Millenium Park

There is an awesome park in the city called Millenium Park which has some amazing architectural structures - one of which was designed by one of my favourite architects, Frank Gehry. The Pavilion has all these organic, juxtaposed stainless steel ribbons which creates this almost alien like structure. Apparently in June and July - when it becomes warmer Chicago becomes one huge music, Jazz and food party - looking forward to that!

There is also this amazing sculpture called "Cloud gate" which looks like this huge reflective metal bubble. Apparently it was inspired by liquid mercury. You can walk through or under it and view yourself in the reflective surfaces - it's like walking into a weird carnival hall of mirrors. It was fun walking around and exploring. Hopefully we can go back and maybe go for a skate on the ice rink.

Hillsong in Chicago

Went to City Church Chicago on Sunday. Awesome worship - they were doing all the latest Hillsong songs in an intimate theatre setting right in the middle of Chicago, about 40 minutes travel from our apartment and a few blocks away from the magnificent mile. Was a small enough church that we actually got to talk to some people and Ally, Pastor Kent's wife, came and introduced herself to us and made us feel really welcomed.

Christine Caine from Hillsong was also speaking on Sunday, so we went to the morning session as well as the evening session. Was an inspiring message about being authentic christians to be the church and not just to do church. To be passionate about God .... that when we are passionate about God it is natural to want to share how amazing God is and how much he loves us, it is also natural that out of that passion that we want to talk to God and to serve Him!

Happy birthday to me!

Had an awesome birthday week ... yes, birthday week! Jono has been spoiling me all week, with massages, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, washing the clothes, cooking yummy meals (Vietnamese rice paper wraps were out of this world!) and presents. All the guys from the midnight ICC prayer meeting sang happy birthday to me over skype, which was really nice.

The week was topped off with dinner at Famous Dave's rib place where they serve the food on garbage can lids!! We went out with Ong's to celebrate and we thought, given the decor of restaurant of moose and deer antlers and hunting paraphernalia, that Famous Dave's should be called Hunter Dave's. Went back to Chris and May Yen's place to have birthday cake and coffee.

All in all a great birthday week, especially all the well wishes via email, birthday presents of flowers, birthday cards, concert tickets to Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton and sleepwear.

We even had a heat wave over the weekend and beautiful warm weather - only sadness is that all the snow has melted and I'll have to wait for the next snow fall to go sledding.

Multi-tasking like crazy

Can't believe how long it has been since my last post! Life has been really busy. I'm in a Theology class at the moment and trying to read a book for my Counseling class at the same time. Talk about trying to multi-task! haha

Since my last post I've had my first exam ...... an exam I had to sit before my first class in counseling! There is tonnes of reading but I am enjoying learning so many new things! One of our classes is "Personal Assessment & Ministry" which has been good for me since I'm not the most introspective person - it's been like a lightbulb moment when we have gone through the personality analysis. This week is looking to be really busy for me as I have four pieces of assessment due! Welcome to student life :o)

We went to a small HIM church, affiliated with Ps Che Anh, called Chicago River Church last week and they were really friendly. This week we went to Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows which I enjoyed. Worship was at least closer to worship at ICC - but still not the same - ICC rocks in worship!! We have really been spoilt when it comes to church - we have at ICC a really unique and amazing culture, a church which has amazing worship and one that I believe has a freedom from being open to God's Spirit and grounded in his Word and in prayer. The thing that I did take away from this week's sermon was to "pray without ceasing". That the original Greek meaning for "without ceasing" or "continuously" was a slang word for a hacking constant cough. That prayer should be an involuntary, constant action. That prayer should go beyond being a chore and an action but to be really a part of our identity as Christians, to be almost an involuntary action. And that prayer is not complaining on our knees but coming to God and bringing him to our point of need. So I encourage you to get into prayer to the point where it is part our your identity! We have been encouraged by the awesome prayer meetings at ICC. We can feel the intensity and know that God is going to move in such a powerful way!

Went to Woodfield Mall after church yesterday and had an awesome Japanese buffet at Todai. The king prawns and tempura prawns were awesome! Jono and I ate until we were stuffed as this was our weekly treat. But we are amazed by the appetite of these Americans. There was a chinese couple next to us who were machines - I think they each ate at least 5-7 plates of food!! One thing about America is everything is BIG - their small soft drinks are equivalent to our large sizes in Australia, even KFC has a buffet option which is cheaper than their 2 piece meals - how crazy is that?!