Training

 Training at International Teams has been great....overwhelming at times...but truly great.  We have been here 9 days now and are staying at an on campus apartment with all the other workers in training who are heading to;
Austria, Bolivia, Russia, Turkey and Mexico.
Our classroom is part of the same building, so we can grab our coffee and walk down the hall to class! Christian, Chloe, Trayton and Kidist are in a childcare program during our time in class. We begin at 8am, have a lunch break from 12-1:30 and finish the day anywhere from 4-6pm. Our kids have loved our time here, which is a real blessing. Some of the things we have learned in class are LifeMap (life experiences,spiritual gifts,strengths,meyer briggs), Theology of Atonement, Field Crisis Management, Spiritual Warfare, Islam and the Gospel.....   We each had personal interviews with a psychologist to go over the psychological testing we did during the application process.


 This past week we also spent a day at an muslim outreach center in downtown Chicago where they taught us more about Islam...we later visited the mosque..and went back to the center for debriefing. It was difficult to see SOOOO many people that have so many similarities in their beliefs and yet are missing Jesus. I am still trying to process everything with this....  Friday afternoon at 1pm, this mosque was packed with men, women, and children of all races and all social classes. After looking into the big brown eyes of a little boy who was probably 8, I was overwhelmed to pray for the Holy Spirit to move in that place and in the hearts of those there who are so deceived. It was heartbreaking. We also learned about the amazing ways God has been at work in the Mulim world, in areas that not easily accessible to people from the outside.


Sunday, we went to a Spanish church in the inner city of Chicago that is rated number 2 for the number of Gangs in the country. There is an Iteams ministry that is taking place here and we were able to hear more about this particular ministry.


Today we spent the afternoon learning about Hinduism and visited a Hindu Temple.


This is just a brief overview of all we are doing and learning here!! As you can see, our heads and hearts are FULL!  I will send pictures later of our time here.


On our way home from the Mosque on Friday, we received the news of our friend
ELLEN VANOSS, that she finished her race here on earth. We will be leaving here tomorrow morning to celebrate her life with her family and friends at Remembrance Reformed in Walker. Ellen and Jack are dear friends of ours who walked by our side during our time dealing with breast cancer. Ellen was a breast cancer fighter for the past 3+ years. She was an amazing wife and mother. She ran her race with her eyes on Christ. We were able to see her a week before her death and I will never forget her words "I am getting a new body and I can't wait." She had an unexplainable peace and assurance of where she was heading. She knew that the things of this earth are temporary and Christ is what it is all about. Please pray for her husband Jack and for their children Seth and Emmarie as they grieve the loss of her.