Church planting in chilly Chicago

The snow has melted! In a bizarre twist, while the UK has been smothered in white, we have enjoyed a few days of balmy temperatures and sunshine here in Chicago followed yesterday by a cooler rainy day reminiscent of November in Sidcup. Yesterday I discovered the beauty of the school drop off/pick up system which I have until now failed to appreciate.... we left the house and ran the few yards from back door to garage, drove to school where I deposited Is and E with a teacher in the adjoining (covered) drop off zone and returned home where M and I arrived with barely a drop of rain on our coats. We repeated same in reverse at home time and there was not a drowned rat in sight. Genius!!!! Now, if we could have had that at Longlands School on rainy days it would have been heaven! To my mind, there is no justification other than laziness for doing this on a non-rainy day (alright, or snowy day) as it's so much quicker to take them on foot, even if you park next to the school and walk them round the corner you get them in and back to your car before the queue moves on.

Now, at this point, I have to fill you in on how Chicago copes with its extraordinarily inclement climate.... Since we arrived in December (excluding this week), the average daily temperature has been -5C. We've seen up to 6 inches of snow overnight and experienced temperatures below -20C. Every morning, without fail, we have woken up to snow-ploughed roads and the sounds of scraping as everyone clears the snow from steps and pavements in order to get to work. The buses, trains and underground run without fail and the kids have not missed a single day of school. Naturally, you need the right protective gear (NorthFace full-length coats and Ugg boots are de rigueur for the school mums - and I have to say that there is a lot more justification for them here than in SE London. Not, dear reader, that I have sunk to that level of vanity. But I digress...). The children have snow pants, thick fleece lined coats, neck warmers, hats, gloves and snow boots. You can imagine how much potential there is for my space-cadet-of-a-son to leave something at school... It gets so cold that your fingertips throb even through the thickest gloves and your nostril hairs freeze as you breathe. I once foolishly put my bare hand on the frozen metal mail box and my fingers froze to it, leaving a burning sensation!

So that, dear Brits, is a winter!!! That said, there is no novelty to snow here and everyone just ignores it's spectacular beauty. Is found 4 children in her class of 20 who'd lived in Chicago their entire lives and never made a snowman. And when we go sledding (note the Americanism), the only hill for miles is remarkably uncrowded.

In any case, my prime reason for blogging today was to update you on the situation here church-wise....

We are all getting very excited about Matt and Heather Sweetman and their boys moving to Chicago in the next month or so to start working towards the church plant proper. At the moment we are leaderless and meeting together with the group previously known as FUSION which has been around in different formats for the last 6 years or so. We are currently around 17 adults, 7 children and 2 babies and for the last month we have been meeting in our house for worship and prayer. We need to grow! Both through the addition of mature Christians and also new converts and we are really concentrating on reaching out to friends and those in the community around us.

Please pray for us! Matt needs a job and somewhere for him and the family to live, as well as a clear idea where to plant (Chicago is a big city). It's a great adventure but it's hard work, too and it would be wonderful to have some more people join us from other Newfrontiers churches world-wide. God brought us here from Sidcup - maybe you need to come and join us, too!!!

It's certainly a new experience having church in your own home. It makes Crown Woods look like a piece of cake (NCC people will know what I mean). As well as Sunday School Director (oh joy!!!) we are wearing many different hats as David is taking a lead to some of the meetings plus we find ourselves church caretakers and caterers among other things - last Sunday morning D had to run out for light bulbs as the basement where we have the kids was so gloomy!! Many of you will know how much natural affiliation I have to kids' work so you will enjoy the picture of me leading the children in cheesy worship songs with actions. Talk about being out of one's comfort zone..!

Well, that's enough for now, except to say please check out this blog which Matt has set up in part to help fund the church plant - http://www.eatjesus.com/ This is what he says about it:

"The purpose of the site is to resource all levels of church leadership so that people can become self-feeders. Our church culture unfortunately reflects our worlds culture in many ways. We have become consumeristic about church life and have lost our desire to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth. EatJesus.com will be an ongoing resource to share and promote ideas, stories, principles, techniques and much more about how to develop maturity and self leadership in the people God has called us to lead. "