day eighteen

Can money prove anything in today's world? Basically, this is what we discussed today as we prepare to see how different cultures relate or view money in their culture. Once again, exercises were done trying to get us to see how fortunate we are in the country that God has placed us in. We complain because we dont have the latest iPod version, or the newest computer, when, the majority of the children around the world dont even have 1, 2 or 3 pairs of shoes!

Walking around "Uptown," the neighborhood in Chicago that we live in, was our assignment for the day. "Take pictures of anything you find that deal with money." Um..ok?! So basically, just go take 25 pictures of anything and we could be done. So, we took out, walked around and suddenly, I honestly dont know how this happened, I found myself at the checkout counter of McDonalds, and then Unique Thrift Store. Instead of taking pictures of money, I was using it! Nothing makes an assignment better than two hashbrown patties from Mcdy's and a new Cubs shirt for 2 bucks! Steal of a deal and killer assignment. Without it, and my sweet new shirt, I would be doing laundry today instead of sometime in the near future.

During the afternoon, we volunteered our time around JPUSA, serving them in a fashion that we will be in Bolivia, China or England. Karsten, a Bolivia team mate, and I chose to clean up the playground area, grilling area, and the basketball court! Never thought it had much trash in it until I was the one going around a sweeping it all up! Good Grief children! That is what trash cans are for. When I have a kid, this is the FIRST lesson I will teach them!

day seventeen

Waking up is often the hardest thing for me to do in a day. Well, actually, for those of you who have lived with me, you will disagree as I often exit my bedroom screaming, shouting, and just excited that God spared me another night! However, with the lack of sleep I get here in Chicago, it IS indeed, hard for me to wake up.

The morning started BRIGHT and early at 9 AM with Del Hershberger, from Hesston, Kanasas, leading us on a discussion about culture. The first part of this happened to be a 2 hour movie called, The Mission. I wish I could tell you what this was about, BUT, I happened to fall asleep through the entire thing. What else is to happen when you watch a movie at 9 AM? Ask everyone else in the group, and apparently you are to just stay awake and watch it. Guess I didnt get the memo.

Since I was out on that exercise from minute one, I will focus on the rest of the day. My favorite part. Free time. This free time was a little different. Drama filled the empty space between the four walls that we call home. Who would have known drama would happen when you mix boys and girls from different walks of life and tell them to live together? Not this guy. Thought we were all mature adults, but, looks like we (notice "I" am a part of "we") might have a little bit of growing up to do!

This picture is getting away from drama!

day sixteen

What is hospitality? That is what we were asked through our crusted-over eyes as we sat in a park somewhere extremely far from our house at 9 o'clock this morning. Why we had to wake up and be at this park so extremely early to hear that simple sentence, we may never know, but, I suppose we are the ones who signed up for this program.

Go into the city and show people hospitality! This was our directions for todays activities. Hospitality? What? How? Exactly! So, we took off. Everyone got right back on the train that we had just rode an hour, to ride the same hour back towards our "house" only backwards. The most pointless, early morning trek, I have, and probably will ever make. That is until next week when they make us do another activity that no one here understands except the master minds who are in Elkhart, IN!

Jacob, Nate (team China) and myself took off. Jacob led us way up north to his church, Living Water Community Church. He told us they could use help cleaning the floors. Their janitor is an African refugee, trying to support her family of 3 children, therefore, the church hired her as a janitor. Luck went against her as she recently broke her leg in 2 spots, suspending her from work for 4 months. To keep her family supported, the church took on doing her responsibilities, but still paying her the wages promised. So, we were hospitable and took those duties, sweeping, mopping and cleaning up the bathrooms, hallways, and kitchen. It seriously was a great day. Makes sitting inside listening to speakers seem boring...but it didnt take today to let me know that!!!

After cleaning, Jacob's mom (his family lives just across the street) cooked us up the most amazing Pad Thai I have ever had, as well as made a batch of home made salsa that would make any Mexican (not a racist joke, but they like salsa...well...they serve it at every Mexican restaurant I have been to) jealous. Simply amazing!!!

day fifteen

day fourteen

Noon. My first glimpse of Saturday. Many people enjoy the juicy CRUNCH of biting into a granny smith apple, the intense heat on your face at the beach, or the savory smell coming from the oven as scents from fresh baked pie floods a kitchen, but none of these come close to the beauty of sleeping until lunchtime. Especially after a looong week at work!

So this couch is where I have slept every night that I have been in Chicago, except for two nights that I slept in Ace's (Nate Kelly) bed. (I will be quick to tell you that Ace was no where close to the bed at the time I was sleeping!) To this day, I havent even laid in my bed here. The couch has proven to support my legs and head at once. The tiny mattresses here support about from my shoulders to mid calf. I feel like they bought them straight from Willy Wonkas hotel for Oompa-Loompas.

Today, this couch served as more than just a bed or a seat, but as a best friend. Well, one of them. I partied all day today with my three best friends in Chicago: my couch, my computer and my sketchbook/pencils. While I am not impressed or eager to share this fact, it is the truth. Maybe 1 hour was spent today off of it, which was to get lunch, supper, bathroom breaks and fighting with Ace. However, at the end of the day if you lay your head on your pillow (or arm rest) and have a smile on your face, then that day was a success! Guess what.....I'm still smiling!

day thirteen

Jesus. How do we interpret him? What does he look like? Can he be black? Can he be Chinese? What about a ripped Jamaican man with dread locks? These are all questions we explore with James Krabill this morning. It was quite interesting wondering how all the different cultures in the world depict Jesus.

In the afternoon session today, each country was packed away into separate rooms to meet with our country advisors or leaders. I am not sure what to call them. However, Bolivia me with a woman named Linda Shelly who has spent the majority of her life in South America and in the Latin American culture. It was so exciting listening to her talk about the different parts of the culture and what to expect. I cant believe how excited I am now to actually get there, but I have to wait for like 15 more days. It will come soon enough though.

For this evening, we group went out and took the EL and city buses to get to a place called, "Margie's Candies." It was like an old creamery or something with tons of different flavors and topping for ice cream. Different orders from our group contained such as a giant banana split, milk shakes, sundaes, dished of ice cream, and a half gallon "worlds largest sundae" eaten by Nate Kelly, one of the members going to China. The only question is why?

day twelve

Seminary. This word is something that should not even be in my vocabulary. The only reason I should ever know anything about seminary is because I lived with my brother Jeremy while he was attending seminary. Continuously, I would come home to find him doing homework, studying, researching (all the above) just for one class, then reading a book like War and Peace for another one. And this was just for Monday night! I would never dream of going to seminary. Well...today, seminary was brought to me. One of the teachers, James Krabill, came to Chicago to talk to us about peace and evangelism.

Now I had no idea who this guy was when he walked in. However, I felt like he had his scope right on my forehead. He could tell I was a Shue from the minute he saw me. And if he didnt, he knew the minute I opened my mouth. "I am Isaac Shue from Harper, Kansas, and I just graduated from Goshen College."

"Oh, a brother to Jeremy I am guessing. You are the one that I had to cancel class last year so Jeremy could go to your graduation, huh?"

Isnt THIS what you want the guest speaker to say the first time he talks to you. Awesome!

During the evening I had the chance to return to, and explore the Chicago Art Institute. It is always fun to visit, but after seeing the paintings look the exact same, I find myself getting bored and springing through the exhibits to get out. However, this time, I tried to take interesting photos of the art, making a bit of my own.

day eleven and a half

As I write these updates each day, I sit and wonder where exactly they are being read, and who exactly is reading what I write. It would be good to know as I continue on this adventure, who is actually taking time to follow along with my adventures. If you wouldnt mind doing this RIGHT NOW so you dont forget, open a new window and just send me a quick email (to the following address) saying who you are and where you are at. Also, being in Bolivia with limited internet access and time, it will allow me to have the addresses of those who are following so if I decide to send a group email at some time, you would be included on this.

Gracias my awesome followers :)

adidashue@gmail.com

day eleven

Discussion, discussion and more discussion. This is starting to be the theme for this week. As for last week we discovered the city and learned about it. This week, I feel that we are discovering each other's inside colors and learning about that. Makes me wonder what the next two weeks will involve. Will we finally discuss and learn about the cultures we are going to be serving in? Doubtful...

As we huddled in our living room, each person in a different mindset, we are forced to discuss, in depth, different questions. Now, to throw people together and FORCE them to converse about deep subjects at a given time is no way to get anything productive done. These things have to come in on their own. Instead, I feel like I sat through an awkward session on people feeling like they had to share thoughts an opinions to make someone of greater authority happy that we are "getting along." In all reality, the conversation seemed to put me in a different mindset about a lot of the situations we debate about than the mindsets of the other participants.

I feel that tensions were a bit high near the end, and everyone wanted to do their own things. A China team member and myself escaped to catch the El downtown and go hit up Shed Aquarium. However, when we got there, they wanted me to fork over 35 hard earned dollars. We were prepared for 25, but the simple increase of $10 is a bit much to ask. I may sound cheap, but, in all reality, I am. While the day was not wasted, we found many new areas to attempt getting a good image of the cityscape of downtown Chicago.

day ten

As the day come to a start, it was another day full of discussion about life and the adventures that we have had with God on our side. As I sat listening, I heard questions about religion and life that many friends and I have discussed at college, as well as even some of the same thoughts that I have wrestled with in my walk. I started noticing (I had noticed earlier, but never really thought about it) that my entire group is at a stage in life I was in 6 years ago as I was entering college. I realized that the year, with the group, will be more of a year of helping others compared to be the one learning. Of course I will learn from these individuals as well, but, at this point it is hard to see this part.

For an evening activity, we went to a local nonprofit that helps male prostitutes and heard some of their stories about life on the street and having to sell themselves to other men for money just to "stay alive." It was a very interesting evening, and made me realize something I never had been exposed to in this crazy world! At the end, they passed out business cards and books of matches that had their name, logo and address all over them. Now lets think about this, what happens when you give 12 20-year olds a book of matches each? Nothing good comes from it. We wasted almost every pack we had trying to light every match and get a quality picture of someone holding it in their mouth! Of course I had to join in...

day nine

I once heard it is hard to know where you are going, unless you know where you have been. (pretty sure it was from the movie HITCH. who would have known will smith could actually teach a good life lesson huh?) I feel that this really came to use, as Radical Journey requires us to share our life and faith stories and adventures in front on the people on our country team. This has always been something that is hard for me to do. Not physically hard, but emotionally. I have no problem talking, which I am sure that most of you know, but, the hard part comes when I try to hide my emotional side that I feel is a weakness! It was good to let these emotions out and letting my group know that I am not the "hardass" that I am sure my personality has led on. Just the other day the group was talking about crying, and the last time they had. Darrell, the director, looked at me and made some comment close to the following. "I bet it takes quite a bit to get you to cry, huh?" If he only knew!

As my story started pouring out of my mouth, my adventures in Miami and memories started coming into my thoughts about my boys down there sand where they are at today, and how they are living in such a place that most cant even imagine. As the words came, so did the tears, and then I looked up in the back of the room and saw some artwork that I had not noticed yet since being here at JPUSA. And as I looked at this artwork, I noticed that the lamps said "Love," "Faith" and "Hope," and then had the trinity symbol cut out of the bottom. Just below them were the two paintings that were bursting with color and seemed to be shouting stories! I dont know exactly what it was, if anything, that God was trying to say, but it gave me such a peace for the coming year as I just sat and stared at these paintings while my eyes dried up and continued on with sharing my journey!

day eight

The first day of sleeping in and really relaxing. After becoming full conscious about noon and hitting up some rice and beans for lunch, a group was walking down the street a few blocks to the beach. Who woulda ever known that there was a beach in Chicago? I have known it was on a HUGE lake since the first time I saw it on a map, HOWEVER, I just never really thought about a city in the middle of the country, no where near an ocean, having a beach.

Each group was supposed to go to a designated church that spoke the language that would be spoke in their future immersion location. China started at 10:30 AM and England started at 4 PM. Bolivia was unaware of what time we went to church so instead of looking, I just decided to go to the beach with England. I was there just enough time to take a picture of the 34532 dogs in attendance and then receive a phone call saying out church started in and hour and took longer than that to get there.

Basically, I ran back to the house, quickly showered and the team bolted as fast as we could to our church and made it only five minutes late. The service is usually only in Spanish, but, due to five caucasian English speakers walking in to a church of 12 people, one of them decided to translate for us. I was glad, because my Spanish is not quite to the point it needs to be for the coming year, but soon it will be there!

day seven

As everyone was getting ready in the morning, were was a silent chill in the air. Settling in is over as this is starting to feel more like a permanent home. We are starting to just go about life only in a new place which is awesome!

Or maybe it was the man none of us knew sitting on our couch awkwardly playing a game on his iPod touch. When a group is comfortable together and you throw in a new variable such as this, it always takes away the original comfort. This particular man was the man who was going to blindfold us all, lock us in his van, and drive us to a part of the city that we had no idea where it was. And the sick part of this, is that we knew he was there to do this and we ALL were going to go along with this. He was the husband of one of the directors and it was his role to test our ability to get around this city using public transportation. As country teams, we were going to be dropped off after being drove around the city while wearing a t-shirt around our head covering our eyes. After being in the car for an hour, feeling like I would puke at any moment from not being able to see, the said we were at our "location" and we were free to get out and get home. And he left. As our blindfolds came off Jacob took 5 seconds and said, "Awesome, I know right where we are. We are REAL far away, but this is easy, lets go!"

They can try and trick team Bolivia, but must realize, you have to try and drop us somewhere other than 3o feet from a bus stop WITH a map on the sign...

day six

Mennonite Mission Network was very well represented today in our house, as 3 people (other than our leaders) came to finally meet the people that they have been emailing with. We had continuous meetings today from 10 AM until about 3 PM about how to openly communicate with each other as a complete group. While quite boring, it was good to have an open time with everyone on a neutral level about group living.

In the afternoon, they gave us advice on how to write a blog that keeps people interested. I think I might start that tomorrow, as I would rather just write tonight what I had planned. When free time finally started, after supper, as a group we decided to go downtown and see Paramount Pictures filming their new hit, Transformers 3. We saw a few famous people, as well as a few awesome cars! I have never seen any of these movies, so it was like seeing a random person in a sweet car in Chicago. No big deal.

We also took time to go back to a favorite spot of the group, the bean, and take a few night photos of what people experience with this awesome place down town. This particular picture was taken by JD Nafziger, one of the group members going to Bolivia with me.

day five

Finding ourselves lost in a place more like the one that we are about to be immersed in, each group was to experience a day exploring a similar neighborhood. Going to Bolivia, we were given directions to a neighborhood known as "Little Village," a local Mexican neighborhood. This particular area reminded me a lot of m days in Miami living on Calle Ocho in Little Havanah. Everything here was in Spanish, giving us our first day of being culturally "lost." While we walked through the streets, I took the opportunity to look at the signs and start learning a bit of Spanish, trying to translate them into English, or just figure out what they were trying to say. It was a bit tricky at first, but with the group, we never found a sign we couldn't read.

We ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, decked out in all sorts of Mexican decorations, especially the colors of the flag: red, white and green. We sat outside the restaurant for just a bit to decide if we were going to talk in Spanish or English, but as we walked in, everyone greeted us in English not giving us a chance to practice up. I stuffed myself with chips, salsa and tamales then headed out for a little more exploring, then home for a much needed siesta!

day four

Today was another day of scavenger hunts, however, we brought along another member with our group, The Bible. Our goal was to read Psalm 30 in three different spots in the city: an El station, a local public park, and a federal building (ours was a huge on downtown). This exercise put us in a different setting for publicly being "Christian" than we have ever really experienced. Afterwards, we had a day of free time in which most of the group decided to catch the El back downtown to a local tourist-trap known as "Navy Pier." Here there are many rides, restaurants and stores for people to venture to. Tonight they also had fireworks to celebrate us being in town! :) This is a picture of the enormous Ferris Wheel they have that takes you above everything with a great view of the skyline of downtown Chicago. A view I was not about to pay $9 to see!

day three

Getting out, getting lost and finding out way is almost a theme for the following year for each group participating. Finding our own way once or twice is inevitable. To help us out with is, the directors have put together a list of destinations throughout the city that we were supposed to find. Having Jacob, the Chicago native, in our group, it really helps us out for this month and getting around as we do everything in our country groups. Keeping this in mind, we usually finish our "scavenger hunts" of the city quite quickly and allow ourselves free time to explore the city. Being downtown, we figured we may as well explore the sights that everyone tags with Chicago. This is actually one of my favorite spots in Chicago. While lots of friends would suggest Wrigley Field (cubs), U.S. Cellular field (white sox), United Center (bulls and blackhawks) or maybe the Sears Tower (which now has some other unknown name), I would suggest this area to anyone as it is in the middle of the art district. Chicago Art Institute is right next door, and the Contemporary Art Museum is just up the road. This particular sculpture is known around the world as "the bean" (Cloud Gate) and is in Millineum Park. Millions of people have taken their picture in the reflection, which is naturally distorted due to the bend of the sculpture. So, like every other tourist, we did the same!

day two

Today was a day of just getting to know the community we are living in. While it is considered "Chicago" to the world, we are in a part called Uptown. I wish I could give the demographics of everything around here, but to be 100% honest, I didn't pay that much attention as I would rather focus my time on learning about Bolivia. The following picture is of our flat behind JPUSA. The bottom level is ours. The second and third floor is for the single men that are a part of the community here in Chicago. As we have rode the El (elevated train) around Chicago, I have noticed that this is the particular style of building for apartments that are around the area. However, they are much closer together than shown in this particular picture.

day one

We are all shacked up together at Jesus People USA, and intentional community North of downtown Chicago. There are about 400 people living here who all live, eat and work together day to day. They have been based out of Chicago, and successfully (yet, not always easily) living together for around 30 years here.

Radical Journey and its 12 participants are all living together in a flat behind the "hotel" that houses JPUSA. This is a part of the group all sitting in our living room getting accustomed with each other and living in our own community.

the journey begins

As my cousins dropped me off outside a large, shady looking building just North of downtown Chicago, I see a fellow Bolivia member that I "met" on facebook and know I am at the right place. Not quite the "hotel" I was thinking, and no sign indicating that I was at Jesus People USA, however, this is a year of unknown experiences, so why not go with it?

The journey in Chicago is off at full speed, jammed packed with so much learning and expectations that I now see why I have to be here a full month compared to just a week before I head to Bolivia. (not) I feel this is the most unnecessary month of my life so far, as we have had nothing but a few activities, and HOURS of free time each day to get to know the city of Chicago (which I will be leaving in less than a month, so why not use this month getting to know Santa Cruz that much better?) However, maybe it is more vital to those who have not been away from home as much as I have, and need a boost start in a city more comfortable compared to just kicking them out from under moms wing to the streets of Santa Cruz.

Speaking of this, my group consists of four 18 year olds, straight off the graduation stage of High School, and me. I was worried about that when I came, not knowing what to expect on maturity levels, however, I have been more than impressed with these four that I will be traveling with for a year.

Jacob Putnam is a Laotian guy who has spent his entire life just 10 minutes North of here. Great guy who is almost as funny as me. He will get there after I influence him for the next year.

JD Nafsiger just graduated from Bethany High School and is a younger brother of a friend from college. It will be fun to get to know him better as he is very outgoing.

Karsten Hess graduated with JD from Bethany. He is a more quiet individual but we are already getting comfortable together and I am persuading him to the dark side already. This guy is going to be awesome to have with me.

Gloria Showalter is straight from Pennsylvania, which I am trying not to hold against her! At first I expected her to be shy, but she is proving to be able to hang out with four guys and do it just fine.

Altogether, we are by far the best group in Radical Journey, as team China and team England cant quite seem to keep up with us. If this were a reality TV show, we would simply be "voting them off the island" one by one by one! No competition.

Hopefully this will introduce you a bit to my life for the next year. I will continue to update the blog, but I am going to try to do more of a photo based blog, actually SHOWING people life, compared to writing it. After all, I do have a degree in art compared to writing. This doesn't mean I won't try to show off my writing skills every once and a while.

So for the next year, sit back, relax, and come along with me to Bolivia!!!