Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Pastors Retreat in Chicago


We took the very early morning flight on Friday to Chicago. As we departed, Cindy and Sharon were about to arrive from Chile and Ecuador respectively. How amazing.

Then our 2 hour transit in Narita Airport revealed a nicer airport than our last transit here. We finally arrived in the busiest airport on the planet in Chicago. This is our second time in the windy city. Pastor David fetched us at 3 pm in the afternoon and helped us settle down at the rented house. This house with character is next to De Paul university. We washed up. Dinah napped and I worked on next week's sermon since I couldn't sleep. The North American pastors and spouses started to arrive. We had a good time catching up.

We went for Thai food and the American serving size is big. We continued to catch up at the house after dinner. It is fall (autumn) and the weather is cold. The wind brings the temperature down. My skin is not used to the dry conditions.

Saturday started with home cooked breakfast. We had worship, testimonies and I did a lesson. Next Dinah did a session with the wives as I took the husbands. Then we took the train to down town and had lunch at the John Hancock tower. We spent the afternoon walking to the Chicago River. It looks a lot like Singapore River. We spent informal time together as the wives prepared dinner. We had worship and discussions till late.

We started Sunday cleaning the house and moving to David & Malay's down town apartment. This is near Loyola University. We had breakfast there followed by worship service. David led worship, his wife led the service, 3 pastors from out-of-town gave testimonies and I preached. We had lunch together with the people. After lunch we resumed discussions. Evening time came and most of the pastors and spouses went home. William and Lan stayed behind. We had good talks till late.

We got up later on Monday. Lan insisted I do a lesson. She is so hungry. We had lunch out then sent William and Lan to the airport. They said they would love to miss their flight so they could spend more time together. We then went to the bookstore at the Moody Bible Institute. David and I spent some time together as the ladies went out. We bought our host family a meal. Moses was dressed as batman. The restaurant is full of adults dressed up. It's our first time seeing Halloween celebrated.

On Tuesday David took Dinah and I to pray over the Loyola University. He loves nature so we spend some time in Northwestern University campus. We had lunch in Evanston. Then we go home to pack for tomorrow and get ready for care group tonight. I started writing this blog. Dinah and I joined the care group and got to know the people better. We dined together after care group.

Wednesday is travelling to the airport. We are leaving Midwest USA. We travelled 12 hours to Tokyo with 1 hour transit and 6 hours to Singapore. Managed to sleep more and even do some work on the next sermon. We arrived at after 11 pm Thursday. The humidity hits. Thank God for the light rain that brings down the temperature.

2 comments:

Dave said...

I was in Hope while working in Spore! (Steven Yeoh is a friend)

Good to know God has kept and prospered the church... Keep growing in knowledge, love and service for Christ!

ben kc lee said...

dave, thanks for the greeting and for keeping in touch. Come by again when you're in town.