Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

June 20, 2004

The first two days of our trip have seemed longer than 48 hours. There have been numerous times I’ve recalled an event that happened just days ago, thinking that it happened much further in the past.

We left Chattanooga on Saturday around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Chicago around 8 p.m. central time, making little time for stops between the two points. We were quite pleased to feel a change in the weather after entering Indiana. Temperatures fell well into the 70s and dipped into the 60s by the time we reached Chicago.

We’re staying at the apartment of Anne Dickerson, a 2004 graduate of Bryan College. She recently moved here from Chattanooga and will begin teaching at Chase Elementary School in the heart of downtown Chicago. She has an intense desire to be working with inner-city children, and consequently, her apartment is located in a predominantly Puerto Rican area.

It just so happens that it is also happy-Puerto-Rican-let’s-celebrate-our-heritage (though not out complete independence) day or week. That probably depends on when they get tired of celebrating. So, Latino music is pouring from most houses and cars, and there’s a Puerto Rican flag on practically every car. And there’s explosives. As soon as we got out of the car, we noticed an ear-piercing explosion and a cloud of smoke hovering over a nearby sidewalk. A man bolted out of a house in our path and asked “was that an firecracker or a gun?” Huh? This guy’s asking three white guys who obviously don’t belong in this part of town whether a gun or a firecracker went off?

The L, Chicago’s mass transit system rolls along immediately over the apartment, creating a noise at night a little louder than the train in Dayton that I’m accustomed to. The neighborhood is dilapidated in parts and a poorer community, but I appreciate the culture. We ate at a taquiera down the street Saturday night (with very authentic food) where our waitress spoke less of our language than we did of hers. I was really impressed with the work ethic of the employees, and there seemed to be more of a family-type atmosphere present.

We met up today (Sunday) with Tim Murphy, a 2000 BC grad, and captured the coveted Rich Hyde bobblehead at the Joliet Jackhammers baseball game south of the city. We learned of the event a few weeks back and determined to be in the first 1000 fans at the game to receive the free treasure. The small Midwestern town greets you at every glance with banners reading “If it’s in downtown Joliet it’s got to be fun!”

Rich Hyde is “the best right-handed pitcher we have,” according to the Jackhammers’ biggest fan who sat beside me, “and he’s our pitching coach too.” Yes, Rich Hyde is just about everything you could want, plus a bobblehead.

The Jackhammers compete in the Northern Division of the Independent League, which made the experience seem closer to what the game of baseball used to be. These guys weren’t affiliated with any major league teams and weren’t even playing single-A ball. Most of the players aren’t going to come close to reaching the majors, but the organization seemed to have a really strong following nonetheless.

The game provided plenty of entertainment outside of the game on the field. A man stuck to a Velcro wall in right field waiting to catch a home run to win a Dodge Ram, tricycle races, jump rope competitions, a hot tub in the right field corner, etc. Perhaps the best part about the park though was a 30-40 foot man with a hard hat and a jackhammer over the left field fence. Where did the great American culture go again? Oh yeah, the Jackhammers won the game 8-2 over the St. Paul Saints.

We said our goodbyes with Murph and made our way back to city, picked up Anne from work, parked at Moody and made our way toward Giordano’s, quite possibly the best pizza place on Earth.

Along the drive back, we passed through some of Chicago’s worst housing projects, which, according to Anne, will be torn down shortly. The massive tower-like structures yielded a major sense of oppression, of which I’m not sure I ever imagined. We see the way the television and Hollywood depicts this life constantly, but I think I saw more clearly what it really is in the brief moments driving by tonight than I could ever on a screen.

This stop on our trip will probably be the strangest, seeing as most of the remainder of our journey will be spent in and around nature. Still, I’m grateful for the experience that Chicago has given us, most notably the truth that God is not simply in the places where we’re most comfortable. Sometimes I think it’s in the least comfortable places that we see God most clearly. And maybe we should run to these places. Not that everyone should run to the inner city to be a school teacher, but perhaps we should look more frequently for opportunities to grow and serve in the places we often purposefully overlook.

Pray for Anne and the ministry that she is learning to live in Chicago. She has a great vision for her life that goes hand-in-hand with the great God she serves.

Matt Williams for the Badlands ’04 team

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