Chicago Full Day 1

I'm in Chicago for the National CASA conference, and wasn't completely stoked for it but of course God has a way of constantly changing my heart and blessing me. I'm staying at my roommate's sister's apt, and she left for the weekend which means I have an AWESOME apartment to myself. So so kind of her, and this apartment is crazy great- like in the movies crazy great. It overlooks the river and has a big living room and nice windows, I woke up exceptionally happy and praising Jesus this morning.

Took the bus to the conference and ended up getting off too early, but the 10 block walk turned out to be really great and good for my soul. At 7:40 AM there isn't much movement on the Magnificent Mile and in that moment I thought that I really wouldn't mind living in Chicago for a year or two. But then I was on the Magnificent Mile at 5:00 I wasn't too keen on that idea. For the conference there was a session from 9:00-12:00, but I decided I wanted to not go to it, and Steve felt the same way- so we ditched and I ventured out on my own. I made sure not to stray too far-afraid of getting lost- but it was great to walk around and take my time for hours! Jesus and I had some quiet time by the river (until my butt got too cold) and then I went for a burrito at a local place (when I travel I try to eat at local places). As I was eating at the bar by the window I saw this homeless-looking man hunched over a trash can drinking out of a paper bag.

-----For the past couple of weeks in my bible study and all throughout my readings the Holy Spirit has been reminding me to help the least of the these, and also that everyone is better than me and that I need to have a helping and servants heart------

I started to pray about it and ask God, how do I help him? How do I show your love to him? Right when I was thinking about this he finished off the bottle, and went back into the 7-eleven behind him and came back out with another bottle. After eating, I crossed the street and bought a muffin for the man. We ended up having a 20-25 minute conversation and it was pretty apparent that there were mental issues going on and spiritual warfare. I tried to talk to him about Jesus and I told him that's my secret to life and this man seemed to be under a demonic spell where he would start a sentence, and I believe the sentences continued in his head, but he couldn't continue to vocalize those thoughts, they would turn into a hum. Watching his eyes I could see that in his head he was still talking but I couldn't understand him at all. It was very scary for me to see something like that......I'm hoping that I don't forget William, the man outside of Burrito Beach. 

Went back to the conference. Sat for a four hour session.

Now I'm in my loaner apartment and having a WI-made beer :-) If I could live in digs like this, I would still probably not mind living here for a little bit. Here are some pictures of my excursions today: