Chicago inner-City immersion trip

This fall break, 15 John Brown University students embarked on a journey to discover the Chicago culture for themselves. And they came home with more questions than answers.

Two sophomores, three juniors and ten seniors, including senior Dan Bolger, leader of Student Ministry Leadership Team and student leader for the trip, were selected for the Chicago Inner-City Immersion Trip. The students, along with team leader Frank Huebert, director of discipleship, and his wife, Coleen, spent four days in the city, immersing themselves in several diverse cultures.

The team stayed in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago in a house run by International Teams, an urban and ethnic ministry in the Windy City. The ministry is led in part by Mark Soderquist, brother of JBU Women's Basketball coach, Jeff.

The team spent time in three diverse districts of the city.

The first immersion experience was in "Boy's Town," the homosexual district of Chicago. The team partnered with Emmaus ministry, an organization that aims to minister to male prostitutes. While not explicitly sharing the gospel, the students spent Saturday night venturing into clubs and bars along Halsted Street, engaging in conversations with other guests.

Sophomore Mark Kim was surprised at how "normal" some the homosexuals who he talked with were.

"If I had seen them [outside of this environment], I never would have guessed that they were gay," Kim said. "My culture forces me to think that they are different."

On Sunday, the team split into two groups and attended church at Westlawn Gospel Chapel in North Lawndale and Nueva Vida Community Church in South Lawndale, also called "La Villita," or "Little Village."

The Nueva Vida Community Church service was entirely in Spanish, which was a new experience for many of the students.

Junior Brittney Havens was pleasantly surprised by the church's genuineness.

"They didn't know who I was, where I was from, or why I was there-- but they didn't care," Havens said. "People of the same race, background and social class tend to join together in churches and communities. But this is a primary reason for why we, the white middle class, are hesitant, scared or just plain content with our comfortable surroundings to expose ourselves to other cultures."

Sunday evening, the students immersed themselves in the homeless community of Chicago. Each student packed two sack lunches with the intent of sharing a meal with a homeless person downtown. The team paired off in groups of two and spread out around the area of Michigan Avenue.

Senior Justin Eddy encountered Larry along Madison Avenue. Eddy stood next to Larry and ate his sandwich, watching Larry consume his meal while he continued to beg for money.

For the first time, Eddy said, he understood what it felt like to see the world in the shoes of a homeless man.

"I saw the looks people gave him," Eddy said, "and I realized that I had given [the homeless] those same looks before."

After dinner, the team split into two groups by gender, the men going to a men's shelter and the women volunteering at a women's shelter.

Each group helped serve a meal to the 50 guests and set up mattresses and blankets. The team was also able to have conversations with the men and women staying in the shelter.

Kim remembers experiencing an unexpected emotion that caused him to reevaluate his gratitude.

"I kind of envied the homeless for a second," Kim said. "They were so thankful for just one meal."

On Monday the team spent time in La Villita, immersing itself in the Hispanic community of the city.

According to the 2000 census, La Villita has a population of 91,071. This makes it the densest area of the city, with 20,510 people per square mile. The neighborhood is 97.1 percent Hispanic, consisting mostly of immigrants from Mexico.

Paco Armador, pastor of Nueva Vida church, spoke to the group about immigration in Chicago. The team said that this gave them the opportunity to see immigration in a way most of them had never thought about before.

The trip concluded with a discussion with Mark Soderquist and Westlawn Gospel Chapel's pastor, Derrick Rollerson about racisim. Rollerson, who is black, told the team how racism is still very prevalent today. He encouraged the students to take on a new perspective of this issue and challenged them to tackle this issue in their culture back home.

"The black community is waiting for the white community to acknowledge how poorly they have treated us," Rollerson said.

He encouraged the team to consider not only what the Caucasian community can do for the black community, but also what the black community can do for the Caucasian community. This, said Rollerson, can begin the process of reconciliation.

Junior Emily Ortiz is still processing her experience on the trip, but she has come back asking herself several questions.

"I have questions such as, 'What is church? What is missions? What does it mean to bring dignity to a person?'" Ortiz said.

"Where would Jesus be in Siloam Springs?" she asked herself.

Ortiz doesn't have the answers, but she now has these issues in the forefront of her mind.

Eddy is wrestling with similar questions.

"[This trip] has made me reconsider what sharing God's love looks like," he said. "[Part of it] is about allowing others to love you back."

When it comes to practical changes at JBU, Ortiz and Eddy have both been convicted of their judgment and conduct towards others.

"I'm going to focus on being more sensitive to the way we talk about people we don't know," Eddy said.

"I want to find the best way to bring dignity to everyone," Ortiz said. "I want to see everyone how God sees them."

Huebert has been on this trip three times with JBU students, and each time find that the students come back with a broader perspective on society.

"Just as we often carry many assumptions about who other people are, what other places are like, and why things happen the way they do, so too we carry assumptions about how God is at work, what the kingdom looks like, and how the church should respond," Huebert said. "We come away with fewer sure answers, which gives God space to better shape us into the kingdom agents he is using to minister to a hurting world."

"No matter who you are, we're all the same," Ortiz said. "We are all looking for love and community."