Week One Update

Oh boy, where do I start?

Well I made it! I have been in Chicago for almost exactly a week from now, and it has been a complete whirlwind. First of all the city of Chicago is beautiful. I am still staring at the skyscrapers as I walk by, and most likely will for a long time now. I have had many Chicago staple foods so far, such as Lou Malnati's Deep Dish Pizza and Portilo's Chicago-style hot dogs. I am definitely going to eat well here, which hopefully offset with all the walking I will be doing.

I have been constantly meeting people from all over the country who are on this mission with me, mostly from the Great Lakes area but some from much farther away, like San Francisco State University and Massachussets State (or something like that). There are 97 students here! Each day I meet someone I have never seen before and grow closer to those I have already met. I am pretty confident that I know the names of half of the students and maybe a quarter of the staff (they have at least 50 more people here as well). So far, bonding activities have been a scavenger hunt around the city, ping pong tournaments, late night games of catchphrase, watching the NBA finals, and eating the food I already mentioned.

This week has been spent looking for a job. I initially came into the mission wanting to work in a nursing position, as that is my major. I applied to multiple hospitals around the city, of which there are many, in the weeks leading up to arriving here. Monday I did a few follow-up calls, showing up at the hospitals I had applied to. I was consistently turned away, the receptionists saying that they couldn't help me, I would just have to wait for them to contact me, even though if you didn't meet the qualifications, they wouldn't necessarily always tell you. It was very discouraging, to say the least.
On Tuesday, I set out again, this time with two other Cru students who were also looking for jobs, but at retail and food locations. I decided that I might as well get my name out there if I didn't here for any nursing jobs, which I had asked God to have them get back to me by Thursday if they wanted to hire me. We had a great time running around the city applying to jobs anywhere that seemed interesting. By the day ended on Thursday, I had two job offers on Navy Pier, one at a souvenir store and one at the famous Garrett's popcorn.

My aunt has been even more enthusiastic than myself at times to find me a nursing job. She has many contacts in the area, and she all but exhausted every possibility she had. After multiple applications and even cold-calling private practices at her advice, I have decided to take one of the jobs at Navy Pier and see if one of the openings gets back to me, or if I can volunteer at some point in a hospital. The job that would give me the most opportunity to be flexible and maybe find a way to squeeze in some volunteer hours is with Garrett's Popcorn, so I will be working there for the rest of the summer!

I love all of my roommates, and I look forward to growing closer to them over the summer. I have really appreciated the opportunity to be open and vulnerable with them with my life and the things I have on my mind. Honestly, everyone here is so willing to hear your story, even if they just met you. I have been blown away from the kindness of people here, praying for me and my little things like this job search. I just hope I can be used by God to encourage them this summer. 

I started meeting with my staff discipler, a guy who works with Cru in Central Illinois by the name of Pete. Just in our short meeting he was able to identify some things for me to work on, and ask God to change within my mindset and my attitude. We all have room to grow, and I am excited and scared when I ask God to show me the areas in which I need to grow, and to use this summer to grow me. I don't know what that will mean for me, but I am confident that he knows what is best for me.

Alright, I think that is enough for now. Plus there are some people at the beach that I want to meet up with.

Things to be praying for:

• My future coworkers at Garrett's Popcorn, that they would be in a place to be receptive to a new face, and eventually the magnificence and beauty of the gospel.
• The students I have already spoken to about Christ on the campus of the University of Chicago, that God would use it to soften their hearts and open themselves up to the possibility of God and Jesus Christ, as well as the students I have yet to talk to, that God would use me and the rest of our ministry to come into their lives in a big way.
• That God and the Holy Spirit would reveal to me times when I care too much what other people think of me
• Praise God for the two students I know of who have already accepted Christ into their hearts as their Lord and Savior. It's so exciting that God is already working in our summer mission
• That all of the students would grow closer together despite surface level differences like personality type, color of skin, and university affiliation to hold fast to our perfect God and each other.
• That God would show me the ways that I am not perfect and humble me so I can be fully used by him 

Until next time, thank you for your support and prayers,

-Austin

T-minus 10.....9.......8.......

Well, here we are. Tomorrow I arrive in Chicago. We are getting up early, planning to get there at noon central time. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

I spent all day packing (ok maybe 3 hours), and it feels a lot like leaving for college. Right now there is a pile of things in my room. I imagine it seems a lot like leaving for school for my mom and little brother too, just even farther away. For me, school is comfortable. I know and love my friends from school. I am used to the school grind, and even getting up early in the morning for clinicals in the hospital. I am used to living in the dorms, I am used to Ann Arbor, I am safe there.

But in my comfort, I could find myself bordering on complacency in my faith. I am a big fan of Christian Hip Hop, one of my favorite artists being Andy Mineo. He has a song called "Uncomfortable" in which he raps "God prepare me for the war, comfort be the thing that will make a king fall. Eyes on the Lord, better grip that blade of the sword, tell me how you plan on getting swole if you don't ever get sore?" In complacency, we can easily get soft, not keeping formed by the pressures around us. I don't think I have become complacent at Michigan, but it would be hard to do so at home. Summer is something we are warned about at school, that it is hard to keep growing in your faith by yourself over the summer. That is the main reason I will be in Chicago tomorrow at noon, and for the rest of the month, and for the rest of the summer.

Thinking that it is going to be an easy summer, however, is wishful thinking. Well, not my wish. God repeatedly shows in the Bible that he grows people the most in the hard times. In the winter semester this past year I had the privilege of discipling a freshman in Cru, and we read through the book of Job together as the semester came to a close. God used that incredibly difficult time in Job's life to teach him about God's sovereignty, basically meaning God is God, which means he can do whatever he wants. Who are we to question his decisions and practices? He created us, and promises that he is perfect, holy, loving, and just. Heck, we wouldn't know true love and justice if God didn't show it to us. And I am entrusting my summer to him, whatever hard times may come. It is in his hands.

Chicago will not be comfortable. I don't know 95% of the students who will be there. I will not have a definite schedule, at least right away. I will have to make my own food (not impressive, I know, but hey, I have spend my two college years in dorms).  I won't know the city. This will be a totally different experience. But thinking about it makes me even more excited to get there. This is my great adventure of the summer. I don't know where it will take me, who I will meet on it, and how I will change because of it. But God is in control, and I know that I am in good hands.

I hope you will stay with me on this journey as I seek to grow closer to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this summer in Chicago, whether you believe what I do or not.

What do I believe? I believe that God is the creator of all things, and created all human beings in his own likeness. I believe that the Bible, the entire Bible, is the ultimate source of truth in this world. And I believe that, as the Bible describes, Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem humanity to God as the ultimate sacrifice, and because of that act of love to us while we didn't deserve it, we can now choose to pursue a personal relationship with the Almighty God. And if we believe in Jesus as what and who he was, and only if we believe that, we can spend eternity with him in heaven.

I will be spending my summer sharing that with other people I meet on the campuses of Chicago. They will likely have questions and doubts, maybe like some of you do.  I may or may not have answers, but I trust that the Holy Spirit will give me words to say.  It is scary, for sure. But there is also something beautiful about it that I can't quite describe. Maybe I'll try to describe it in a later post.  If you have any questions, you can email me at ajhill24@gmail.com or check out this website.

Feel free to drop a letter in the mail if you so desire:

Austin Hill

Apartment 310

642 S. Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60605

Until next time!

-Austin

Special Praise

I did this poem at the Good News Christian A Cappella Concert this past semester. I wrote it piece by piece throughout the year, poetry is something I do sort of sporadically. Regardless, I think this poem showcases a huge part of who I am and how I see the world. I encourage you to take four minutes and watch!

Slight shift in direction. This blog is for the people reading it, not for me to write. I think that the personal thoughts I have are going to be between me and God. I have a journal for that, and I am sure that it will be full by the end of this summer of the times that I encounter God. Trust me, I know that I will be raw with him. This summer is going to be hard, but I don't think this blog is the place to vent and complain to the world. No one likes to read that, and I hope that I don't write that.  No one has seen the page at the time I am writing this, the only page views has been me checking the page to see if I like the formatting. Maybe soon it will be updated weekly, if I can fall into a rhythm with that.

Just another thing to get in the habit of. Summer seems to be a great time to start new habits. I am starting this blog, trying to read my Bible and pray everyday, and I just started running yesterday afternoon. If only one of them sticks, I hope it is the prayer. I have time right now for all of these. Well I think.

The trouble with summer vacation is that it reeks of idleness. That line from the Music Man, "An idle mind is the Devil's playground", definitely has something to it. Even if you set your own goals, it is hard to attack them if you don't set structure for it. That's the adjustment coming from a college year of penultimate structure. Even if I didn't have class, I assigned each free time a task to complete, whether it was cranking out a paper, meeting up with a friend, planning a date, or watching a movie. And that was easy as long as there was something to plan around. Days with large breaks are the hardest to plan. And that is exactly what a summer day is, a large chunk of nothing with an infinite number of shapes and sizes of Tetriminos (Tetris blocks) falling into place. And the college student within me tirelessly tries to ensure there are no empty spaces when the day is over. There is no carefree summer here, not in my own little world. 

Ok, taking a step back. This helpless feeling is not coming from God. This feeling comes from the lie that I have to constantly striving, or I will be a failure. It's one that I wrestle with often, a strategic flaming arrow the evil one is pummeling me with (see Ephesians 6:16). So, as taught by Roger Hershey down in Panama City Beach this past March, I say No. That is not true. Jesus constantly withdrew from ministry to rest and communicate with his Father. Romans 8:1 says there is now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says that Jesus' power is made perfect in weakness, so that when I am weak, he is strong. I don't have to be the strong, successful one. Jesus has made me strong. I don't have to prove it to anyone else, or to myself, it has already been done.

There are things I don't have control over this summer. I don't have anyone to take a lease off of my hands for next year yet, I don't have control over what this summer will be like, I don't have control over whether I will have a job in Chicago in the nursing field by the time I get there, or at all. All of these thing scare me. And that is because I only trust my hands to carry my life. But God's hands are so much stronger, gentler, careful. He won't drop me. He won't forget about me, He never has, and he never will. 

Those blank spaces in Tetris are important if you are trying to win the game. They don't matter if the game has already been won. 

Prayer Requests:

• That I would be offered a job as a nursing assistant in a clinical setting
• That God would be teaching me how to rest in him and his victory
• That I would be able to find someone to take over my '16-'17 lease, that God would use the men in that apartment to reach out to him with the Gospel if he is an unbeliever
• For good health leading up to and through Chicago for all of the students who are attending
• For clarity in seeing what thoughts are from God and what thoughts are from the enemy

Two Weeks and a Day until Arrival

Well, let's give this a shot! I have heard of people writing a blog, documenting their summer mission. I don't think I am doing it for the people reading it, but for me and my own processing and development. Of course, if people are going to read this, I'll leave it up to God to see if my trials and tribulations will affect the other people. But I imagine I will be very candid. This first post is just to see how this thing works, but the next posts will be about my life and my experiences. Some of you reading this know me well, and some of you know me more than well. Hopefully you all can join me on this journey, and in it learn more about both me and the God that I will be serving this summer.

Right now, I am almost done support raising, praise God! I think when all of the people who have pledged money find time to give, they will meet my goal of $3,700. 

Next step, find a job in a hospital. Wish me luck!