With the beginning of a new year, opportunities abound. Through your skills, you have the potential to create windows of opportunities for others.

Down below are Care Team events for January 2007.

In solidarity,

J

« This is CareTeam January 2007 «

Monday, January 1st
Inspiration Café
4554 N Broadway (just South of Wilson)
Pick your service: Community Mapping or Cooking. Cooking you know about, but Community Mapping? Guests of IC will lead us around the neighborhood to point out the different aspects of Uptown: The good, the unique and all that needs to be improved. When we sit down together, we’ll create a community map of all that we saw, as well as what we’d like to see in the future. A mural? Community garden? Whatever we find out will become our next project.
Community Mapping, 4-5:30pm or
Cooking & Serving, 4:30-7pm
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=010107

Wednesday, January 10th
Living Room Café
806 E 64th St (just East of Cottage Grove)
Guests at LRC want to get in on a mini-(g)love: Passing out CarePacks of gloves, hats, socks, and food to people on the street who need them. Since most of us don’t know the LRC area, we’ll be paired up with guests to hand out CarePacks and start conversations with people we don’t know. If it sounds awkward, it’s because you haven’t tried it.
Mini-(g)love, 4-5:30pm or
Cooking & serving, 4:30-6:30pm
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=011007

Saturday, January 13th
Serve & Socialize, 21+
REST Shelter
941 W Lawrence (just East of Sheridan)
8-10pm; drinks afterwards
Last time we helped serve dinner, we met some other cool volunteers and guests. This time we’re hoping to talk more with the guests – via “Whadda YOU Know?,” a game we’ve completely made up. It’s essentially a mixture of Chicago trivia, Pictionary, and Charades. We’ll break into teams with the guests and see who wins. No mercy allowed.
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=011307

Tuesday, January 16th
Dignity Idol
925 W Diversey (just East of Sheffield)
6:30-9pm
As PROMISED!!! Dignity Idol first debuted in August 2006 and established itself as the talent show for Chicago ’s working poor, homeless and volunteers who come around DD to cook and serve dinner. This is our time to showcase talents (and non-talents) to each other. We’re serious when we say this is not a serious thing: If you can sing (badly), play an instrument (barely) or dance , showcase your alternate self at this talent show for the People. Word of caution: Some folks have actual talents. If you’ve got stage fright, come and watch.
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=011607

Tuesday, January 16th
Dignity Diner
925 W Diversey (just East of Sheffield)
4:30-6:30pm
If you'd like to come out and help cook dinner with us, you're more than welcome. Help with dinner. Stay for Dignity Idol.
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=01160701

Sunday, January 21st
NEW Street Theatre
Meeting location info forthcoming; visit www.careteam.mgrf.org for updates.
10-1pm
People on the streets are not likely to be going to the theatre. That’s why we’re bringing it to them. At 10am we’ll meet up at Columbia College . For one hour we’ll brainstorm basic skit ideas and run through them. At 11am we’ll hit the streets and perform our half-improvised skits to people who could maybe use a little more comedy and a little less drama.
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=012107

Sunday, January 28th
(g)love
Meeting location info forthcoming; visit www.careteam.mgrf.org for updates.
10-3pm
If you haven’t been out for (g)love, here’s your chance. On December 17th, 25 of us distributed about 200 CarePacks with gloves, hats, socks, granola bars, soup and crackers. Thanks to all the volunteers who took to trekking the city for over an hour. And, due to your observations, we’ll be playing around with CarePack contents. Meet up with us in the Loop for this next (g)love – exact location to be announced after the holidays – and help pass out a little comfort.
Sign up: http://www.careteam.mgrf.org/events/events.asp?eventcode=012807


Please note: Opportunities to be a Volunteer & Event Leader will be sent in a separate email. Feel free to email us with any questions.

P,

Thank you for being you!

J

A Parable of Heaven and Hell

There once was a devoted priest who wished to see both heaven and hell, and God gave way to his pleading.

The priest found himself before a door which bore no name. He trembled as he saw it open before him into a large room where all was prepared for a feast. There was a table, and at its centre a great dish of steaming food. The smell and the aroma inflamed the appetite.

Diners sat around the table with great spoons in their hands, yet they were shrieking with hunger in that terrible place. They tried to feed themselves, and gave up, cursing God, for the spoons that God had provided were so long that they could not reach their faces and get the food to their tongues. So they starved, while their dish of plenty lay amongst them. The priest knew their screams were the cries of hell, and as this understanding came, the door closed before him.

He shut his eyes in prayer and begged God to take him away from that terrible place. When he opened them again, he despaired, for the same door stood before him, the door that bore no name. Again it opened, and it gave onto the same room. Nothing had changed, and he was about to cry in horror. There was the table, and at its centre the steaming dish, and around it were the same people, and in their hands the same spoons.

Yet the shrieking had gone, and the cries and the curses had changed to blessings; and nothing had changed, yet everything. For with the same long spoons they reached to each other's mouths and fed one another, and they gave thanks to God.

And as the priest heard the blessings, the door closed. He fell to his knees, and he too blessed God who had shown him the nature of heaven and hell, and the chasm - a hair's breadth wide - that divides them.

Author unknown