Chicago was one of the best trips I have been on by far! For starters it is an amazing city and the fact that I got to experience it with all of my friends was just the cherry on top! 
Every summer my young adults group, Doulos goes on a missions trip and it has been laid on the heart of our leader to target the major cities in the United States.  This summer, it was beautiful Chicago! What is so cool about Chicago is that around every corner, you feel like you are in a completely new and different part of the City.  There is Wrigleyville which is crazy because there are so many games going on, then you walk down a block and you have the more hipster stores and eateries and everybody is all about the new thing, you walk down a block in the opposite direction and it is more of a family area with more laid back restaurants.  There are so many different people groups in all the little areas of Chicago also and it is really awesome to see so many sides of one city!

   
 We spent 4th of July here and we went to this park that has about 4 or 5 different baseball fields that represent the different neighborhoods in that area and they have a huge battle to see who's neighborhood can put on the best firework show.  It was a loud night to say the least!






This trip was the most amazing time to show the people of Chicago how much Jesus loves them and desires to have a relationship with them! I was able to see a lot of growth in our team and a lot of people come to know the Lord on this trip! 




Like I was saying before, there was a lot of growth in this team.  Last year I was scared to go up to people and just flat out start telling them about Jesus so I kind of just stuck in the background and prayed for other conversations that my team was having but, this year was a whole other story for me.  This year before heading out to Chicago I was praying for the Lord to use me on this trip and to grow me and man I tell ya He definitely answered this prayer! When we got to Chicago I noticed that I was a lot more bold in my faith personally and had become more bold to go up to a person and just introduce myself and tell them how much the Lord loves them.  Later in the week our leader Tony asked me to share a devotional with our team of 29 people and I was able to share with them how the Lord was growing me in boldness, all because I asked Him to and then I allowed Him to work through me!  Overall great trip filled with growth and so much fun!! It all makes me that much more excited for next years trip to Seattle! 

Let me know in the Comments how you guys have served in your area or some cool things happening in your lives! I hope you guys have a great rest of the week and I will talk to you real soon! 

♡Sam