Shalom = City Renewal

Hello Everyone,

We just finished with our first official day with Sunshine Gospel Ministries, and it is apparent that with only 5 hours of sleep 9 hours of ministry can be draining. However, I think God purposefully planned our exhaustion so that we would be in a physical state of readiness for the Holy Spirit to move and teach us new things. Tonight, while Joel taught us our first lesson it was apparent that the LORD was starting to open the eyes of the entire team.

Joel taught on the concept of "Shalom". The Traditional understanding of "Shalom" is "Peace". However, the Jewish concept of Shalom goes further than our modern understanding of peace. It touches on three aspects of peace that ascertain to our daily lives. The concept of "Shalom" is an intense peace with God. This is the kind of satisfaction that you might find when you connecting really well with someone who is your best friend. "Shalom" encourages us that we have this same connection with God on a daily basis. The second understanding of "Shalom" is to have a peace with with people. Not just your kind of people, but people from every tribe, tongue and nation. Lastly, the third concept of "Shalom" is to have a peace with your environment. This is not being comfortable with where God has placed you, but desiring to do more with where you are. This is a calling to bring the God of the Universe into prevalence in your community. This can be done by beautifying a particular eye sore in your neighborhood or making the building of your church a desirable place to be: a place that communicates "Shalom".

The group is really excited about exploring what it means to participate in bringing "Shalom" to the inner city of Chicago, but also to the ever diversifying community that is Woodbury.

His Clay,

Chicago Missions Team