I didn't have time to take a daily log of this mission trip, but I can at least summarize the week. The idea started with Jessica, one of the interns at Cornerstone, who is originally from Illinois. She drew upon her knowledge of her home state to organize a mission trip there for this year's spring break. In the end, I found the trip both fun and more deeply rewarding.
There were three main stages to our trip, each lasting two days. The first two days, Sunday and Monday, we stayed at Jessica's home in Springfield and worked at both St. John's Breadline and Kumler United Methodist Church. The next two days, we went to Urbana-Champaign and stayed at Faith United Methodist Church. While there, we worked through empty tomb, inc. on various mission projects. Finally, we went to Chatham on Thursday to work at the Methodist Midwest Distribution Center for the last two days of our trip.
Jessica's family showed us wonderful hospitality over the first two days, and our work was quite rewarding. We spent Sunday morning and afternoon at the breadline, serving lunch from 11:00am to 2:00pm. We served over 280 people, plus ourselves. Then we went to Kumler UMC to help with cleanup in preparation for some remodeling. We also saw their food and clothing bank, and then on Monday morning we worked there. We served supper at the breadline that day, and though I didn't get an exact number, I know we served less people than on Sunday. This was normal because, first, they don't serve supper on Sundays (which intensifies their lunch crowd), and second, they usually see less people for supper than lunch anyway. In fact, Sunday wasn't even one of their peak days: traffic intensifies toward the end of the month as paychecks and food stamps run out.
We drove the hour and a half to Urbana-Champaign on Monday night after stopping at a Springfield restaurant, where each of us had a horseshoe, a unique Springfield dish consisting of meat (usually hamburger) on bread, covered with fries and cheese sauce. Upon our arrival in Urbana-Champaign, we settled in at the church and bought groceries for the coming day. I was reminded then and many times later in the trip how difficult it is to plan meals in a group while trying to address each person's preferences. Over the following two days, we did quite a variety of work. Tuesday morning we helped deliver furniture (primarily mattresses and box-springs) from people willing to donate it to people in need of it; Tuesday afternoon we worked at the clothing bank in the empty tomb building. This clothing bank was similar to Goodwill in that people were invited to drop off clothes and other items at a back door, while others in need of them could come in and browse, but in this store all items were "free in the name of Jesus," a catchphrase used widely at empty tomb. At the very end of the day, we briefly met a family in need of major home repairs (and in the process of getting those repairs with the help of empty tomb). We came back on Wednesday and worked in their garage, sorting through all kinds of debris and gathering up everything that was undeniably trash to be thrown away. We left that garage a vastly more sanitary place than we found it, and we probably cleared enough space to park a vehicle in, at least after some rearrangement of the items we left. That afternoon, some of us went back to sorting clothes while I went with a few others to help prepare mailings for the organization. I believe we managed to get through nearly 2000 of them by the end of the day. Wednesday night we visited Cunningham Children's Home, a center that takes care of troubled children, and each of us gave a short speech during their worship service. Following that, we went to a Wednesday night service at the Wesley Foundation at the University of Illinois. It was a small, student-run service that usually brings in a congregation of 20 or so. While we're lucky to have that many people on Sunday at Cornerstone, this group's Sunday service averages 250 attendees. Apparently, they have gone through lean times just as we are now, but recently they have made a stunning recovery. I was glad to be a part of their Wednesday service and to meet some of the students involved.
Thursday morning we made the drive back to Chatham. I say "back" because Chatham is all but attached to Springfield, a mere 15 minute drive away. The Midwest Distribution Center there is located on a nice, large piece of property. Besides the main office and attached warehouse, the center also includes housing for some of the volunteers running the operation (everybody working there is a volunteer except for one full-time secretary), a woodworking shop, a gift shop, and an eight-room dormitory for volunteers who have come temporarily to help out. The dormitory with its two bunk beds per room was a welcome change from sleeping on the floor at the church, particularly since we slept two to a room. This distribution center is one of at least four in the US, and it sends disaster relief supplies worldwide. Both Thursday and Friday I helped build desks for poor, war-torn African countries. Most of the time I was in the woodworking shop drilling holes, cutting desk tops and seats, and assembling the desks, but on Thursday afternoon I did spend some time sanding and finishing the desks in the warehouse. I enjoyed myself thoroughly: woodworking is a hobby that I am fond of but rarely get an opportunity to practice. After finishing our work on Friday night, we went to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Jessica's old high school. We were going to leave right away on Saturday morning, but since we didn't have a chance to see it earlier in the week, we stopped at the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield before beginning our journey back to Lincoln, Nebraska. It was quite an experience, and I learned a few things about Lincoln that were completely new to me. Our visit to the library was a satisfying end to our visit to Illinois.