupons good for free stuff - free dinner, dessert, and coffee! On Saturday we got up early and headed for Moody. There we met up with our service team and went to Sunshine Gospel Mission. We got a tour of the facility - the mission offers tutoring, after-school care, awana, an entrepreneurial program for teens, a computer room with free internet access and free computer classes. They're doing construction to have low-cost apartments built above the mission and adding on a cafe'.

The mission sent about 20 of us Moody students to different areas in the Woodlawn neighborhood to survey people on the street about their neighborhood and technology needs. We also gave out hot chocolate and cookies. For some it was an opportunity to share the gospel and encourage Woodlawn residents to attend a local church. We experienced some things that were very encouraging and some things that were rather heartbreaking.

In the evening, we gathered with all the other Moody students who had gone off to do other service projects - about 225 people! Each team presented what they'd done that day - some student experienced a life-changing day and were blessed to tell several people about Jesus and who accepted Him as their savior!

On Sunday, we witnessed 5 people be baptized at church - it was a joyous event that lasted the whole service! Micah then took Lauren out for a fabulous lunch downtown where they also walked to Navy Pier.

It was a busy, but a wonderful weekend!
(Pictures to come!)