By The Hand: "Graduating a Generation of Hope"

On April 2, we took the scenic route on our way to a nonprofit organization called By the Hand club for kids. When we arrived, a few of their lovely workers informed us of the goals of the organization. According to a pamphlet we were given, "By the Hand is a Chicago-based, after-school program that emphasizes academic excellence while nurturing the whole child - mind, body and soul. Located within some of America's most under-resourced, high-risk neighborhoods, By the Hand helps kids have abundant life." The kids go to the 4 sites every day, after school until seven o'clock. They have homework time, enrichment time, chapel time, and dinner time.

We were put to work washing walls, washing windowsills, and picking up trash outside. They wanted everything to look nice for the kids they serve. We worked hard all morning and were given instruction from one of our By the Hand helpers, Brooke, to go eat lunch at an Indian/Pakistani restaurant called Baba's Palace. We ate and ate and ate. SUCH good food!

We walked back through the bustling Chicago traffic and were lucky enough to see the organization in action. We played with some of the kids in their gym - soccer, jump rope, tag, everything! The kids were on spring break, but came to the site to prepare for a concert and we got to see them sing. We loved hearing the altos, sopranos, and tenors sing loud and clear! The soloists were fantastic. We learned an awesome new chant while we were there.. "G-DOUBLE O, D, J - O - B! Good job, good job! Say whaaaat?" - ask any of our AWOL family to reenact that one for you and they'd be willing!

As we were driving home that evening, we encountered a homeless man on the street. His sign read, "Homeless Vietnam Vet, please help" and we all felt many strong feelings as we saw his eyes turned down and his taped prosthetic leg.

We came back to the church and delivered Resurrection Sunday materials to the neighborhood. We definitely learned some of the streets of Chicago, were weary of dogs, and got the chance to talk to many different people.

We followed up with a family dinner and a reflection and discussion of how each thing that we encountered that day affected us.

All in all - a good day full of service, learning, and not to mention - Ben Stone came to visit! We all fall into bed pretty quickly these days.. g'night all!