This Week's Happenigs and Delightful Downtown

It's so much fun to be back in the Chicago area! We've been having a blast and so far have fit so much into the past week.

We've:

- Visited with our pastor from Brazil who is temporarily in the States

- Met with the Winnetka Bible church missions council (one of our supporting churches)

- Spoken at WBC in Sunday school and the church service

- Spent the day with our friends who moved from NJ to IL while we've been in Brazil

- Gotten together with a bunch of our "Moody" friends

- Gone to Harvest Bible Chapel to the weekend service and toured around Walk in the Word.





Getting to HBC was especially meaningful to us because we really enjoy the head pastor, James McDonald's preaching ministry from Brazil. Every week that we're not traveling, we participate in our local church in Brazil, but we feel like James is also our pastor in a way since we listen to him all of the time via podcasts. It is just so meaningful to hear the Word in your heart language so we listen to him all the time. It was great to get to attend the church he pastors and see the place where the podcasts are recorded. Very cool!



Also this week we had a chance to tour around downtown Chicago, which was a blast! We stopped by Moody during the annual missions conference and got to see some of our professors and old friends, which was also fun. We just LOVE downtown Chi-town and spend the whole day just walking around and enjoying...especially before the weather gets brutal! Here's a few of our favorite moments of the day.



The John Hancock....only a few blocks from Moody.



Walking down the street...JH in the background



Chicago Sun-Times building and tours on the river

The Sears tower is now the Willis tower! We couldn't believe it! I think we'll always call it the Sears though :) You got to love being back on American soil and all of the freedoms and blessings it brings!

How cool is this? The Trump Tower! They were just starting to build it while we were in college so it was so fun to see it finished.

We just LOVE this city! Have I mentioned that already?

Yes it is great to be back! It is so sentimental as walking up and down these streets was how we spent so many cheap dates back in college. This is a view overseeing millennium park where there are tons of fun free activities going on throughout the warm months.

And who can pass up some pictures at "the bean"? It's this huge mirror sculpture in the middle of the city park where you can take all kinds of fun pictures.

Here's a picture of us reflected in the bean with the city in the background. Such a creative and interactive piece of art!
And a shot from inside the bean. There were so many people swarming around also taking pictures.

This was such a perfect day....we loved every moment!

Gorgeous view from Michigan Ave.

And the Water Tower...one of the few buildings that survived The Great Chicago Fire

And the best part of the day - deep dish pizza at Pizzano's. Great food and great memories as this is one of the places we had one of our first dates almost 7 years ago.

What a great week it has been!

But no matter where we go, our precious home in Brazil is not far from our mind! This statue in from the Sears Tower was one of the 483 times our lives, friends, and ministry came to mind this week!