So it’s snowing here today. In honor of the snow, here are some pictures we’ve taken the last couple times it’s snowed. This is mostly for our Southern friends.

Last week we got to go back to Charleston for the first time since moving in June. It’s funny how moving away made me appreciate even more the place where I (Elizabeth) grew up, and taking a vacation made me appreciate even more the city we now call home. Charleston is actually one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Shem Creek by itself would rank among my top 5 favorite places I’ve ever been in my life. But at the same time, every time we drove over the Ravenel Bridge (another favorite place in the Holy City) I was struck by the fact that there weren’t more tall things in Charleston. We’ve both gotten really used to a nice, tall skyline. It greets us every morning on our drive to work. When the sun cuts through the buildings early on a Sunday, it’s really gorgeous.

Also, I can’t really put into words how restful and encouraging it was to spend time with our Charleston friends and family. We’ve been gone for 6 months, and we’ve missed 6 months worth of stories and events, so it had the potential to be awkward. The fact that it was pretty natural felt like even further confirmation that we are where God wants us to be and that he’s still taking care of our friendships. So, thanks to our Charleston community for all of your prayers and support and for a great visit home.

 

A few weeks ago we heard a radio commercial promising that the holidays are more magical in Illinois. Obviously, this is a claim we felt a great need to verify. We’ve been having so much fun exploring our new state and the holiday fun it has to offer.

It all started with a fun fall visit to the world’s largest corn maze at Richardson Adventure Farms, northwest of Chicago, almost into Wisconsin. Neither of us had ever been in a real corn maze cut out of an actual corn field, so we were really excited to check this out. After a while, though, you’re really just walking around in a bunch of corn. They try to make it more fun by adding a scavenger hunt element to it. Playing the game kept us from getting lost at least. Mostly we really enjoyed getting out of the city for a bit.

Back in Chicago, we kicked off the magic of the Christmas season on Michigan Avenue with the lighting festival and parade. Lots of people, not a lot of space, and lots of Disney characters on floats. That’s right, Abbie, Mickey Mouse was grand marshal! We are such suckers for this stuff that it hardly mattered that we were surrounded by lots of cranky parents and kids screaming over Disney musical artists we’d never heard of (Haley and Casey?). Plus, they capped the whole thing off with a fireworks show on the Michigan Avenue bridge right in the middle of downtown, which means that the booming echoes off the buildings make it sound like the city was being bombed. The jury is still out on whether or not we’ll be trekking down there with the masses next year, but it was a surprisingly more positive experience than we’d expected.

Last weekend, the fun continued when we used our newly purchased ice skates for the first time. This may be one of the most magical holiday things that Illinois has to offer for two South Carolina kids. We skated at the rink in Millennium Park near the Bean. It was magical. They pipe in the Christmas music and have the place all lit up with twinkle lights. We got hot chocolate and thoroughly enjoyed a winter date night.

Our next holiday adventures: buying a Christmas tree, trying to catch a ride on the Christmas L (http://www.transitchicago.com/holidaytrain/) and seeing the lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

We’ve been busy lately. That’s the short version.

The more detailed version is that after the Back 2 School Store, I (Elizabeth) was asked to co-lead Fallapalooza, a free, Fall-themed, carnival-type family event held in a park a few blocks from Soul City. Chris was the Tech Team Leader (he reported to me… that was fun). So we both ended up being super busy for a season working really hard with an awesome team of leaders to pull off that event.

In the end, it was amazing and really worth all the effort. I’ve never been a part of planning something this big before, so it was definitely a growth experience. But it was awesome to see so many kids and families show up and really enjoy themselves. Soul City is really becoming known in our West Loop community for being a church that wants to bless our neighbors. We were so happy that this event helped to further that reputation.

For me, though, the highlight was actually not anything that happened the day of the event. The highlight of Fallapalooza for me was the debrief about a week later. You might think that it’s because of my administrative wiring, but generally I hate the debriefing process. No event is ever perfect, and no leader will ever be perfect, so there’s always things that could be improved in both. Sometimes this can be really awkward to talk about and if handled really poorly can lead to hurt feelings. One thing I am challenged by and admire a lot about leaders at Soul City, though, is their genuine desire to grow and become better leaders. So if something wasn’t quite right, they want to know about it. Not knowing about it, doesn’t lead to improvement and ultimately doesn’t bring glory to God. He wants us to grow and be stretched, but sometimes it’s really hard to desire that for ourselves because it isn’t easy. The thing that made this debrief my favorite thing was that it wasn’t just about pointing out what went well and what didn’t go so well, but it was also about making sure that we each walked away stronger leaders. That meant a lot.

To get a taste of Fallapalooza for yourself, check out this video that one of our awesome volunteers put together from the event. Enjoy!

Fallapalooza 2011 from SoulCityChurch on Vimeo.

In our last post we mentioned the Back 2 School Store, which was our first big event at Soul City. It happened this past Saturday, and it was really amazing. The goal was to provide every student at Brown Elementary School with a backpack full of the supplies they needed, a new pair of Converse shoes, and a uniform. Mission accomplished!

We got to help set up the store on Friday night, which meant we got to organize stuff. If you know us, you know we like to organize, so that was awesome. We had a blast meeting new people from Soul City who were on our volunteer team. Some of these people were new to us, and some of them were new to Soul City. It was a beautiful picture of the church coming together to serve a community.

Saturday morning during the store we helped wherever we were needed because our primary job had been on Friday night. I, Elizabeth, got to be a personal shopper for part of the time, helping moms and students pick out their backpacks, uniforms and shoes. I met this one boy, Miles, who was so awesome that I have to tell my story of meeting him. Miles is going into the 5^th grade and was very excited about it. He told me that he had skipped the 3^rd grade, which I made a big deal out of to all the other volunteers, which made Miles smile really big. He had the biggest toothy smile and glasses. He looked smart. Miles told me that when he grows up he want to be an aeronautics engineer. I have to say, I don’t know what that is precisely, but it sounds important. He also told me and some of the other volunteers that when he becomes a big shot aeronautics engineer, he’s going to remember everyone at Brown Elementary and give the school a chunk of the money he makes. I could’ve cried. I hope that the school supplies he got that day (and especially his Converse All Stars) bless him and help him to achieve that goal. We’ve included a short video from the day. Miles is in this video, so look for him.

Back 2 School Store Highlights from SoulCityChurch on Vimeo.

A few nights ago Chicago received the most rain it’s ever had in a single day, and it happened between the hours of midnight and 4am. Seven inches of rain is what was measured at O’Hare. All we knew at the time was that the thunder and lightning made it really hard to sleep. It wasn’t until we ventured out to go grocery shopping that we started to catch on to what had happened. Traffic lights were (and in some places still are) blinking. Pipes were so overwhelmed with the amount of water trying to be released into the river that they were actually backing up into buildings. They were actually backing up into our building apparently because before we’d left for the store our downstairs neighbor came up because he thought our dishwasher had sprung a leak when water started to come through one of the recessed lights in his ceiling. He was pretty confused to find out that we weren’t using our dishwasher at the time. When we got back from the grocery store there was a maintenance guy on the phone explaining to someone that they city’s pipes just can’t handle all the water. Other than our internet connection being out for three days, we haven’t had too many problems, but it is yet another fascinating freak occurrence in this city.

Aside from the actual weather we’ve both been under the metaphorical weather too. We’re still battling head colds. It’s the pits. Just as one of us is getting better, the other starts getting worse. It’s no way to spend the summer, that’s for sure. So please pray that the Wheat household can be rid of the plague, so that we can get back to life.

Not weather related, but certainly worth mentioning, we are both definitely getting more settled in our volunteer rolls at Soul City. It’s been really remarkable to see how God has been preparing us for Soul City. It’s amazing how well their needs and our skills keep matching up. Just more proof that we are where we’re supposed to be.

One fun Soul City thing going on right now is fundraising for the Back 2 School Store. The church along with the Kyle Korver Foundation have been partnering with a nearby elementary school that needs some extra help, and before school starts again Soul City wants every student at Brown Elementary to have a new uniform and school supplies. I, Elizabeth, am beyond excited about getting to shop for school supplies to contribute to the store (which actually gives the stuff away)! If you are interested in helping with the uniform fundraising you can get more info and make an online donation by checking it out at SoulCityChurch.com. If you choose to donate, you will be taken to a page set up by the Kyle Korver Foundation; that’s the right place.

As you read this, we are celebrating three weeks of living in Chicago. As we write this, we are watching fireworks from our apartment window. They must be excited for our third weekiversary. How sweet.

It has been an eventful three weeks because of things we did not/could not have predicted about this city. We decided to move in June because 1) it was not a winter month and 2) it was the natural end of a season since so many aspects of our lives still function on a school year calendar. Little did we know that we would be moving to Chicago during Puerto Rican Days which involved a lot of late night noise or that on the last Friday of the month a ton of people get together to ride their bikes through the city, which stops traffic or that people in this city really like to celebrate the 4th of July, which starts a couple days beforehand and goes late into the night. And there was no way of predicting that the city would see a giant thunderstorm that produced golfball-sized hail two weeks after our move. Unpredictability is a characteristic of Chicago life that we are adjusting to and in some ways coming to appreciate.

Our first three weeks were a definite settling in period that in a lot of ways actually felt like vacation. Both sets of our parents came up to help get us settled, and we got to do some touristy things with them. This past week after all the parents were back in Charleston, we spent some time finishing up the settling process by unpacking the last of the boxes and hanging things on the walls. The apartment is now pretty much set, which seems to signify that the initial phase of settling in is over. This week we step up to a new level of settling, like figuring out what we need to do to get Illinois drivers licenses and things of that nature.

Also, we are starting to get settled at Soul City Church. We are just at the beginning of understanding why God called us to this church in this crazy, but awesome city, and that’s exciting. The more that we are at Soul City, the more it feels like we belong there. So we appreciate your continued prayers for us and for Soul City as we figure out how we can get plugged in, build relationships, and serve in the areas where God is leading us. We’ll let you know how it goes.

Today we said goodbye to our Charleston community. We went to church at St. Andrew’s, ate some Moe’s, got prayed for in the Moe’s parking lot, and capped it all off with a trip to Menchie’s. In all seriousness saying goodbye was not as bad as I, Elizabeth, thought it would be. Part of that, if I’m being honest, is because reality has not set in yet. Somewhere in a small corner of my mind I believe that I’ll be seeing everybody in about a week. The other, more important part of that, though, is because we’ve got really solid friendships here. Needless to say we are both unfathomably grateful for friendships that we believe will stand the test of distance.

Tomorrow, we hit the road. I’m sure between our two Twitter feeds you’ll feel like you’re making the trip with us. Please, pray for safe travel. We’ll post again when we have some new apartment pics.

We are just over a week away from moving, so I figured an update is in order. Probably 90% of our earthly belongings are in boxes in our dining room or, as I (Elizabeth) now call it, the staging area. We have all the components of the most amazing fort ever, but building that fort would seriously disrupt the organizational system that Chris has in place.

Back around Mother’s Day we took a really fabulous trip out to California for my sister’s college graduation. This was something of a turning point for us as well as her. Obviously she was going from being a college kid to entering “the real world.” For us it was the difference between getting ready to move and actually starting the process. Within a week of being back from California, Chris started packing the nonessentials: stuff hanging on our walls, winter gear, things we won’t need for the rest of our time in Charleston. At some point we started to have differing opinions about what classified as a nonessential. I staged a protest over the kitchen and its contents, which was upheld until finally our calendar completely filled with meals at other people’s houses. Now my beloved sanctuary is just as empty as the game closet.

This whole moving thing is such a mixed emotional experience. My kitchen is empty, so a favorite pastime gets temporarily put on the shelf (or in a box, actually), which is sad, but our new apartment has a much larger, newer, nicer kitchen that I can’t wait to cook in. It’s sad that we are leaving a life we have really enjoyed in Charleston, but it seems like God has a new adventure waiting in Chicago. Guess that’s how the big events in life tend to work. So for now we are living in the balance between sadness about saying goodbye, and eagerness to welcome a new experience.

Two weekends ago we took a giant step toward making this move to the Windy City a reality. We found a place to live! It’s very exciting, and it was a complete answer to prayer, so I’m going to do my best to explain the crazy story of how we found an apartment without confusing anyone too much.

Before we even left Charleston, we’d had a couple disappointments watching great potential places that we found online get rented before we even got to see them. So the anxiety about trying to find a place in one weekend was starting to sink in before we got on the plane. We made an appointment with an apartment finder agent, who showed us four places on the first day. Two of them had potential, but weren’t quite right. The next day we had an appointment to look at a condo for rent in a nice, new building that Chris found on Craigslist, and this where it starts to get tricky.

The couple that owned this condo scheduled us to look at the place at the same time as another couple. It had been listed for a few weeks, and they’d already had a few people look at it and walk away, so they probably didn’t think that chances were very high for both couples to want it, and the chances of both couples having good credit and being good candidates were even smaller. Of course, that’s what happened, though. In the end, they drew names out of a hat, and we were not chosen. We were devastated, but definitely trying to downplay that emotion as we texted home to tell everybody who’d been asking for updates that we didn’t get it.

So it was back to the Craigslist drawing board for us. After drowning our sorrows in some much needed lunch and hot chocolate, we made an appointment for that afternoon to see another place in a great location, but in a significantly older building. We went to see it and were surprised to find that it actually wasn’t too bad, but being in an older building, it came with some major drawbacks, so we did what Rory would do and made a pro/con list (if you don’t know who Rory is, you’re not alone, but you will need to watch some Gilmore Girls before the friendship can continue). After the pro/con list we decided that this was most likely going to be our best bet, so we contacted the owner, asked if he could make a few improvements, and set up a time on our last day in the city for us to sign the lease.

Meanwhile, the owners of the condo that had been a part of the demoralizing experience earlier that morning did us a huge favor by emailing the other condo owners in the building to see if anyone else was thinking about renting their place. Miracle of all miracles, somebody emailed them back. They contacted us, and we set up an appointment to see the place for the next day. We pretty much knew going in that we weren’t likely going to be able to afford this one because it was bigger than the fist one we saw, but we already knew that we loved the building, so we prayed for a miracle and set the appointment anyway. When we went to see it we found out that we were right, we could not even begin to afford what the owners were asking, so we asked if there was any way that we could get the price a little closer to what we could afford. They asked for time to think about it, and we said that we could give them until the following day when we needed to meet the other guy to sign the lease on his place.

This was Sunday afternoon, so we went to Soul City that evening for church, which was such a great reminder in the midst of all the stress as to why on earth we were putting ourselves through all of this. The teaching that night was about praying the prayer “Your will be done,” and expecting that God has bigger blessings in mind for us than we have for ourselves. We got the hint, and started having a serious conversation about what on earth this could mean in the midst of our apartment search. We’d been praying that God would bring us an apartment all along, but we still just didn’t have a clue what his will in the situation was.

Neither of us got any sleep that night wondering what would happen with the condo and trying to remind ourselves that at least we had a backup. We would not be leaving empty handed, which seemed like a huge miracle based on our early setbacks. The next morning Chris got an email from the condo owner telling us that he’d really like to work with us, and he thought he might have found some ways that he could cut the cost to help us out without him losing a ton of money in the process. We called him right away and a deal was struck.

It was hard to completely comprehend what happened at first, but as time went on it started to sink in that we just landed an amazing apartment. It started to sink in that we were the recipients of a huge blessing. It started to sink in that God had had a plan the whole time, so we probably should have slept better the night before. The chronicle of our move to Chicago and Soul City has been full of stories of God’s faithfulness and provision. I don’t know why we expected any less on this particular adventure.